 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
Posted September 20, 2006
Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare: e-News
Products and Services
Preparing for Pandemic Flu: New Infection Control Product Now Available
With the growing threat of pandemic flu, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reminds everyone that simple steps can help prevent the spread of flu and other respiratory illnesses:
- Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue.
- Wash your hands or use a hand sanitizer.
- Wear a face mask if you think you have the flu.
The CDC now requires healthcare providers to remind patients and visitors of these simple steps using posters or signage. In addition, tissues, hand sanitizer and masks must be available and accessible. These mandates are part of CDC's new Respiratory Hygiene/Cough Etiquette Guidelines.
Quality America, Inc., a North Carolina company that produces OSHA educational materials for medical facilities, has developed the Infection Protection Station, a new product that makes compliance with the new CDC guidelines easy.
The Infection Protection Station is a compact countertop unit that dispenses facial tissues, instant hand sanitizer and protective face masks in adult and child sizes. It features a colorful poster that uses pictures and simple language as reminders of good respiratory hygiene habits.
"Healthcare providers can easily comply with CDC's Respiratory Hygiene/Cough Etiquette Guidelines with the Infection Protection Station," says Dr. Sheila Dunn, president and CEO of the company and a nationally recognized speaker on OSHA regulations.
While the Infection Protection Station was designed specifically for medical facilities to comply with the CDC guidelines, the unit can be used in any location, such as business offices, retail stores, banks, schools and other public places.
"The federal government is asking all of us to prepare for pandemic flu — not just doctors' facilities," says Dunn. "All of us need to do our part to prevent the spread of infection, no matter where we are."
For more information on CDC's Respiratory Hygiene/Cough Etiquette Guidelines, go to http://www.cdc.gov/flu/professionals/infectioncontrol/resphygiene.htm. Materials for preparing for pandemic flu can be found http://www.hhs.gov/pandemicflu/plan/.
For more information about the Infection Protection Station, visit http://www.quality-america.com/ or call 800-946-9956.
Patient Safety Goals for
Hospitals Badge Buddies
Need a quick reference to the Joint Commission's 2007 National Patient Safety Goals for hospitals? Want to educate your staff and help them keep those goals top of mind? Then these badge buddies are for you! These brightly colored, pocket-sized laminated cards are perfect for attaching to hospital staff ID badges and lanyards. The 2007 National Patient Safety Goals will always be at your staff's fingertips!
2007 National Patient Safety Goals for Hospitals Badge Buddies
Price: $10 (Set of 10)
Order Code: SGBB-07
ISBN: 1-59940-038-3
For more information, please visit http://jcrinc.co.mansellgroup.net/UM/T.asp?A2557.25634.1907.2.117656 or call toll-free Customer Service Center at 877/223-6866.
Book Addresses What States Can Do To Reform Health Care
As 46 states set new budgets for their fiscal year this month, health care costs will prove to be one of the most challenging and expensive line items. Medicaid spending alone is predicted to reach $320 billion this year. These dramatically rising health care costs should force state policymakers to lay the groundwork for meaningful and lasting reform according to health care expert John R. Graham, director of health care studies at the Pacific Research Institute and editor of the new book, What States Can Do to Reform Health Care: A Free Market Primer (available at www.pacificresearch.org or Amazon.com).
"The purpose of this primer is to educate state policymakers, legislators, and consumers about where we've gone wrong with health care and how we can fix it," said Mr. Graham. "The solutions involve policies that permit more individual choice, increase competition, and result in greater fiscal stability."
The book examines important areas of health care where states have the responsibility to finance, legislate, and regulate. They include:
Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the poor, faces draining state budgets and declining quality for those who depend on it. State policymakers should use successful welfare reform, which started at the state level, as a model for Medicaid reform.
Many health-insurance reforms of the 1990s simply transferred costs from one group to another — often with net harmful effects. Insurance regulation that harms patients often rewards politicians — making positive reforms very challenging. Targeted, pro-market solutions like health savings accounts and tax credits provide the biggest bang for the buck. They ensure that the existing marketplace can operate and that specific populations will be able to obtain affordable health insurance.
Malpractice liability costs have risen four times faster than consumer price inflation and twice as fast as medical price inflation, causing "defensive" medicine and shortages of physicians' services.
Most states prevent the building of new hospitals without government permission - a policy supported by incumbent hospitals to prevent competition. This leads to higher prices, communities without adequate medical resources, and money wasted on lobbying that could be devoted to patient care. States should repeal hospital certificate-of-need laws in order to increase competition, reduce prices, and increase access to hospital care.
Mr. Graham urges state legislators to use this book to develop free-market health care reforms that will benefit residents. "States have significant authority to make positive changes independent of what the federal government does." said Mr. Graham. "Although every state faces a different situation, the policies outlined in this book can serve as a blueprint for reform."
Bringing Doctors On Board
When launching cost-saving or quality improvement efforts, healthcare payors and providers often fail to consider one major factor: the resistance they are almost certain to encounter from their medical staffs. Intent upon patient responsibilities, many physicians are neither cost-focused nor open to administrative changes.
In this special report, "Bringing Doctors On Board: Cultivating Physician Leaders and Reducing Pushback," a panel of experts describes a variety of tools including skills assessment, communications, incentives and marketing that can turn physician "push-back" into support, ensuring the success of new programs while developing physician leadership at their organizations.
For more information or to order your copy today, please visit: http://www.hin.com/cgi-local/link/news/pl.cgi?bdbwrg
New Lab Test May Save $4,000 per Patient, Reduce Length of Stay
Some patients receive unnecessary antibiotics while in the hospital because positive blood culture results can take several days to determine the difference between serious and aggressive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteria and those that initially look like S. aureus but turn out to be coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) from the skin which frequently contaminate blood cultures.
According to a recently published article in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (JAC), AdvanDx's PNA FISH tests provide physicians at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) with rapid species information the same day a blood culture turns positive, allowing physicians to determine which patients have a true and serious infection and which patients may not have an infection at all. Consequently, rapid species identification helps the hospital accomplish two key goals:
- Prevent unnecessary antibiotic use, especially with vancomycin.
- Reduce the average patient length of stay, and thus the overall cost of healthcare.
A team led by Dr. Graeme Forrest M.D., Infectious Diseases Physician and Director of Antibiotic Utilization at UMMC, describes saving $4,000 per patient by using PNA FISH in association with an Antimicrobial Team (AMT) to reduce unnecessary antibiotics use and decrease median length of hospital stay by 2 days (from 6 to 4 days).*
According to the article, "CoNS constitute a frequent contaminant of blood cultures and can result in excessive use of vancomycin and consequently an increased length of hospital stay. This can result in excessive hospital costs due to decreased bed utilization and increased pharmacy costs. In addition, the patient may have a greater risk of acquiring an antibiotic-resistant organism or other nosocomial infection."
"The PNA FISH assay is rapid, accurate and reliable and in association with an AMT could decrease hospital length of stay in patients with CoNS bacteraemia in non-intensive care unit settings and prevent excessive vancomycin usage."
"We have demonstrated how an integrative approach between accurate and rapid testing in the microbiology laboratory in conjunction with an active AMT can lead to reductions in treatment of contaminated blood cultures, earlier patient discharge and considerable cost-savings."
Medication Reconciliation Handbook
Goal 8 of the 2007 National Patient Safety Goals requires that organizations "Accurately and completely reconcile medications across the continuum of care." Is your current medication reconciliation processes in alignment with this goal? Does your medical staff reconcile a patient's current medications before they order new medications? Do emergency department personnel get an accurate medication list prior to prescribing medications?
If these questions resonate with you, the Medication Reconciliation Handbook offers answers with sound, practical advice from organizations that have successfully addressed many of the same issues.
Co-published with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacistsreg; and supported by an unrestricted educational grant provided by McKesson Corporation, this book addresses the significant challenges hospitals, ambulatory care, home care, and long term care facilities face as they develop and refine their medication reconciliation strategies. Several compelling case studies demonstrate how organizations have changed their processes to realize positive results.
Special Features include checklists and tips about medication reconciliation that address patient education, ambulatory settings, emergency department lists and computerized processes; forms, flow charts and policies that can help guide reconciliation efforts; the process for how the Joint Commission surveys for compliance with medication reconciliation; and answers to frequently asked questions from organizations developing their medication reconciliation processes
To order, contact 877-223-6866, or click on the following link: http://jcrinc.co.mansellgroup.net/UM/T.asp?A2557.25634.1838.1.117656
The Medication Reconciliation Handbook
July 2006. 225 pages.
ISBN: 0-86688-956-6
Order Code: MRH-05
Price: $75.00
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
|
