March / April 2007
NEW PRODUCTS & SERVICES
TRENDS
"When Things Go Wrong: Voices of Patients and Families" Released for Sale
Educational DVD offers searingİpatient insights to impact health professionals' listening and learning.
When Things Go Wrong: Voices of Patients and Families (WTGW) is a complete educational package that delivers a profound opportunity for health professionals to increase their understanding of the patient and family experience and make changes in how healthcare is delivered.
"Things can and do go wrong," said Luke Sato, MD, chief medical officer of CRICO/RMF, the Harvard medical community's professional liability insurer. "By capturing patient and family voices under these circumstances, this film provides an opportunity to improve the healthcare experience of everyone involved: patients, families, and healthcare providers."
The DVD package features the 26-minute film, which presents eight patients and their families sharing the impacts of medical error on their lives. It also includes six theme-based vignettes, five patient narratives, A Guide for Learners and Facilitators, and an annotated bibliography. It is the result of a collaboration between CRICO/RMF and the writer/director Tom Delbanco, MD, Koplow-Tullis Professor of General Medicine and Primary Care, Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
"The patient and family perspective is a rare and compelling gift," said Delbanco. When we seek their input, they almost always have insights and suggestions that both surprise and help us. Statistics can compel change, but there is nothing like individual human stories to make lessons learned more personal and powerful."
With over 25 years experience in reviewing medical malpractice claims, CRICO/RMF is acutely aware of the importance of the patient perspective. This awareness led the organization to create these materials, in keeping with its mission to help providers deliver the safest healthcare in the world. For more information about the DVD, please visit www.rmf.harvard.edu/WTGWfilm.
Source: CRICO/RMF
The Doctor Will See You Now — At Home, in the Car, or Even at Starbucks!
Mobile PC network allows patients
to be online and not on hold.
Cardiophonics®, a leader in remote technology for healthcare providers, has announced the introduction of the "Care From Anywhere©" (CFATM) mobile PC network. In simplest terms, the CFA enables healthcare providers and patients to "virtually" connect at the point of care, wherever they are — at home, in the car, or even at Starbucks.
Through the convergence of Cardiophonics and wireless technologies, consumers and outpatients can be monitored and reminded to monitor key functions such as blood glucose, heart rhythm, weight, and vital signs. By using the "Care From Anywhere" network as a gateway to the internet, diagnostic information can be collected from wearable and implantable devices — in real time.
"Providing timely expertise in the care of ambulatory patients has been a long standing goal in medicine." said Richard Trader, PA-C FCCM developer of the Cardiophonics technology. "Unfortunately, for quality and efficiency, most physicians practice in several settings and except for hospital stays, patients are also mobile. Meeting that goal requires the ability to interact on-line with patient information and to have the ability to receive objective data for evaluation."
"Let's take an example", he continued. "A patient wakes up in the middle of the night and feels like his heart is irregular. He then pages his doctor. In the past, that patient would have been referred to the ER simply because there is no objective means to judge the extent of medical support needed. Now, during the conversation with the patient, the doctor has the option to request a EKG to be sent to him in real-time. Physicians receive this type of call, thousands of times a day across the U.S.; can you imagine how many ER visits we can save by providing real-time objective information during those encounters?"
Designed for the Ultra-Mobile PC, (which can fit in your pocket) the network consists of a software program that collects information from sensors (USB, Bluetooth) and then automatically synchronizes that data across a peer-to-peer private network. The provider program consists of a medical viewer developed by Cardiophonics (CardioViewer©) that displays physiological medical and text data in an FDA approved format. The CardioViewer displays and edits all digital files exported by the patient module. Data may then be exported to medical files or EMR.
With the CFA network on their PC, patients have immediate access to expert evaluation and care 24/7. Additionally, the use of remote monitoring allows providers to be aware of insidious changes in patient status before costly complications result in symptoms that draw the attention of the patient. The real-time telemetry and remote data retrieval options provide physicians with unsurpassed flexibility in reviewing ambulatory data thereby optimizing the time to treatment and cost savings.
Source: Cardiophonics
Consciously Sedating?
Medical Simulation Corporation (MSC) announced today the introduction of the latest addition to the SimSuite® expanding hospital-centric courseware: Moderate Sedation (also known as Conscious Sedation). This online course is a flexible, self-paced learning module designed to increase and reinforce the participant's knowledge of responsibilities associated with the care of individuals requiring moderate sedation. The objective of the course is to educate the participant on the general guidelines surrounding the use of moderate sedation, and is suitable for all healthcare providers who administer, assess, and monitor patients receiving moderate sedation medications.
Moderate sedation is a form of anesthesia where the patient does not lose consciousness, and maintains an open airway as well as spontaneous breathing. Sedative drugs are used in very low doses to diminish patient anxiety and discomfort in order to facilitate certain diagnostic and therapeutic procedures such as endoscopy, minor surgery, and dentistry. The University HealthSystem Consortium, which includes 95 of the nation's largest academic medical centers, presented data at a recent meeting suggesting there may be 1,690 incidents a year nationwide related to sedation — ranging from an overdose of drugs to a procedure that is started before a patient is adequately sedated. Training and credentialing standards vary from state to state. To minimize risk, hospitals are adopting strict new credentialing programs for anyone who administers anesthesia, with recertification every two years. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) has required for the past few years that hospitals have clear policies for administering moderate and deep sedation, and that staffers have appropriate credentials to manage whatever level of sedation occurs. Yet, in a survey 2 years ago, JCAHO found that 18% of hospitals were not adhering to those standards. (For more information, go to www.jointcommission.org).
The MSC Moderate Sedation course is a solution to complement staff education and quality improvement programs for all institutions striving to increase the competence and confidence of its healthcare providers in managing patients receiving moderate sedation and to document compliance with JCAHO standards.
To register for this course, go to www.medsimulation.com and click on SimSuite Education Login.
Source: Medical Simulation Corporation
Center to Advance Palliative Care Launches www.getpalliativecare.org
New website for patients and
families facing serious illness
The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) announced that it has officially launched its new website for patients and families, www.getpalliativecare.org. The site is designed to provide patients, family caregivers, doctors and policymakers with clear, concise palliative care information that can often be confusing to most consumers. The site is intended to be useful in the decision-making process and includes a comprehensive national directory of hospitals providing palliative care.
"We believe the new website will help people facing serious illness understand the benefits of palliative care. We are especially interested in making it clear that palliative care is appropriate at any stage of a serious illness," said Dr. Diane Meier, director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care. "Palliative care relieves suffering and ensures the best possible quality of life. It is crucial that people understand that they can receive palliative care at any stage of their illness and alongside curative treatment."
The website provides clear, easily accessible information and is intended to be user-friendly for adults of any age — even people in their 80s.
Key features include:
- What is Palliative Care: A clear definition and description of palliative care services, glossary of terms, FAQ and a pediatric section.
- How to Get Palliative Care: A three-step process for obtaining palliative care services.
- Is Palliative Care Right for You: A brief questionnaire to assist consumers in determining if palliative care is appropriate for them or their loved ones.
- Palliative Care Stories: Stories of patients' experiences with palliative care.
- Clinician Information: A set of criteria developed to help medical practitioners assess whether a palliative care consultation would be beneficial to them and their patients.
- Provider Directory: A comprehensive national directory of hospitals providing palliative care.
Source: CAPC
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