Long Time Coming
It may be a long time coming, but what’s very much needed is a mechanism for identifying, by individual facility, specific systemic sources of patient stress. We might call this a Systemic-Stress EMM (SSEMM) audit. “EMM” denotes eradication, minimization, and mitigation. Depending on a source and its context, one of these three tactics will be more feasible than the other two.
Q&A: PPE Success During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Where hospitals were once coached by safety professionals to ensure they had enough PPE stockpiled, they are now begging the U.S. government to share PPE from the stockpile. Once upon a time, workers were told to use their surgical masks only once. Today, those masks get put into a bag at the end of a shift and used the next day—and maybe the day after that.
Lack of Evidence-Based Guidelines for COVID-19 in Pregnancy May Present a Risk of Compromised Care
Since the emergence of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in December 2019, public health authorities and professional societies have been scrambling to develop management guidelines for clinicians to utilize. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention distributed their first guidance in late January and have made continual revisions to date, with many professional societies following suit.
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Study: Use of Dexamethasone Could Cut Coronavirus Deaths by a Third
Dexamethasone is a steroid that has been used since the 1960s to reduce inflammation and is given to asthma and rheumatoid arthritis patients. While not a coronavirus cure, dexamethasone works by limiting the damage done to the body by its immune system, which can end up hurting the host as it tries to destroy the disease.
Coronavirus: 4-Part Ethical Framework for Allocating Scarce Medications
The antiviral drug remdesivir is the only medication that has been shown to be effective in treating hospitalized COVID-19 patients. As is expected in the initial deployment of new COVID-19 therapies, there is a shortage of remdesivir. Healthcare providers have criticized the federal government’s distribution of the drug.
How NYC Health + Hospitals Trained 20K Staffers to Combat COVID-19
In response to the immense clinical and operational challenges posed by the coronavirus outbreak, the organization recognized that it needed to recruit additional staff from around the country and adequately train them for the issues they’d be facing. To help bring the necessary talent on board, NYC H+H worked with private staffing firms and the Department of Defense on its recruiting efforts.
Using Stories To Mentally Survive As A COVID-19 Clinician
The first graduate program in narrative medicine was created at Columbia University in 2009 by Dr. Rita Charon, and the practice has gained wide influence since, as evidenced by the dozens of narrative medicine essays published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and its sister journals.
White House Urges Healthcare Facilities to Open, But Safely
The White House is also cautioning hospitals and other facilities to check with state and local authorities to ensure your area meets the “gating criteria” of fewer reported symptoms, fewer confirmed cases and hospital capacity to handle potential new patients with COVID-19 along with non-emergent care.
Q&A: Many Hospitals Still Don’t Have Drug Diversion Programs
The Porter Research survey commissioned by Invistics found that nine out of 10 surveyed believe their facility’s drug diversion program is the same or even better than other organizations, and two out of three are confident or very confident that their drug diversion program successfully identifies employees who divert drugs. But there is definitely a disconnect, because 70% of participants said they believe most diversion incidents in the U.S. go undetected.