Joint Commission Mandates Armband to Identify Patients With Too Many Armbands.
Oakbrook Terrace, IL -- Hospitals are up in arms again after The Joint Commission (TJC) on Monday started requiring all patients with too many armbands to be flagged with an armband for having too many armbands. Mark Chassin, President and Chief Executive Officer of TJC, applauded his organization for taking action against his organization's failed policies."I'm proud The Joint Commission is finally taking a stand against The Joint Commission for continuing to ignore all the unintended consequences of their regulations," said Dr. Chassin.Doctors and nurses have been telling authorities for years tha...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - May 25, 2015 Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Tamer Mahrous Source Type: blogs
Teaching Practical Skills with SETT UP
“There’s no body cavity that cannot be reached with a #14 needle and a good strong arm.” – Samuel Shem, The House of GodThose of us in the medical field are no strangers to the sometimes-unfortunate truth of the above quotation. (If you’re a stranger to the quotation itself then please read the book; it almost counts as CPD…) Complications whilst undertaking practical procedures are inevitable but we do our utmost to minimise them for the good of our patients. Critical analysis and reflection on one’s own practice, and particularly on the unexpected complications therein, remain the bedrock of self-improv...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - April 8, 2015 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Mike Cadogan Tags: Education Procedure Complexity Matrix Reflective Competence SETT UP unconsciously competent Source Type: blogs
Hospitals, Like Vampires, Want Your Blood
Anyone who has been in the hospital, either as a patient or a healthcare provider, is keenly aware that hospitals perform a lot of tests. It has even been suggested that some of those tests may not be necessary. Now a new study published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery sheds light on just how excessive some of this testing can be. Researchers analyzed records from 1,894 patients who had cardiac surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and calculated the frequency and total volume of blood drawn from their subjects. They wrote that they “were astonished by the extent More… (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 2, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Interventional Cardiology & Surgery Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes blood hospital tests overtesting phlebotomy Source Type: blogs
You just never know...Be kind anyway
This quote always grabs me. Sometimes you don't know what those that pass in and out of our lives are going through. It's not always easy to be kind. This is truest in our momentary glances of strangers who throw us a wind of something negative. Those short but jarring moments make us want to fire back with the same. I always try hard to resist. Sometimes it's darn-right hard and I walk away with tears. I'm human, it's natural to feel threatened and react. Yet, my hope is always that I never change my own nature to someone I am not...and maybe just maybe kindness wins.Most times we fail to discover what it is tha...
Source: Life is like a sandwich...enjoy the big bites. - February 11, 2015 Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: blogs
What have we lost with the progress of medical training?
Every third-year has heard it: “When I was in your position, I was taking 24-hour calls every other night. If my resident was there, I was there …”
We’re regaled about the glory days, without shelf exams, without phlebotomists, and — by God — without those work-hour restrictions. The days when medical students wouldn’t dare ask their residents for help, or residents their chiefs, or chiefs their attendings, and so on. I hear a bit of romance: The heroism of providing total patient care, exactly when the patient needed it, unfettered by handoffs or outside interference. I envy the skill required to...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - January 26, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Karan Chhabra Tags: Education Medical school Source Type: blogs
Has Med School Changed For the Better?
By KARAN CHHABRA Every third-year has heard it. “…When I was in your position, I was taking 24-hour calls every other night. If my resident was there, I was there….” We’re regaled about the glory days, without shelf exams, without phlebotomists, and—by god—without those work-hour restrictions. The days when medical students wouldn’t dare ask their […] (Source: The Health Care Blog)
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 30, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Tags: THCB med school Project Millenial Residency Source Type: blogs
Phlebotomy in cyanotic congenital heart disease with hyperviscosity syndrome
Phlebotomy is often resorted to in patients with cyanotic congenital heart disease (CCHD) and symptoms of hyperviscosity (hyperviscosity syndrome) due polycythemia which occurs in response to hypoxia which causes an increased erythropoietin level. In contrast, increased erythropoiesis in polycythemia rubra vera occurs with normal or low erythropoietin levels. Hemoglobin levels and hematocrit are important considerations while planning venesection in those with symptoms of hyperviscosity. Hyperviscosity syndrome is characterized by impaired tissue oxygen delivery with symptoms like headache, visual disturbances, loss of co...
Source: Cardiophile MD - September 6, 2014 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs
OIG Releases Special Fraud Alert: Laboratory Payments to Referring Physicians
Many physicians and other healthcare providers refer a high volume of patient specimens to third party clinical laboratories every day. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently issued a Special Fraud Alert that addresses these relationship between labs and physicians.
The OIG’s Alert focuses on laboratories that may be violating the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) in an effort to win business from referring physicians. OIG’s chief concern is that physicians will do business with the lab that pays the most, rather than the best lab, and that physicians w...
Source: Policy and Medicine - August 29, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
What I thought/What I said
The interviewer asked, "What's making you want to leave your current job?"I'm tired of watching my coworkers coming in, looking defeated.I haven't had a sit-down lunch in six weeks. One of my coworkers weaned her baby early because she couldn't get anybody to relieve her so she could pump breastmilk.Our acuity increased at the same time our director cut our staff, so there are delays in care that I find unacceptable.We've been rebranded a "step-down" unit, so none of us will get critical-care raises or credit, but we're still taking CCU patients. We still float to the CCUs.The attitude of the administration to our unit is ...
Source: Head Nurse - August 13, 2014 Category: Nurses Authors: Jo Source Type: blogs
Venesection in cyanotic heart disease
– calculation of volume to be removed
Venesection in cyanotic heart disease is done only in symptomatic polycythemia with hemoglobin > 20 gm% and hematocrit > 65 %. Blood removed has to be replaced with equal amount of saline to avoid hypovolemia and reduce the hematocrit.
Volume of blood to be removed by venesection in ml:
[(Observed PCV – Desired PCV ) / Observed PCV] x 70 x body weight in Kg.
Desired PCV (packed cell volume or hematocrit) is calculated based on the oxygen saturation. Average desired PCV is about 60 for a person with cyanotic congenital heart disease (CCHD).
The post Venesection in cyanot...
Source: Cardiophile MD - August 4, 2014 Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis MD, DM, FACC, FRCP Edin, FRCP London Tags: General Cardiology calculation of volume of venesection desired PCV desired PCV in CCHD Venesection in cyanotic heart disease Source Type: blogs
Secure Messaging Middleware Market Defined
What do secure communications, care team coordination, patient engagement various workflow automation solutions and alarm notification have in common? They’re all examples of messaging middleware solutions found in health care. Which begs the question, what the heck is messaging middleware? This label is a term of art that was first coined by Emergin in the early to mid 2000s. As the name of a product category, it’s descriptive of the underlying technical functions of the product, but has nothing to with how the products are actually used – which can vary considerably.
All of this said, the term messagin...
Source: Medical Connectivity Consulting - July 2, 2014 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Tim Gee Tags: Business Planning Clinical Alarms Patient Flow alarm notification Emergin messaging secure-messaging Source Type: blogs
Our unsung work is essential to treating patients
You will never see my face or know my name. You probably won’t give much thought to what happens to your blood after your doctor says, “I think we need to run some tests,” and the phlebotomist draws it into the tubes with their colored tops. I know I never did, until I became a medical laboratory technologist.
Continue reading ...
Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - June 3, 2014 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Kristen Nace Tags: Patient Cancer Source Type: blogs
Scheduling Workflow
Scheduling is not a workflow one normally associates with medical device connectivity. In some applications, scheduling is handled by software separate from the connectivity solution. Sometimes, scheduling is not done at all. In other applications, as we shall see, scheduling is so much a part of the broader workflow, that it’s hard to recognize as a scheduling task. Two illustrative aspects of scheduling will be discussed, scheduling for diagnostic modalities and scheduling for routine patient care tasks. Because it’s less understood (and frankly more interesting) we will look at scheduling for routine patient...
Source: Medical Connectivity Consulting - December 5, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Tim Gee Tags: connectivity Patient Flow Patient Safety Source Type: blogs
Seventh Sense Biosystems Gets CE Mark Approval for Touch Activated Phlebotomy
Seventh Sense Biosystems (Cambridge, Mass.) has received CE Mark approval for its Touch Activated Phlebotomy (TAP) blood collection platform, just seven months after beginning to enroll patients for clinical trials. Packaged in a disk device that measures just under 5 cm in diameter, it features micro-needles to puncture through the upper layer of the skin and take blood from the patient’s capillaries for a pain-free draw. Despite the small size, the TAP platform can draw up to 20 micro liters of whole blood, a sufficient volume for many tests. With access to the capillaries, the needles utilize microfluidic principles t...
Source: Medgadget - November 5, 2013 Category: Technology Consultants Authors: Nishey Wanchoo Tags: Emergency Medicine Pediatrics Source Type: blogs
Medical Mispronunciations and Misspelled Words: The Definitive List.
Hearing medical mispronunciations and seeing misspelled words are an under appreciated joy of working in healthcare. Physicians often forget just how alien the language of medicine is to people who don't live it everyday. The best part about being a physician is not helping people recover from critical illness. The best part is not about listening and understanding with compassion and empathy. Nope, the best part about being a physician is hearing patients and other healthcare providers butcher the language of medicine and experiencing great entertainment in the process. Doctors c...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - October 2, 2013 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: Tamer Mahrous Source Type: blogs
