Each year U.S. News & World Report releases "America's Best Hospitals" rankings which is a listing of top hospitals in the United States. One category in the report is nursing care. Patients filling out the survey are asked how often their nurses were courteous, listened carefully and gave clear explanation. The hospitals ranked highest for nursing for the year ending December 2008 are:
Mayo Clinic Hospital, Phoenix, AZ
New England Baptist Hospital, Boston, MA
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
University of Kansas Hospital, Kansas City, KS
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA
Methodist Medical Center of Illinois, Peoria, IL
Poudre Valley Hospital, Fort Collins, CO
University of North Carolina Hospitals, Chapel Hill, NC
Central DuPage Hospital, Winfield, IL
Christ Hospital, Cincinnati, OH
To see the other top hospitals for nursing care and those hospitals ranked as worst, continue here.
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A recent study published in the American Journal of Infection Control examined the levels of bacteria on healthcare workers' lab coats. The study involved a cross section of medical and surgical grand rounds attendees at a large teaching hospital. Participants completed a survey and cultured their lab coat using a moistened swab on the lapels, pocket and cuffs. Of the 149 white coats in the study, 34 (23%) were contaminated with S aureus, of which 6 (18%) were methicillin-resistant S aureus (MRSA). Providers working with patients had higher contamination levels and the study suggests that white coats may contribute to patient-to-patient transmission of S aureus. Read the entire study in the March 2009 issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official journal of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).
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Nurses working in oncology often see people at their worst. Facing a tough diagnosis, some patients choose to forgo lengthy hospital stays and intense chemotherapy infusions. Instead they decide on quality of life instead of quantity and choose to spend their time at home with friends and loved ones. A question open for debate is how much influence should healthcare providers have on end-of-life decisions? Continue reading here about an oncologist and nurse's differing opinions in a newly-diagnosed cancer patient.
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You probably use email, Facebook and instant messenger to connect with friends and family. Have you considered those methods of communication for talking to your doctor? Recent studies suggest that patients are interested in new ways of communicating with their healthcare providers. A Manhattan Research study showed that 5 percent of respondents had sent or received an email from a healthcare provider and 49 percent were interested in email as a form of patient-doctor communication in the future. Another survey by Deloitte Center for Health Solutions found that 55 percent of consumers want to be able to communicate with their healthcare providers via email.
Continue reading to learn how a former NBA player communicates electronically with his doctor and the pros and cons of friending your doctor.
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With the current state of the economy, hospitals are looking for ways to save money while maintaining high standards of patient care. Hospitals are examining supply management, employee turnover and drug usage as well as getting employees involved in the analysis. "They are training staff to see where waste is and how to get rid of it," said Richard Gundling, Vice President of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.
Continue reading here to learn how some Kansas City hospitals are cutting costs.
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Healthcare providers are on alert due to an increase in a new strain of hospital-acquired infections. A recent study released by Arlington Medical Resources (AMR) and Decision Resources, found that recurrent
Clostridium difficile is difficult to treat in a hospital setting.
Clostridium difficile is a bacterium that can cause symptoms as minor as diarrhea and as life threatening as severe inflammation of the colon. The elderly are most at risk and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services is considering adding Clostridium difficile to its list of "never events" or preventable hospital-acquired infections. Hospitals will receive reduced or no Medicare payments for infections on the "never events" list.
Read more about how the study was conducted as well as more information on Clostridium difficile here.
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Jeanne Hahne was working as a nurse in a burn ward when inspiration struck. Because the patients were so vulnerable to infection, Hahne and other healthcare providers had to wear full protective gear including a cap to cover her hair and a mask that covered the majority of her face. Even though she worked with many of the burn patients every day, most couldn't recognize her.
Flash forward almost 30 years and Hahne has designed a face mask made of clear plastic so patients can see her smile. Hahne believes she can reassure patients with a smile and help decrease their anxiety. The masks also have utility for patients and healthcare providers with hearing loss since they allow for lip reading. In addition, the masks have helped improve communication between healthcare workers which can help decrease the chance for mistakes or misunderstanding. To read more and see pictures of the face mask, click here.
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A recent report issued by Manhattan Research found that 64% of doctors are using smartphones - iPhones, Blackberrys, Treos or other hand-held devices which provide wireless Internet access and mobile applications. This percentage is more than double what it was just eight years ago. Physicians are using smart phones to access drug and clinical references as well as utilize tools such as dosage calculators.
Industry leaders envision a future of technology-driven healthcare with smartphones as an integral component. "Primarily, the work flow you are going to enter into as a provider at the point of care, in front of the patient, will be done on a device like the iPhone. [A] desktop, laptop, keyboard is pretty much not going to work if you want to do things quickly and do things at the point of care," said Tom Giannulli, MD in an interview on amednews.com. Giannulli is an internist in California who developed the first stand-alone Electronic Medical Record for the iPhone which launched in September 2008. To read more about how mobile technology is being used in healthcare, continue here.
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The Joint Commission is urging healthcare leaders to take steps to promote high quality, safe healthcare. They are also encouraging healthcare organizations to apply lessons learned in high-risk industries including aviation, energy and manufacturing. In a Sentinel Event Alert issued in late August, the commission wrote: "Inadequate leadership was a contributing factor in 50 percent of the sentinel events reported to the Joint Commission in 2006."
To promote an increased focus on safety, the Joint Commission has suggested 14 specific steps:
- Define and establish an organization-wide safety culture.
- Institute an organization-wide policy of transparency that sheds light on all adverse events and patient safety issues.
- Make the organization's overall safety performance a key, measurable part of the evaluation of the CEO and all leadership.
- Ensure that caregivers involved in adverse events receive attention that is just, respectful, compassionate, supportive and timely.
- Create and communicate a policy that defines behaviors that are to be referred for disciplinary action.
- Regularly monitor and analyze adverse events and close calls quantitatively and communicate findings and recommendations.
- Regularly hold open discussions with all relevant personnel to develop a true, unvarnished view of the safety risks and barriers to safety facing patients and staff.
- Prioritize and address safety risks and barriers to safety according to a timeline, with the highest priority items getting immediate attention.
- Establish partnerships with physicians and align their incentives to improving safety and using evidence-based medicine.
- Add a human element and a sense of urgency to safety improvements by having patients communicate their experiences and perceptions.
- When planning and implementing safety improvements, use the expertise of front-line staff who understand the risks to patients and how processes really work.
- Regularly measure leadership's commitment to safety.
- When leaders assess managers during annual performance reviews, make sure they ask about the safety issues the manager encountered, how they were handled and the impact their actions had on reducing unsafe conditions.
- Communicate to staff when their work improves safety.
To read the entire Sentinel Event Alert, click here.
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You might know Twitter as a Web 2.0 application that makes more sense for personal use rather than business use. In a nutshell, Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that wants its users to answer the question: "What are you doing?" The service makes users (also known as Twitterers) keep their thoughts short and to the point - 140 characters or less. To learn more about Twitter, click here.
A number of companies (Zappos.com, Comcast, JetBlue and Whole Foods) and celebrities have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. But you may wonder how it applies in the medical space. A recent report in Telemedicine and e-Health shared 10 medical uses for Twitter as recommended by a clinical nurse:
- Disaster alerting and response
- Diabetes management
- Drug safety alerts from the FDA
- Biomedical device data capture and reporting
- Shift bidding for nurses and other healthcare professionals
- Diagnostic brainstorming
- Rare disease tracking and resource connection
- Providing smoking cessation guidance
- Broadcasting infant care tips to new parents
- Post-discharge patient consultations and follow-up care
To read the full article, click here.