Hospital Wanderer

Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Top 5 Finest Hospitals in US

Howdy,

I’ve been neglecting this blog for quite some time now, and I guess, I need to start all over again. Good thing, I stumbled upon the list of the considered best hospitals in America. This list is not just in accordance with the hospitals’ facilities or medical personnel in nurse shoes or mens scrubs but above all based from competence in complex demanding situations; often with patients whose age or other health conditions pose their own risks. Just for instance, replacing a heart valve in a man in his 90s, diagnosing and treating a brain tumor, and managing inflammatory bowel disease. Here, I’ll post only the top 5 best hospitals in the USA.

5. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles (Designed for comfort and efficiency)

Commonly referred to as UCLA Medical Center, which is located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California. It has research centers covering nearly all major specialties of medicine as well as dentistry and ophthalmology, and is the primary teaching hospital for the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The hospital's emergency department is certified as a level I trauma center for adults and pediatrics. Collectively, the hospitals and specialty-care facilities of the UCLA Health System make it among the most comprehensive and advanced healthcare systems in the world. In 2005, the American Nurses Credentialing Center granted the medical center "Magnet" status.

4. Cleveland Clinic

I love their banner:)

We are innovators, new technologies, new treatments, and medical "firsts"; We save lives everyday, no patient too sick, no patient too far; We are here for you, caring for your health, your comfot and your peace of mind; We are your caregivers, from infants to the elderly, our patients are an honor and commitment.

This hospital is formerly known as the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. It is a multispecialty academic medical center located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1921 by four physicians in scrubs and mens scrubs for the purpose of providing patient care, research, and medical education in an ideal medical setting. It is one of the largest private medical centers in the world, having more than 3,200,000 patient visits in 2009, with almost 80,000 hospital admissions. It has also approximately 2,500 staff physicians and residents wearing hospital shoes or nurse shoes, and represents 120 medical specialties and subspecialties. It was ranked number one in America for cardiac care from 1994 to 2009.

3. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston

It was founded on 1811, making this year their 200 years of service to patients. This hospital is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and a biomedical research facility in Boston, Massachusetts. It is owned and operated by Partners HealthCare (which also owns Brigham and Women's Hospital and North Shore Medical Center). MGH is part of the consortium of hospitals which operates Boston MedFlight and is a member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. MassGeneral Hospital for Children is a primary pediatric teaching site for the Harvard Medical School too.

2. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.

Mayo Clinic, Saint Marys Hospital and Rochester Methodist Hospital form the largest integrated medical center in the world, providing comprehensive diagnosis and treatment in virtually all medical and surgical specialties. More than 350,000 patients from all walks of life seek answers at Mayo Clinic each year.

This is not for profit organization, which is an integral part of the larger Mayo Health System of clinics, hospitals and medical research facilities and schools consisting of Mayo Clinic, Mayo Medical School, the Mayo Graduate School, the Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education, Mayo School of Health Sciences, and several other health science Mayo Clinic partners with a number of smaller clinics and hospitals in Minnesota, Iowa, Arizona, Florida, and Wisconsin. It specializes in hard-to-treat diseases, and is known for innovative and effective treatments for diseases that had gone undiagnosed or under-treated in the same patients with other doctors. It accomplishes high medical quality through values such as "The needs of the patient always come first", by coordinating the efforts of its entire group of doctors, and by devoting over 40% of its resources towards research (rather than just medical practice). Mayo Clinic has been consecutively on Fortune magazine's “100 Best Companies to Work For” in America list for eight years.

1. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore

At the heart of patient-centered care. Determined to practice visionary medicine at its new hospital, Johns Hopkins embarks on a delivery model centered on patients and families.

America’s No.1 for 20 years in a row. Founded by the famous philanthropists John Hopkins and is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland (USA). The Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine are the founding institutions of modern American medicine and are the birthplace of numerous traditions including "rounds", "residents" and "housestaff". This hospital is widely regarded as one of the world's greatest hospitals.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Delivery Rooms' Memories vs Safety: What will Prevail?

Meritus Medical Center, a Maryland hospital, recently banned pictures for five minutes after the baby's birth. A hospital spokesperson said the policy is to "protect patient privacy" and "reduce potential staff distractions." This is according to The Baltimore Sun.

Indeed, there are times that pictures, videos and any other gadgets that are used to record the memories of the babies' first minutes on earth can distract some men and women wearing dickies hip flip and cartoon scrubs and even some patients.

The new policy however, created disagreements and criticisms from many including parents and as well as law officials. Let me quote some of them.

"There's no question in my mind or in the minds of other colleagues who I've worked with on the obstetrical side that hospitals are doing this so as not to have a piece of evidence generated that can be used against them in a court of law. They do it to hide the truth."

_Brian McKeen (medical malpractice attorney)_

"What's next, the father can't be in the delivery room?"

_Laurie Shifler(will be delivering her eighth child at the hospital under the new policy)_

On the other hand, doctors and nurses in cartoon scrubs or dickies hip flip don't give us any idea what they think about the said policy.

How about you? Are you in favor of the delivery room pictures ban?

Thursday, November 11, 2010

The Ethical Dilemma on Jesse Shipley's Case

If you are a parent and your child suddenly died of an accident, what would you feel? Of course you will be very lonely, right? But what will you do if your child died and two months after his funeral you received news from a friend of your late child saying that she had seen the brain of your child displayed in a morgue? Whoa! Horrified? Angry? Shocked?

The case of Jesse Shipley had attracted attention on the web lately. He was 17 years old and was a student of Staten Island, New York. He died in a car accident last January 2005. He was autopsied and his body was brought back to his parents, which is a misconception since one of his classmates in the said school that he attended saw his brain on a cabinet in the medical examiner's lab. Thus, there are still remains of his body that were not yet given to his parents. And his parents were shocked for they had thought that the body of their child was complete when it was brought back to them. After all who will be the parents that will be happy after finding out that part of their child’s body was taken without their permission?

The College of American Pathologists provides a sample autopsy consent form on its website. According to the form, the consenter authorizes "the removal, examination, and retention of organs....as the pathologists deem proper for diagnostic, education, quality improvement and research purposes." However, the form also states that "organs and tissues not needed for diagnostic, education, quality improvement, or research purposes will be sent to the funeral home or disposed of appropriately."

Is it really proper to take the brain of the young Shipley? Was his brain sent to the funeral? Or to his parents?

In a statement to CNN, the attorney representing the city wrote that although officials sympathize with the family, "it was within the Medical Examiner's discretion to perform an autopsy, and in appropriate cases, to remove and retain bodily organs for further testing."

Jesse Shipley died in an accident. What further testing and study was needed to know the cause of his death?

"To say someone died of a motor vehicle accident, doesn't really tell us anything," Dr. Victor Weedn, a forensic pathologist and a spokesperson for the National Association of Medical Examiners explains. "For example, if a passenger in the backseat was epileptic, their fit could have distracted the driver and led to the death. So, from the outside it may not be so obvious why the person actually died."

Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, a forensic pathologist and attorney who reviews cases like these but is not involved in the Shipley case, says the medical examiner was right to take out the brain for investigation but was wrong to openly display Shipley's name on it."You're talking about a matter of sensitivity and common sense," Wecht says. "Certainly if you're going to have student visitors, then you should not have names and numbers available to see."

Did the family of Jesse Shipley has right to sue the medical examiner who without their permission get the brain of their child?

Ethically speaking these medical examiners in medical scrubs and cargo pants for men or women have the right but did they do everything with due process of law? Did the medical examiners consider what will the family of the deceased will gonna feel? Certainly they weren't aware that "whenever the parent's remember their child, part of their memory is holding a jar of organs in their hands that they never should have known existed."

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Budget for Emergency Room Services at Vancouver Hospitals

VANCOUVER - Fifteen major hospitals across B.C. are getting a total of $22 million to fast-track patients through their emergency rooms as part of the government's strategy to tie funding to hospital performance.

Health Services Minister Kevin Falcon said Wednesday the money follows a pilot project that helped reduce congestion in emergency rooms at several hospitals in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.

"With almost two million visits to B.C. emergency rooms last year alone, this investment will help ensure patients receive timely, high-quality patient care," Falcon said in a news release.

The hospitals sharing the cash include seven in the Vancouver area and others in Victoria, Nanaimo, Kelowna, Kamloops, Vernon and Prince George.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Caregiver Alert: Sleep Positioners of Babies Can Cause Death

“We urge parents and caregivers to take our warning seriously and stop using these sleep positioners, so that children can have a safer sleep.”
CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned consumers to stop using infant sleep positioners. Over the past 13 years, CPSC and the FDA have received 12 reports of infants between the ages of 1 month and 4 months who died when they suffocated in sleep positioners or became trapped and suffocated between a sleep positioner and the side of a crib or bassinet.

Most of the infants suffocated after rolling from a side to stomach position. In addition to the reported deaths, CPSC has received dozens of reports of infants who were placed on their backs or sides in sleep positioners, only to be found later in potentially hazardous positions within or next to the sleep positioners.

“To date, there is no scientifically sound evidence that infant sleep positioners prevent SIDS,” said Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner and a pediatrician. “We want to make sure parents, health care professionals, and childcare providers understand the potential risk of suffocation and stop using infant sleep positioners.”

There are two main types of infant sleep positioners. The flat mats with side bolsters or inclined (wedge) mats with side bolsters. Both typically claim to help keep infants on their backs and reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The FDA has never cleared an infant sleep positioner to prevent or reduce the risk of SIDS. In addition, CPSC and the FDA are unaware of any scientific studies demonstrating that infant positioners prevent SIDS or are proven to prevent suffocation or other life-threatening harm. And even the American Academy of Pediatrics does not support the use of any sleep positioner to prevent SIDS.

However these sleep positioners claim to have the following advantages:

Aid in food digestion to ease colic or the symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
Prevent flat head syndrome (plagiocephaly)

These benefits on the other hand didn't outweighs the risk of sleep positioners that's why CPSC and the FDA are warning parents and people in hospital scrubs or cartoon scrubs (the caregivers) to:

STOP using sleep positioners. Using a positioner to hold an infant on his or her back or side for sleep is dangerous and unnecessary.
NEVER put pillows, infant sleep positioners, comforters, or quilts under a baby or in a crib.
ALWAYS place an infant on his or her back at night and during nap time. To reduce the risk of SIDS, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends placing infants to sleep on their backs and not their sides.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Is Hospital a Safe Place to Go?

"Once considered safe havens, health care institutions today are confronting steadily increasing rates of crime, including violent crime."

Joint Commission

Since 2004, the number of assaults, rapes and murders reported to the Joint Commission rose steadily, with the greatest number of reports in the last three years. There were 36 incidents nationwide in 2007, 41 in 2008 and 33 in 2009. According to the Joint Commission’s voluntary reporting system, there were 256 assaults, rapes or homicides of patients and visitors at American health centers since 1995, with 110 of those acts occurring after 2007. That number is likely far lower than the actual number of incidents because violence in health settings is often underreported, the group said.

They further said that violence is often perpetrated by staff, visitors, patients and even intruders. What happened on Baltimore hospital wherein the gunman Warren Davis,who reportedly hid inside his mother's room, shot and killed himself and his mother is a perfect example of how violence is growing INSIDE the hospital. I'm talking here all the kinds of violence that were committed; assaults, rapes, homicides and many more.

Hospitals are supposedly one of the institutions and places wherein one could be at peace since healing and cure are happening here. This is where ill and sick people take refuge. However with this growing violence even inside the hospital, the hospital could pose a great threat for patients and even to the men and women in medical scrubs and nursing shoes who are working there. This event will eventually affect the medical world itself.

The proper authorities must make a move before it is too late. Where in the world would people who are sick and ill go if there are no institutions like hospitals? Or where could we find a peaceful place here on earth? Whew!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Superbug will soon attack Hospitals?!

People in scrubs uniforms are alert nowadays because of the widespread news regarding NDM-1 or commonly known as the new "superbug".

NDM-1 bacteria is a newly-identified superbug that is spreading globally. The NDM-1 stands for “New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase” or New Delhi-Metallo-1 (NDM-1) named after the capital city of India, where it was first identified.NDM-1 gene has been found inside the E. Coli bacteria and Klebsiella pneumonia. This superbug is antibiotic-resistant and has the potential to become more devastating than the H1N1 Pandemic because it makes bacteria extremely resistant to almost all antibiotics, including the most potent class called carbapenems, the kind of drug that is reserved for emergency use and treat infections caused by other multi-resistant bugs like MRSA and C-Difficile. However there are still two drugs that can stand up to carbapenem-resistant infections. These are colistin, an older antibiotic that has some toxic side effects, and Pfizer's Tygacil.

What caused NDM-1?

This superbug is said to be caused by the medical tourism especially those who have undergone cosmetic surgeries and international travel especially those who received recent medical care in India. And since this bacteria was spread by travel it has the possibility to spread very quickly not just in India, Pakistan and UK but even around the world.

What are its effects/symptoms?

The NDM-1 enzyme can lead to pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and blood infections. Health officials have revealed that the NDM-1 Bacteria can spread in person-to-person contact. E. Coli symptoms are diarrhea,abdominal cramps,nausea, and fatigue while Klebsiella pneumonia's symptoms are fever, chills, cough, dizziness, wheezing and urinary tract infection (UTI)

Who have high risk of being infected?

Those people who have recently been to India or Pakistan, those who have been in contact with someone who has recently traveled to India or Pakistan and those who have weakened immune systems.

What must be done?

The most effective way to get rid of this superbug is to make new kind of antibiotics that could cure NHM-1 infected patients however most drug companies have little interest in developing new antibiotics because they are not as profitable as other drugs, they are only taken for a few days, unlike drugs for high blood pressure, pain or cholesterol which are taken for long periods.So as for now we will settle for the answer that this superbug is not that curable by ordinary antibiotics. What we could only do is to prevent infection by avoiding those people who have high risk of being infected. Let's just settle for this however by any case that this bacteria will be widespread this could be another problem for the society, government, hospitals and the world itself.