You Can Become Your Hospitals Best Friend
by Steve Moran, Senior Housing ForumSkilled NursingIf you operate a skilled nursing facility and already successfully engaged in short-term rehab, youprobably have all, or almost all of what you need to make this happen. Here are two things thatwill complete your package:
1. Create a system that will help you to identify residents who are at risk of being readmitted andtake steps to mitigate that risk. INTERACT (Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers) iswithout a doubt, the best set of tools available. The best part is that the tools and systems areFREE. (I will be doing an article on Interact in a few weeks.)
2. Keep great statistics. In order to become your hospitals best friend and trusted partner, youneed to be able to tell a compelling story and that story needs to be backed-up with solid data. You need to be able to demonstrate that when residents are transferred from the hospital to yourfacility/community they are substantially less likely to be readmitted than if they go to yourcompetitors. Please continue reading at: http://seniorhousingforum.net/2012/09/you-can-become-your-hospitals-best-friend-pt-2/?goback=%2Egde_82106_member_160637629
Get Rid of That Bathroom Key… or Lose Leads!
By Patty Cisco, Creative Catalyst for CISCO & CO. For effective marketing, sales and customer strategies thatconnect you with your customers visit www.ciscoco.comWhen was the last time you visited a nursing home and had to use the rest room? Interestingtopic, right? Well, when you have to go, the last thing you want to do is have to hunt thebathroom down and then have to find the key to unlock it! How visitor friendly is that?
I could probably have a contest to see how many interesting key chains are used by nursinghomes. Wooden dowels, heavy ceramic rectangles, large metal rings; the list goes on. Not tomention where the keys are stored! I’m sure there is some regulation that exists that created theneed to keep the public restroom locked. I mean, let’s face it, we can lose residents, right? In theage of person-centered care, is the visitor becoming a focus? When do we evaluate ways to makeour services ‘user’ friendly? Why have we made basic human needs – like using a restroom – socomplicated? Recently, I was delighted to have a positive experience in a nursing home where Icould easily find the restroom, AND to my surprise it wasn’t locked. There was no key!Remember, it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money to create and deliver positive customerexperiences. Sometimes it’s the little things that can make or break that word-of-mouth referral.Is it time to throw your keys away? What changes can you make in 2013 to help deliver apositive customer experience?
Clostridium difficile transmission and mortality rates are far higher in nursing homes andother healthcare settings than the most recent government statistics suggest, aninvestigation has found.
From Pedagogy.comThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in March that c. diff kills 14,000people a year, based on death certificate records. However, a USA Today analysis of recordsfrom the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found over 30,000 c. diff fatalitiesper year. The newspaper’s analysis looked at hospital billing rates rather than death certificates,which do not always list the cause of death as complications from c. diff. The report suggestsaround 500,000 people contract the disease each year. Experts say that U.S. officials could get abetter handle on c. diff by requiring nursing home and hospitals to report c. diff infections andantibiotic usage rates to federal regulators, a tactic that has helped healthcare facilities in Europereduce c. diff rates. One focus will likely be on environmental services for healthcare facilities, asthe newspaper reported that many hospitals have cut housekeeping budgets up to 25% in recentyears. U.S. hospitals will be required to report their rates of c. diff in 2013, but there are no suchregulations — yet — for nursing homes.
To view the original article:http://www.pedagogy-inc.com/Home/Classes/Infection-Control/Clostridium-Difficile.aspx
Pedagogy Inc. has an online continuing education course for nurses, medical health careprofessionals, and other interested individuals ”Clostridium Difficile Colitis Prevention AndManagement” Clostridium difficile is an inimitable organism that normally lives in the gut.When an antibiotic is taken to treat an infection, helpful or normal bacteria are destroyed, causingan overgrowth of the C. difficile bacteria. Clostridium difficile localizes to the large bowel,where it manifests as diarrhea and colitis. The symptoms of CDI can be mild or life-threatening. Clostridium difficile is the leading cause of infectious diarrhea in hospitals and has become,along with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, one of the most common causes of healthcare–associated infections.¹ The incidence and severity of C. difficile infection (CDI) haveincreased dramatically since 2000, and CDI is estimated to cause as many as 20,000 deaths andto cost as much as $3.2 billion per year in US acute care facilities alone.² CDI outbreaks havebecome more common, and infection control–based CDI prevention efforts appear to be lesseffective than in the past. How does your facility prevent patients from getting a CDI during theirstay? In this course you will learn the characteristics and transmission of CDI, best practices formonitoring these infections, and the recommended practices for prevention and control.
To learn more about the course curriculum, price and to purchase go tohttp://www.pedagogy-inc.com/Home/Classes/Infection-Control/Clostridium-Difficile.aspx
