Neonatal Resuscitation Provider Class.  March 9th, 2010 Family Birth Center Classroom 9:00am – 4:30pm

The Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) was initiated by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Heart Association. NRP is a national training and education program created to standardize Neonatal Resuscitation Guidelines and meet the national recommendation that every birth be attended by at least one person skilled in every component of Neonatal Resuscitation, with an additional skilled person readily available to assist.

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Magnet Status — It’s the highest level of recognition for nursing a hospital can achieve, and Providence St. Peter Hospital has earned it!

After a site visit in October 2009, the American Nurses Credentialing Center just announced that PSPH has achieved Magnet status — a designation the hospital had been working toward for more than six years. Less than four percent of the nation’s hospitals carry the Magnet designation, and PSPH is one of only three Magnet hospitals in Washington. Considered the gold standard in nursing excellence, research shows there are clear benefits to hospitals that are designated Magnet status and to the communities they serve:

• Healthcare consumers have more confidence in the overall quality of a hospital if it has achieved the level of excellence established by the Magnet Recognition Program.
• Magnet designated facilities consistently outperform other facilities in recruiting and retaining nurses resulting in increased stability in patient care and patient satisfaction.
• Because quality nursing is one of the most important factors in enlisting high caliber physicians and specialists, Magnet status becomes an attractive force that extends to the entire facility.

“The Magnet designation is a tremendous achievement at Providence St. Peter Hospital,” says Sandy Penland, Magnet Program Director.

The evaluation process is rigorous and involves extensive interviews and reviews of nursing services, clinical outcomes and patient care. The Magnet appraisers used words such as “exceptional,” “collaborative,” and “committed” when describing Providence St. Peter Hospital’s nursing culture. She added, “It recognizes the excellent work our nurses do each day and reflects the commitment of our entire staff to work as a team. The Magnet appraisers commended our high degree of nurse physician collaboration and our partnerships in the community.”

New Dalteparin (Fragmin®) Therapeutic Interchange and Dosing Guideline (Download it here)

Cancer Survivorship Education:
An Integral Component of Quality Cancer Care
Cobie Whitten, PhD
Providence St. Peter Hospital Cancer Conference

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Definition

In the report Healthy People 2010 (http://www.healthypeople.gov/Document/pdf/uih/2010uih.pdf), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services included improved consumer health literacy as Objective 11-2, and identified health literacy as an important component of health communication, medical product safety, and oral health. Health literacy is defined in Health People 2010 as: “The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions”.

Health literacy includes the ability to understand instructions on prescription drug bottles, appointment slips, medical education brochures, doctor’s directions and consent forms, and the ability to negotiate complex health care systems. Health literacy is not simply the ability to read. It requires a complex group of reading, listening, analytical, and decision-making skills, and the ability to apply these skills to health situations.

Health literacy varies by context and setting and is not necessarily related to years of education or general reading ability. A person who functions adequately at home or work may have marginal or inadequate literacy in a health care environment. With the move towards a more “consumer-centric” health care system as part of an overall effort to improve the quality of health care and to reduce health care costs, individuals need to take an even more active role in health care related decisions. To accomplish this people need strong health information skills.

ENCORE PRESENTATION!

“Excellent talk.” “Patient care will improve with this.” “Extremely helpful/useful.”

Diabetes Management: The Basal-Bolus Concept

Sarah Walton, PharmD

Lunch buffet provided

Thursday, January 7, 2010

12:30 – 13:30

200 Rooms

[1.0 credit Category I CME]

January 5, 2010

New Heart Failure Sticker to appear on charts January 11

A Six Sigma project team on Heart Failure has changed some processes on the floors to more accurately identify heart failure patients. Part of the process change involves a new sticker that you will be seeing in the progress notes of some charts.

This sticker will be placed in the progress notes by the nursing staff when a patient is displaying clinical indications of heart failure, but yet may not be identified as such. We are asking that physicians initial the sticker to indicate their desire to initiate heart failure teaching. The nursing staff will then initiate or not, depending on the physician preference.

A copy of the sticker and the SBAR for it appears below. The Six Sigma team asks that you follow up when you see it, beginning on January 11, 2010.

CLINICAL INDICATION STICKER

Situation: Patients who have symptoms indicative of heart failure sometimes  receive heart failure teaching by nursing staff when, in fact, the patient does not have heart failure and are receiving unnecessary, and sometimes frightening, patient education

Background: Nursing staff is required to do heart failure teaching on all patients displaying symptoms that could be indicative of heart failure. Some physicians were becoming upset by teaching they felt not appropriate for their patient.

Assessment: Continuing effort to properly identify, and teach, patients with heart failure

Recommendation: A sticker has been created that will be placed in the progress notes by the RN on those patients who have clinical indications of, but not yet diagnosed or identified, heart failure. The sticker allows the physician to check yes or no to initiating heart failure teaching by nursing staff

EXAMPLE

Contact Ans Van Uffelen at 493-6162 or Leslie Pratt at 493-7527 for any questions or concerns.

Provider Directory (Versions)

Version #1: (in Alphabetical Order) Phone Directory

Version #2: (by Specialty) Phone Directory

A drug approved to treat cancer and used to de-worm animals is being added to the nation’s cocaine supply. Nobody — at least no public health official — seems to know why.

The drug, levamisole, can cause a serious weakening of the immune system called agranulocytosis. Twenty-one cases, including one death, were linked to the use of cocaine in four U.S. states between March, 2008 and November, 2009. Here’s the paper published this week in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The paper says many more cases likely went unreported. Read more »

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