Archive for the ‘medical hospital’ Category
July 15th, 2011 | 
Author: For any other type of business, I would say yes to refurbish an existing structure. However, for a medical center, thinking about it logically, it is probably cost prohibitive. I am sure there are all types of State and Federal requirements, handicap accessibility requirements, special building requirements and construction standards for imaging and other special medical equipment, etc. that must be considered when creating a medical center. Additionally, with the real estate market in the tank, bids for building new are certainly lower than they were a few short years ago.
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International Business is reporting that Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity expert at Children’s Hospital Boston and Lindsey Murtagh, a lawyer and researcher at Harvard’s School of Public Health wrote in an editorial that removing an obese child from the home should be legal in some cases.
“State intervention may serve the best interests of many children with life-threatening obesity, comprising the only realistic way to control harmful behaviors,” the co-authors wrote in a piece to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“In severe instances of childhood obesity, removal from the home may be justifiable from a legal standpoint because of imminent health risks and the parents’ chronic failure to address medical problems.”
Ludwig and Murtagh aren’t talking about any regular obese child, but rather ones with a severe issue. They are talking about the two million children in the United States that have a body mass index at or above the 99th percentile.
The doctors point out that every state has a law that government authorities can step in when a child is being starved or neglected but only a handful have anything regarding overnourishment and severe obesity. Those states include California, Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
Taking kids out of the home from the only parents they know does not seem like a good idea. No, we don’t want kids dying or having debilitating diseases that could be prevented with healthier eating, but taking a child away from parents seems extreme. However, getting in front of the issue of childhood obesity seems to be in order, particularly in the case of extreme obesity. It seems that the parents and child should receive mandatory counseling and help from a dietician to change eating habits. Start there – not at taking a child from his parents.
Read more at International Business Times.
In other news: GOP Split on Debt Ceiling Solution; Obama Walks Out
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By Katherine Hobson
When parents are physically harming their kids, the state can step in and remove them from the home. Should that happen if a child is severely obese?
A commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association says it should be considered, but only “in carefully selected situations.”
The two authors, Lindsey Murtagh of the Harvard School of Public Health and David S. Ludwig of Children’s Hospital Boston, say that in most cases, overweight and obese kids will have a chance to improve their health as adults. (About 16% of kids aged 10 to 16 were obese in 2007, according to government stats.)
But, they write, the health consequences for the most severely obese children –defined as a body mass index at or above the 99th percentile, which includes about 2 million kids — can be “immediate and potentially irreversible.” Mostly, they’re referring to type 2 diabetes, which can become permanent and set kids up for cardiovascular disease. One obesity treatment option, gastric bypass surgery, carries the risk of serious complications and its long-term effectiveness isn’t known, the authors write.
Severely obese kids are often eating more than 1,000 calories a day in excess of what their body requires, “suggesting profoundly dysfunctional eating and activity habits.” So, the authors write, if counseling, parenting training and other forms of support don’t help parents change their children’s habits, foster care should be on the table — though it’s not “desirable or practical, and probably not legally justifiable, for most” of the severely obese kids in the U.S. They note that foster care wouldn’t guarantee improved health, and that taking kids away from their parents is obviously traumatic.
Murtagh and Ludwig suggest using criteria like the ones outlined in this 2009 Pediatrics article; authors of that piece say that for obese kids with serious health problems that can cause imminent harm, where all other options have been exhausted, removing the child may be necessary.
University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan tells the Associated Press that so many factors influence obesity in kids and teens that it’s unfair to put all the responsibility on parents. (And here’s his commentary on the topic on MSNBC.com)
Readers, what do you think? Should foster care be an option in the most severe cases?
Image: iStockphoto
Escalating shortages of vital drugs could be affecting nearly every hospital in the nation, forcing delays or substitutions in patient care, diverting pharmacy staff from crucial duties and racking up $216 million in costs to manage the situation nationwide.
That’s the take-away message of two new surveys about the impact of rising drug shortages on clinical staff and patients, conducted by the American Hospital Association and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
The groups planned to hold a Capitol Hill briefing Tuesday about the consequences of the worst-ever shortage of medically necessary and life-saving drugs in the nation’s history. A coalition of cancer care organizations, concerned about a shortage of oncology drugs, plan a similar briefing on Wednesday. The groups worry that ongoing shortages of drugs, often with no warning, have been skyrocketing in recent years.
Federal Food and Drug Administration officials say the shortages are caused by manufacturing problems, firms that simply stop making drugs, and production delays.
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In 2010, reported drug shortages totaled 211, up from 166 the year before and the most ever recorded. Already in 2011, 156 shortages were tallied as of June 20, according to the University of Utah Drug Information Service, which tracks the problem.
Story: When vital drugs run out, patients pay the price
“Drug shortages are a national health crisis,” said Henri R. Manasse Jr., executive vice president and CEO of ASHP, a coalition of pharmacists who practice in hospitals and health systems.
Survey: 99.5 percent of hospitals affected
Among the findings from AHA’s online survey that drew responses from 820 of the nation’s 5,100 hospitals: 99.5 percent of hospitals reported one or more drug shortages in the last six months, and nearly half reported shortages of 21 or more drugs. Some 82 percent of those hospitals said they’ve delayed patient treatment because of shortages, or have been unable to treat patients as recommended.
The ASHP survey, which drew 353 responses from 1,322 pharmacy directors, found that more than 80 percent of institutions ran low on three top vital drugs: succinylcholine injection, used to relax throat muscles to allow intubation; concentrated dextrose solutions used to mix or dilute medications; and epinephrine injections used for emergency treatment of severe allergic reactions.
The shortages have forced some clinical staff to shift away from patient duties in order to manage the problem, found the ASHP survey, which tallied the labor costs at $216 million a year nationwide.
In addition, the surveys both chronicled ongoing shortages of drugs used to for basic treatments from pain relief and sedation to antibiotics for infections and medications for cancer.
Nearly two-thirds of hospitals said they rarely receive advance notices of shortages and 14 percent never do, the AHA survey said. More than half said they’re rarely told how long the shortages will last.
Patient had to track down his own drugs
For Thomas Kornberg, 62, of San Francisco, Calif., shortages threatened to derail his treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma two years ago when doctors informed him they couldn’t get two of four drugs necessary for his cancer-fighting infusions.
“I was warned ahead of time, the hospital did not have an adequate supply,” said Kornberg, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California at San Francisco. Because he had contacts in the medical field, he was able to call in favors from friends at hospitals who helped ensure his supply.
But the experience outraged him enough to prompt him to testify on Capitol Hill this week. “These shortages could well have affected my treatment,” he said.
The issue has received attention from Congress, the Preserving Access to Life-Saving Medications Act. That bill would require drugmakers to give early notification of any incident that would likely result in a drug shortage.
Such action alone wouldn’t solve the pressing problems, said Joseph Hill, director of federal legislative affairs for the ASHP, which since November has been working with industry, government and safety groups to find a solution.
“It’s a good first start,” he said. “It’s a piece of the puzzle.”
© 2011 msnbc.com
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MISSION VIEJO, Calif., Jul 11, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
AUXILIO, Inc. (AUXO.OB), the pioneer in Managed Print Services (MPS) for
the health care industry, today announced a three year MPS contract with
Holy Cross Hospital, a 448-bed teaching hospital and a member of Trinity
Health, one of the largest health systems in the country. Located in
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largest in the state with 1,200 affiliated physicians and more than
3,200 employees, including 1,000 nurses.
“It is our privilege to work with Holy Cross Hospital to implement a
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J. Flynn, president and chief executive officer of AUXILIO. “Holy Cross
Hospital provides exceptional care to thousands of people in the
communities it serves. Our full-time, on-site team of customer service
and technical experts will support Holy Cross Hospital in the delivery
of quality patient care by optimizing efficiencies in their document
management.”
Hospitals across the country are turning to AUXILIO to improve their
financial performance through its cost-effective print strategies and
proven methodology that facilitates the implementation of electronic
records mandates. The company’s unique health care exclusive and vendor
neutral MPS program responds precisely to the challenges faced by the
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proprietary benchmarking data and customer-centric service focus. This
contract adds to expanded or extended agreements earned in 2011 in New
Jersey, New York and California with some of the country’s largest and
most prestigious hospitals and health care systems.
About AUXILIO, Inc.
AUXILIO, Inc. is the pioneer of managed print services for the health
care industry, working exclusively with hospitals and hospital systems
throughout the United States. We are vendor independent and provide
intelligent solutions, a risk free program and guaranteed savings.
AUXILIO assumes all costs related to print business environments through
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quality patient care. The service and solutions provided by our on-site
Centers of Excellence professional print strategy consultants deliver
unparalleled customer service across the industry. For more information
about AUXILIO, visit
www.auxilioinc.com .
Forward Looking Statements
This release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to the
business of AUXILIO, Inc. that can be identified by the use of
forward-looking terminology such as “believes,” “expects,”
“anticipates,” “may” or similar expressions. Such forward-looking
statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including
uncertainties relating to product/services development, long and
uncertain sales cycles, the ability to obtain or maintain patent or
other proprietary intellectual property protection, market acceptance,
future capital requirements, competition from other providers and other
factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from
those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated or expected.
Certain of these risks and uncertainties are or will be described in
greater detail in our Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available at
http://www.sec.gov .
AUXILIO, Inc. is under no obligation (and expressly disclaims any such
obligation) to update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as
a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
SOURCE: AUXILIO, Inc.
AUXILIO, Inc.
Clare Eckert, 401-855-2601
Copyright Business Wire 2011
