The introduction of comprehensive risk management to a hospital is challenging. Although initiating quality and safety processes is often easy, the structural changes in a microcosmic hospital are harder to crack. However, successfully integrated risk management can represent a decisive, competitive advantage in the healthcare market. By Karoline Laarmann
The part of bacterial DNA that often carries antibiotic resistance is a master at moving between different types of bacteria and adapting to widely differing bacterial species, shows a study made by a research team at the University of Gothenburg in cooperation with Chalmers University of Technology. The results are published in an article in the scientific journal Nature Communications.
With 1,600 customers and a 30-40% market share in Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland, IT and imaging enterprise Agfa and its hospital-wide IT solution Orbis are ahead of the game. Dr Volker Wetekam, Executive Vice President of the IT Division, Agfa Healthcare, speaks of a technological advantage of as much as two to three years in the key segments -- PACS, cardiology and regional health --…
Often a life-saving intervention, mechanical ventilation also has some serious drawbacks: the need for sedation, the risk of ventilator associated pneumonia, intubation or tracheostomy related complications. In 1972, Donald Hill from Pacific Medical Centre, Los Angeles, reported the first successful long-term mechanical lung assist device with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).
During intensive care, hyperglycaemia and insulin resistance are widespread in diabetics as well as non-diabetics. However, whether the normalisation of blood glucose levels with insulin therapy improves the prognosis of such patients is still debated. Karoline Laarmann reports
Much of the newly revealed variation in amputation rates in England is due to many diabetics not receiving nine key care processes, including checks on weight, blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol, urine and, in particular, consistent foot care checks.
Jean-Louis Vincent, Chairman of the Dept of Intensive Care, Erasme Hospital, Université Libre de Bruxelles, welcomes visitors to this year’s International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine.
Whether it’s functional imaging via MRI or CT, dynamic angiography examinations or volume tomography -- new examination procedures deliver more, but also require more. The annual data increase in hospitals is 20-30% and the resulting requirements for the necessary storage capacity, or for digital data transfer, present a serious challenge. Accordingly, there is considerable interest in…
Simply adding technology is not enough. Technology is transforming what’s possible in medicine, but its complexity makes understanding how it will improve patient’s lives a challenge. Technology should drive efficiencies, reduce costs and empower people to integrate Health IT into daily routines for the betterment of care. The Dell Virtual hospital is an interactive destination for…
Cornelis Van De Velde, Professor of Surgical Oncology at the Leiden University Medical Centre, in the Netherlands, and President of the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO), describes the work and aims of the society within the EU.
Different tests bring different results, and results of the same types of test vary from laboratory to laboratory. "In the case of test procedures for autoimmune diseases there are incredible discrepancies," confirmed Professor Manfred Herold, head of the Laboratory for Rheumatism at the University Clinic for Internal Medicine One, Innsbruck. The reason: "There are no standards for…
Every year thousands of patients with less than one year to live are denied a heart valve replacement because they are too frail to undergo surgery. These patients tend to be over 75 years of age and suffering from multiple health problems, such as respiratory conditions that preclude general anaesthesia, end-stage failure of liver or kidneys, or a history of coronary surgery. Two years ago they…
The Siemens sector Healthcare has developed the new consulting model “Act on Stroke”, tailored specifically to clinical workflows in the treatment of stroke. Following models for industry processes, an expert team from Siemens evaluates the maturity level of clinical processes in a hospital.
Held every three years, a very important healthcare IT event is to be held in Europe after a gap of 14 years. From November 15-19, healthcare managers and suppliers from 37 countries will arrive in Milan to discuss the future of world’s electronic health services at the 16th Congress of IFHRO (International Federation of Health Records Organisations), held in collaboration with the WHO.
Every year in German hospitals about 15,000 patients acquire ventilation-associated pneumonias (VAP). This number, and the associated mortality, is striking enough to make it one of the topics at HAI 2010, the annual conference of the German Society for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (DGAI). Like many physicians, Dr Maria Deja, senior physician at the Charité Clinic for…
The 90-minute refresher course ‘Contrast Agent Issues 2010: What the Experts Really Do for Allergies, Contrast-induced Nephropathy, Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis, and Extravasation’, to be held during this year’s Radiological Society of North America meeting, will focus on the use of iodinated and gadolinium-based contrast media and the issues, advantages and considerations for patient…
Clear transparency of the flow of products and information in hospitals not only results in increased patient safety but also, because the documentation of treatments and recording of products used ensures compliance with legal requirements. The ability to retrace all steps is also an economic asset in terms of comprehensive cost control over product consumption.
The strategies used to assess the environmental risks posed by pharmaceuticals are not enough to protect natural microbial communities, reveals a researcher from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, who is calling for better environmental risk assessments.
The reprocessing of single use medical devices is well-established in Europe. However, questions about the risk for patients and users arise constantly. The European Commission presented recently a kind of risk survey. The report strikes German experts as basically accurate but unbalanced.
A nurse-initiated, nurse-led, and nurse-implemented study shows that nurses taking charge of diabetes care in hospital results in more patients hitting their target glucose levels. The study was led by Esther Boteach, Soroka University Medical Center Beer-Sheva, Israel, and co-workers.
Dr Susan S Braithwaite, a visiting clinical professor in endocrinology at the Department of Medicine, University of Illinois, Chicago, specialises in the management of hyperglycaemia among hospitalised patients. Hyperglycaemia, the presence of an abnormally high concentration of glucose in the blood, is a common occurrence in adults who are hospital in-patients, especially among diabetic…
Previous research has indicated that the emergency department might be well-placed to pick up patients vulnerable to suicide. However, according to a small, new study carried out by researchers at Manchester University, although people who frequently present themselves at hospital emergency departments may be at high risk of suicide, emergency care staff may fail to spot their vulnerability.
A few years ago, Dr Peder Bo Nielsen MD FRCPath, Consultant medical microbiologist at Northwick Park Hospital, London, UK, launched a research programme on airborne transmission of nosocomial infections. Until then, so called air-biology held no high priority in infection prevention and control. The prevailing perception was that colonisation and contamination mainly happens due to direct contact…
In intensive medicine, burnout has a major impact on the quality of care. For example, in intensive care units, where the staff suffers burnout, statistics indicate that patients remain longer in an artificial coma than in ICUs that are more or less free of burnout. ‘Obviously, that does not happen consciously,’ says Prof. Wolfgang Lalouschek, Medical Director of The Tree Health Care Centre…
If patients suffering acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, or pneumonia are admitted to hospitals that frequently treat these illnesses they are less likely to die, according to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine.