General Orientation Made Easy!
For new hires in healthcare and their Educators, General Orientation is like running a marathon. So many topics to cover, so little time. It is true that general orientation is the window of time that the facility has to officially welcome you as a new hire to the organization and take care of the business of getting you on board. But beyond the Human Resources necessities regarding payroll, benefits and such, there are many topics that must be covered that are designed to introduce you to the vision and priorities of the organization.
Some general orientation topics revolve around the company’s Mission Statement and so will introduce the topics that are patient driven, such as customer service, patient centered care, cultural sensitivity, patient rights and patient safety. Others revolve around your job skills, but also how you are expected to improve the work environment through enhanced communication and respect towards your coworkers. Finally, there…
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HIPAA: The New Security Rule and HITECH Act
DHHS just released a guidance on how to protect HIPAA privacy during emergency situations, such as an EBOLA outbreak. http://tinyurl.com/oey67nf
A hospital in Michigan accidentally posts the medical records of thousands of patients on the internet. A health insurer loses the financial, health and personal information of 450,000 customers, and fails to notify them for six months. And two of the largest pharmacy chains in the U.S. are found discarding patient records and other legally-protected information in unsecured dumpsters.
This unnecessary exposure of private information should be alarming. In fact, since the creation of the HIPAA act, the Department of Health and Human Services has investigated approximately 8,000 legitimate complaints of privacy violations. These statistics are simply unacceptable.
As professionals who work in healthcare, how we protect personal health information is just as much a part of our jobs as the care we deliver. At stake is not only the privacy of an individual’s care, but the security of personal information, which could be used for medical identity theft, and other…
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Violence in Healthcare
Domestic Violence with Gun in Hospital
Healthcare is rightfully obsessed with the need to protect the safety of patients. But what about the safety of healthcare workers? Our society is fraught with violence in the form of gangs, robberies, homicides, domestic quarrels, etc. And unfortunately, this violence can and does spill into the hospitals from the streets, threatening the very health and safety of those we depend on to heal us. The statistics regarding violence in healthcare settings are grim.
- Violent crime in hospitals increased by 200% from 2004 to 2009.
- The Joint Commission Sentinel Events database shows that 2011 had the second highest reported rate of criminal events in hospitals since the database’s inception in 1995.
- Between 35% and 80% of hospital staff have been physically assaulted at least once during their careers.
- According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the rate of non-fatal assaults on healthcare workers is
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Customer Service: HCAHPS and the New Healthcare Imperative
If hospitals are to keep and attract new customers despite increasing competition among providers, as well as meet the requirements by CMS to improve customer service, healthcare facilities must do more to retain and create new patients. Getting providers and staff to understand the necessity for good customer service, as well as the payoff inherent in providing this aspect of good quality care, will be the key to success.
Continue Reading January 28, 2014 at 5:35 pm Leave a comment
Sustainability and Health Care Facilities: It’s Happening! And Why It Must.
sterile wrap processing
Sustainability. It’s the buzz word that has many implications for our society as individuals, and for healthcare organizations as a whole. In essence, sustainability means integrating practices into the way that health care does business that lead to healthier people, healthier communities and a healthier planet. When you consider that the healthcare system makes up over 20% of the US economy, getting hospitals to embrace sustainability can become the driving force for environmental responsibility and help create facilities that are better run financially. But why should healthcare facilities care about sustainability? Three good reasons:
1) Healthcare has a substantial environmental impact on the planet. Health care facilities generate an estimated 4 to 6 million tons of waste in the US every year. Sustainability has environmental benefits such as better air quality, cleaner and more abundant water, less waste in landfills and improved energy efficiency if we reduce the impact of how material resources are manufactured, transported and used by hospitals.
2) Sustainability provides health and safety benefits to patients, healthcare workers and the community. The fact is climate change is endangering human health due to extreme weather events, increased air pollution, and an increase in infectious diseases. Reducing the environmental impact improves the health and safety of our communities by reducing asthma, heat-related illnesses, and illnesses caused by extreme weather patterns.
3) Sustainability improves the bottom line. By selecting goods and services that lower purchase prices, or making changes to the way waste is disposed, sustainability can potentially save hospitals more than $15 billion dollars over the next 10 years! When sustainability and performance improvement are incorporated into all areas of the facility, the facility will be smarter and leaner with its resources. This creates a hospital that is successful and can weather the many changes that affect healthcare now and into the future.
In a nutshell, sustainability is good for the planet, good for the organization, and good for the community you serve. So the question is not whether to be sustainable, but how to incorporate sustainability effectively. Individually and collectively, healthcare workers and their departments can do quite a lot to contribute to a facility’s efforts towards sustainability. Please join thousands of hospitals and many healthcare groups such as Healthcare Without Harm and the American Hospital Association by taking a pledge to increasing your department’s sustainability efforts.
Make the time and effort to:
- Learn more about sustainability.
- Check with other departments in your healthcare facility and with other facilities to get ideas and inspiration.
- Educate coworkers on the benefits of sustainability, and encourage their suggestions and participation.
- Finally, develop a process to identify and explore options to improve your department’s sustainability efforts.
To help facilities become more sustainable in the Central Services/Sterile Processing Department and Operating Room, Envision, Inc. has created a training video with IACHSMM, with underwriting by Kimberly Clark Corp. We would love to hear how your facility is becoming more Green!
General Orientation Made Easy!
For new hires in healthcare and their Educators, General Orientation is like running a marathon. So many topics to cover, so little time. It is true that general orientation is the window of time that the facility has to officially welcome you as a new hire to the organization and take care of the business of getting you on board. But beyond the Human Resources necessities regarding payroll, benefits and such, there are many topics that must be covered that are designed to introduce you to the vision and priorities of the organization. These include the mandatories dictated by The Joint Commission and other accreditation bodies, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA).
Violence in Healthcare
Healthcare is rightfully obsessed with the need to protect the safety of patients. But what about the safety of healthcare workers? Our society is fraught with violence in the form of gangs, robberies, homicides, domestic quarrels, etc. And unfortunately, this violence can and does spill into the hospitals from the streets, threatening the very health and safety of those we depend on to heal us. But, violence in any fashion or form should not be permitted or tolerated by patients, visitors or employees!
Can Environmental Cleaning Keep C. diff At Bay?
Because it is a hot item of discussion these days, another C. difficile discussion seems in order. While our recent post discussed the best practice recommendations for antibiotic stewardship and infection prevention strategies, a post regarding environmental cleaning and disinfection in particular is especially timely since the cleanliness of the environment is a known factor in transmission of this antibiotic resistant pathogen.
