patient safety

Hospital Discharge Planning is Critical for Recovery

Posted by admin on February 4, 2012   |   No Comments

Why is hospital discharge planning so important for a successful recovery? The following example is one of many that happen frequently in hospitals.

A patient had parathyroid surgery. The parathyroid gland regulates calcium in the blood. A known side effect of this surgery is hypocalcemia, low calcium level in the blood.
The patient was discharged from the hospital without calcium supplements or instructions on potential complications and symptoms if a low calcium level develops. She returned to the hospital emergency room when her calcium level caused severe hypocalcemia symptoms. She was given excessive daily dosages of calcium and remained in the hospital until her condition stabilized. She was discharged from the hospital. Similar to her first hospital discharge, she was not given instructions on potential side effects. More importantly, her increased daily dosage of calcium was not reduced upon discharge. She went home continuing to take excessive amounts of calcium for many weeks. She returned to the hospital again when the increased calcium levels caused hypercalcemia symptoms which included kidney damage and several of her teeth fell out!

75% of hospital readmissions are preventable. Most of these are drug events which are preventable. Unfortunately, there is a breakdown of communication between medical providers, home health staff, nursing homes, family members and the patient. Medicine reconciliation is critical when you are discharged from the hospital. Typically, when you are admitted to the hospital your prescription drugs will change based on what the hospital uses. It is important for your health safety to reconcile your medications upon discharge to ensure that duplication and adverse side effects do not occur.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recognizes this serious, yet common problem in hospitals and has addressed it by funding Project RED, Re-Engineered Discharge. Currently, approximately 250 hospitals are participating with more to follow. The program helps hospitals to educate patients on self-care and to improve hospital discharge communication to reduce overall hospital readmission. The program was initially developed by Boston University Medical Center to help solve their own discharge planning problems.

Common questions addressed in successful discharge planning include:

What should I eat?
What activities or foods should I avoid?
Where is my pharmacy?
What is my medical problem?
What are my medication allergies?
What medicines do I need to take? Why am I taking them? How much do I take?
How do I take this medicine?
When are my next appointments?
Questions for my next appointments

Remember, if you are a Medicare beneficiary and you do not feel that you are ready to be discharged or the post-discharge planning is not acceptable to you, you can appeal the decision. http://www.lifelongwellnessadvocates.com/are-you-being-discharged-from-the-hospital-too-soon/


How to Improve Your Own Safety When Lying In Hospital Bed

Posted by admin on May 24, 2011   |   No Comments

Patient safety has always been a hot topic in a hospital setting. Hospital-acquired infections affect 1 in 10 patients and kill approximately 100,000 patients per year in the U.S. 1 in 5 Medicare patients are readmitted within 30 days. Hopefully, these statistics will change once Value-Based Purchasing takes effect starting in October 2012. This provision in the new Affordable Care Act will directly affect a hospital’s reimbursement from Medicare. Hospitals will be evaluated based on performance measures including patient satisfaction. All information pertaining to hospital-acquired infections, recommended procedures and outcomes for heart attacks, heart failure, pneumonia, and surgical care will be available to the public to aid in selecting a hospital.

As a patient, you will see hospitals starting to ramp up their safety measures so they will receive high ratings in their measured categories and more money from Medicare. You will also begin to see new products on the market available to hospitals as well as patients to improve outcomes, reduce readmissions and increase patient satisfaction.

The Patient Pod™ is a product that just launched this month. As an independent Patient Advocate, I’m a huge proponent for empowering patients and their families to improve their health and safety. The Patient Pod™ was developed by Pat Mastors, a hospital Patient Advocate and former medical reporter. Her passion for patient safety was amplified when her father died of complications from a hospital-acquired infection.  

The Patient Pod™ gives patients the ability to have some control over the safety of their medical environment while lying in their hospital bed or sitting in a wheelchair. It keeps a patient’s personal items within reach so falls are not as likely to occur. This also reduces the amount of time the call button is pushed to get assistance in obtaining personal items. Overuse of the call button can result in a delayed response in future situations that do require an immediate response. The Patient Pod™ includes sanitizer products and a TV remote control covering as it reduces the number of people that will touch personal belongings. Since patient items tend to get lost in the hospital, this product minimizes loss of personal items. The Patient Pod™ also personalizes the patient to medical staff by allowing space for family photos and a place to communicate special needs/requests if family is not present at all times.

As I have said before, you may or may not approve of the new Affordable Care Act. However, one cannot dismiss the improved procedures and products that will result from some of the provisions found in this law.

For more information about The Patient Pod™, visit http://www.thepatientpod.com/

For more information about Value-Based Purchasing, visit http://www.healthcare.gov/news/factsheets/valuebasedpurchasing04292011b.html



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