“Your Healthcare. Your Choice.”

Shan Calliard

Who is really the biggest loser?

Since the dawn of life, eating has become an integral part of life in many cultures. In Britain, there are many coffee shop shops where many people like to gather to and catch up on life over some fish and chips. In Asia, it is a culture that that is comprised of many culinary traditions, with a concentration of keeping their meals basic and plain. In the Caribbean, most of the once colonized islands are known for national dish. Bahamas has been known for their conch delicacies, Jamaica, Ackee and Saltfish, Canada: Poutine and maple syrup, Germany: Sauerkraut, Italy: Pizza and Pasta, Mexico: Taco and burrito just to name a few. The United states as resourceful as we are have the hot dogs, hamburgers, donuts, turkeys, pumpkin pies, and apple pie as some of their national dishes.

The point of the matter is that Americans have some of most money in the world and yet we including myself are some of the unhealthiest individuals. As time has progressed, it seems as if things are getting better at the same time while getting worse. Because of modern medicine it was just recently stated in the news that Americans currently have the lowest cholesterol level when compared to about two decades ago. Drugs like Lipitor and Pravastatin are some of the most common cholesterol lowering drugs that has afforded us with this new statistic. Even though these drugs have indeed given us this fortunate opportunity, we including myself again are still leading living our live according to what we want to eat and not what we should eat. If for some reason we get sick, we will find some way to continue our eating habit by taking some drug or whatever instead of eating healthier. It doesn’t take a genius to know that health care costs have become one of the greatest concerns for Americans especially with this electoral year. In fact, it is so much of a concern that many people will swing their vote this year simply on their views on healthcare. What the author would like to know is why do we have to wait for the government to step in to adjust our health care crisis? Perhaps we can do something for ourselves and eat healthier/exercise a little more or if some of us already live a pretty healthy lives, why not help someone and show them how to live a healthier and a more balanced life. Having said all of this, who is really the biggest loser? Thank you for your time. The author truly looks forward to hearing from you.

http://www.articleworld.org/index.php/National_dish

http://www.lipitor.com/

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=163

by Shain Waugh

Business Entrepreneur

Who said that a physician isn’t a business entrepreneur or independent contractor? The ability to connect with patients on a personnel level is a critical point in remaining competitive, establishing practice separation, and the development of medical marketing intelligence. The ability to connect with patients on their level of thinking, assessing the demand for services, and the ability to supplying or meet the needs for those demand are critical for today’s modern day practices.

As illustrated in past posts “Choosing the Right Medical Doctor“, the greatest challenge for clients today is finding or being able to distinguish between physician practices. So, many physicians have resorted to online video to assist in promoting their business, educating patients about medical disorders, and connecting with patients on a more personal and private level.

The ability to personalize one’s medical practice with online video enables business to establish an array of core competencies such as giving patients an inside view their practice prior to coming to the medical office, understanding the medical team at hand, and develop more of an ease and understanding about a facility’s mission, vision, and practice philosophy.

The major challenge with personalizing one’s practice has been the embracement of technology, increase cost of marketing, and fear of facility misrepresentation. In addition, there are an array of active business that attempt to solve this health care misunderstanding, however, there isn’t a one consistent company or philosophy that assist in truly meeting the needs of our active clients concern with healthcare.

There are many cases were healthcare providers hire companies to produce videos, integrate business within search-engine to increase visibility, while others utilize You Tube or Medem to push the online message. As an example, when searching for a new health care provider, we as consumers ask friends, associate, or consult with insurance companies. However, there is still a limited line in addressing the major problem of identifying to correct physician practice on a globalized scale.

Summing Up

As the healthcare industry evolves and embraces video technology, it will become a standard in delivering a quality message to the general consumer. Physicians will be forced to become more competitive with there medical practice including justifying their business culture, improving quality, organization’s vision, and being health responsible for medical errors. If video becomes a standard of medical facilities then the industry will become as the hotel industry, which is viewed as if a hotel is not visible online then no customer will utilize the facilities services. In time, the government of each country must regulate and make stronger requirements in order to distinguish medical practices.

There are a great deal of consumers inquiring about a quality physician and the only information that they receive is an address, phone number, and a wish of luck. As 2008 approaches, the legacy method of identifying a physician must soon migrate into a more modern standard requirement. However, this all depends on who embraces technology, has the budget funding, government regulations standards in place, and the politicians lobbying for change.

References

http://icyou.comhttp://youtube.com/user/dramatichealth
http://www.medem.com/phy/phy_vrc.cfm
http://www.nyashgroup.com (in development)

By Shain Waugh

Primary Issue

The critical nursing personnel shortage in America is nothing new to those affected by the shortage. It is evident that the long waits in the emergency room, medical surgical or telemetry unit’s patients not being seen by a nurse for hours, patient’s given the wrong medication, nursing staff burnout, and so forth is a significant sign of the challenges involving this shortage. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association predicted a 20% shortage in the number of nurses needed in the healthcare system by the year 2020. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that more than one million new and replacement nurses will be needed by 2012.

The immediate challenge is that as more than 77 million baby boomers approach retirement age, it is anticipated that the demand for healthcare, particularly home and community-based care, will almost certainly outpace the supply of quality caregivers. The key question is to determine do you trust your hospital, physician, clinic, and or pharmacy. For many, it’s a challenging question when there is no true method of evaluating these critical factors.

 Those Affected

The ratios of nurses to patients dictate the number of patients a hospital’s unit can handle in a given day. In some states these ratios have been legislated while in other, unions mandate it. There are exceptions and work conditions for nurses and patients are still poor and unsafe. As case in point, there have been studies that illustrate direct correlations between staffing of nurses and medical errors.  Example:

In the 3^rd quarter of 2007, a South Florida hospital, which will remain unknown among this document, admitted a patient to its medical surgical unit for a non-critical diagnosis. There were two nurses that called off that particular day, which mean the other nurse took on three additional patients totaling ten patients for the night. Due to the stress, limited staffing, and not enough time to evaluate patients, one patient die within the hospital. The patient was not discovered until 7 hours later. The result included the nurse losing her nursing license, hospital being suited for millions, and the facility developing a bad name within its community. The parties involved were affected simply by the shortage of nurses and/or medical professional staff that shift. So, as medical facilities struggle to fill nursing vacancies and other medical positions, the greater the chance for an unsafe working and medical practice environment.

The shortage of nurses is growing worldwide on a global scale. The immediate problem is that for many of the poorer countries such as the Philippines and South Africa, there has been a migration of nurses from these countries to other countries such as U.S., Canada, and Australia. The more financially stable countries have been trying to meet critical needs for nurses by encouraging nurses from these countries to emigrate. Unfortunately, this processes is increasing the problems and not contributing a solution.

Hospitals argue that pressures from their relationships with managed-care providers leave them no choice but to experiment with various staffing practices, which result in varied degrees of success. It is believe that medical facilities cutting back on nursing staff to achieve higher profits. As a medical professional, there have been situations where staff ratios are reduced because the acuity of the patients doesn’t call for such staff. As a case in point, if a nursing in cardiovascular ICU is use to taking care of one open heart patient at a time, then if there are three telemetry patient on the that unit then this one nurse to three patient is efficient.

Possible Solution

In evaluating solutions, there is an array of theories to assist with the challenge. If we take the model of New Jersey hospital, it consists of a two-year program where the students attend one 12-hour clinical day per week at a participating hospital, and the hospital is responsible for training the student. The remaining part of the program consists of online classes.  

The promotion of the nursing profession to men is critical. The nursing profession has a women dominated culture. There are approximately 5.4% of the 2.1 million registered nursed employed in the United States that are men. This is according to the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses.

The initiation of incentive by the government would assist in the promotion of nurses. A suggestion would be to reduce the amount of taxes that nurse are required to pay. If the normal tax bracket is between 25%-30%, then nurse should be required to pay only 15% tax. This tax reduction will increase a nurse salary without forcing the hospitals or medical facilities to increase wages.

In 2002 the Nursing Reinvestment Act was signed by President Bush to address the problem of our nation’s nursing shortage. This initiative was intended to promote people to enter and remain in nursing careers, thus reducing the growing shortage. The law establishes scholarships, loan repayments, public service announcements, retention grants, career ladders, and grants for nursing faculty. The challenge with this Act is that it has stipulations and not all individuals that become a registered nurse are able to utilize or benefit from the act. 

by Shain Waugh

The integration of technology has obviously revolutionized the legacy methods of diagnosing patient, improve treatment tactics, and reduce length of hospital stay care. In a survey with medical facility’s executives, 50% (70 total participants) believe that the integrated technologies improve patient’s safety and operational functionalities. It is obvious that on a global scale there is a significant opportunity to transform health care by integrating technology, but implementation has been long-winded for many healthcare systems.

Of the large healthcare organization within U.S. with annual information technology budgets over $100 million, 30% have deployed some level of technology as opposed to 13 percent of smaller institutions with technology deployment. This in turns develops a system of mixed technology, which includes great technological advances in one area of the region as opposed to traditional legacy systems in another. Experts believe that the long-wind of technological integration into many of the healthcare systems is a result of financial roadblocks. In fact, 46 percent of survey participants (70 participants) stated that funding is a major issue.

The leaders within the healthcare community must transform health care and improve patient safety by better leveraging information technology to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and effectiveness of our healthcare system. This embracement will in turn assist in improving the patient’s longevity, improving our globalized healthcare system, and improve the medical professional shortage worldwide.