Under a trial funded by a $3.1 million grant from the NIH, Brigham and Women's Hospital is using 10 waist packs (that sounds so much better than “fanny packs” doesn't it?) that patients will wear containing sensors, transmitters, and
tracking gear. The packs will allow medical staff to constantly monitor
patients' heart rates and blood-oxygen levels while […]
In response to a 30% increase in emergency room volume since 1999 (up to 36,000 visits), Baylor is spending $9.2 million to expand the ED. Space the emergency department will go from 11,300 to 23,300 square feet, including adding 7 patient rooms and a CT scanner to the department. Their own CT, whoa.
Trustee magazine has a more detailed story on the study done by Reed Construction Data/RSMeans Business Solutions. One finding of the study is that building trends have shifted since the boom started in 2000.
Renovations are becoming a more popular
option for hospital upgrades, comprising an approximately $6 billion
market in 2005. But that doesn’t mean organizations […]
The emergency nursing team at Christianna Care Health System received the above award for their implementation and utilization of PTCS' Amelior EDTracker emergency department information system.
In 2004, the emergency nursing team at Christiana Care, led by
Laskowski-Jones, managed the planning, implementation and execution of
the Amelior EDTracker automatic tracking system for their emergency
department. The system was […]
We are in the midst of the largest hospital building boom in the US since World War II. New construction and renovations are reshaping the health care delivery system in response to new technology, research on the impact of hospital design on patient safety, and patient demographics. Pictured at right is the new UCLA Westwood […]
An mysterious story from Associated Press, pick up by a number of major newspapers, new research is announced on ambulance diversions and overcrowded emergency departments. The study's lead author, Catharine Burt, of the National Center for Health Statistics, used data from 405 U.S. hospital emergency departments - about 10 percent of the nation's hospital ERs. […]
Research has shown that good design can impact length of stay (LOS), patient safety, and outcomes. Health Facilities Management published a round table discussion on Nursing Unit Planning and Design. Much of the discussion centered on traditional nursing units and how they're crowded, noisy and chaotic. In response to this there is a trend to […]
This is a classic paper from 2000, published by Rosenberg and Watts of the University of Michigan, in the journal Chest. With the recent talk about a potential new JCAHO National Patient Safety Goal for Medical Emergency Teams, and other techniques like house-wide monitoring to avoid ICU readmissions, I thought it would be a good […]
Montefiore is extending use of Cardiocom's remote patient monitoring and disease management system with a grant from the New York State Health Department.
The
technology consists of the vendor's Commander device that collects data
from several peripheral monitoring devices, including a scale and blood
pressure monitor. The Commander hooks up to a patient's phone line and
then […]
There's another new study out on what could be losely termed inappropriate ICU adminssions. This study explores end-of-life care and the differences between continued non-beneficial treatment and comfort care. What the study authors call “ethics consultation” is really palliative care. The results were dramatic:
The reduction in costs among patients assigned to the ethics consultation versus […]
