Health and Safety
Nurse positioning system, the new GPS
Thursday, 08 January 2009 05:36

by A. Seraphina Lin
Nov 17, 2008

ALEXANDRIA, Va -- When a patient needs a nurse, time is critical. Hospitals around the country are responding by putting in place new technology that requires nurses to wear a locator badge for real-time tracking.

Hill-Rom Services Inc., a leader in this technology, created the COMLinx Nurse Communication Module --  and business is booming, according to account executive Gregg Fitzpatrick.

“Right now, if you look at our market, we’re probably growing about 20 percent easily across the country,” Fitzpatrick said.

The badges function like a GPS device by tracking each nurse’s movements throughout the day. But not everyone has embraced this new technology.

“Our nurses are extremely suspicious of them,” said Mary MacDonald, health care director for the American Federation of Teachers, which represents 50,000 nurses nationwide. Locator badges show management’s distrust of their nurses, MacDonald said.

But hospital managers are quick to point out the benefits of the system. “We could more quickly identify where someone was, versus having to walk around the unit trying to find someone, or calling overhead disturbing the patients and creating more noise,” said Fran Charlton, senior director of nursing operations at Inova Alexandria hospital.

According to Fitzpatrick, the system averages about $2,500 per bed but prices can vary depending on the layout of the unit.

“I don’t know why in this time of short budgets hospitals would choose to spend huge amounts of money on a tracking system for their nurses,” the AFT's MacDonald said.

The system works by relaying every nurses’ position to the front desk and to intercoms placed on the walls and rooms of the hospital. When a patient needs a nurse, the front desk locates the nurse though the system, calls the nurse through an intercom at that location, and tells the nurse what the patient needs. Nurses can also use the intercoms to locate and call each other if they need additional assistance.

“It’s really just saved me unnecessary steps,” said Tracey Roberts, a registered nurse at Inova Alexandria hospital.

The system also records when a patient calls and the response time to that call. Hospital can use the data to determine how to staff a unit depending on the volume of calls, Fitzpatrick said.

But union representatives are concerned that hospitals will use records of tracking response time to discipline nurses. “How much more stressful does that make the job and how much more difficult to retain nurses who already find the conditions too stressful, “ MacDonald said.

Discipline is not the main purpose of the system, Charlton said, and nurses on her staff seem pleased with the extra help. “It’s meant to make sure we meet our patient’s needs in a timely manner and that’s really what it’s all about,” Charlton said.
 
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Adds Three New Hospital-Acquired Conditions
Monday, 08 December 2008 05:38

On July 31, 2008 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) added three new "hospital-acquired conditions" (HACs), in the final rule for the Medicare acute care inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS):

  • Surgical site infections following certain elective procedures, including certain orthopedic surgeries, and bariatric surgery for obesity;
  • Certain manifestations of poor control of blood sugar levels; and
  • Deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism following total knee replacement and hip replacement procedures.

These conditions will incur a lower Medicare reimbursement rate unless patient records show the condition was "present on admission" (POA). The eight previously selected HACs are: object left in surgery; air embolism; blood incompatibility; catheter-associated urinary tract infection; pressure ulcers; vascular catheter-associated infection; surgical site infection – mediastinitis after CABG (coronary artery bypass graft); and falls (and additional injuries). Hospitals began reporting on these in October 2007, for payments starting October 2008.
 
Six Health Groups to Hold Webcast On Dangers of Synthetic Fragrances
Sunday, 12 October 2008 05:32

The American Association of Occupational Health Nurses Inc. has joined forces with five other health care organizations to offer a Webcast on Nov. 15 on reducing exposure to synthetic fragrances, saying they pose a health risk to 20 percent of the workforce.

The Webcast, supported in part by a grant from the Nurses Work Group of Health Care Without Harm, is scheduled to be held from 2:00 to 3:30 EST. The deadline for registration is Oct. 13.
"Our partners for this Webcast join us in supporting and promoting the important of a fragrance-free workplace as just one of many health and safety programs that can benefit workers and ultimately have a positive impact on productivity and a company's bottom line," Richard Kowalski, president of AAOHN, said in a Sept. 15 statement.

Synthetic fragrances can pose a serious health hazard, according to the nurses' association. Chemical compounds in synthetic fragrances can cause physical irritation and discomfort, sometimes leading to serious health effects, and can affect workers' ability to perform, it said.

Joining the AAOHN are the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, Decatur Memorial Hospital in Illinois, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the Alabama State Nurses Association, and the University of Maryland School of Nursing.

Asthma, Migraine Headaches

"Asthma and migraine headaches can both be associated with exposure to fragrances and are both leading causes of lost work time," Evie Bain, a nurse with the Massachusetts Nurses Association, and a co-presenter of the Webcast, said in the statement. "Understanding the components of a fragrance-free workplace policy is imperative to protecting our health and the air we breathe at work," she said.

"The Institute of Medicine placed fragrance in the same category as second hand smoke in triggering asthma in adults and school age children," Bain said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims that 22.2 million Americans were diagnosed with asthma in 2005, the statement said. Each year, an average of 504,000 Americans are hospitalized for asthma-related symptoms, it said.

The Webcast, Reducing Workplace Exposure to Synthetic Fragrance, is free for AAOHN members and is $25 for affiliates of partnering organizations, the statement said. For nonmembers and nonaffiliates, registration is $75 online and $85 by fax. The Webcast offers 1.5 continuing nursing education contact hours.

Additional information on the Webcast is available at http://www.aaohn.org or by telephone at (770) 455-7757