With officials at the Centers for Disease Control saying it's gearing up to be a bad flu season, several North Carolina hospitals are taking no chances and requiring that all employees either get a flu shot or be fired. This past summer, officials at First Health Moore Regional Hospital adopted a policy that requires all staff who routinely work in patient care areas to be vaccinated annually for influenza. Officials at the care facilities say the forward-thinking policy was put in place because the common flu may have not-so-common effects on people facing more serious illnesses and whose immune systems are not strong enough to combat the virus.
Nurses and other UMass Memorial Medical Center staff members who have not been vaccinated against the flu have been told that they must wear a mask on the job to protect patients from being infected during a hospital stay. The change at UMass Memorial has angered some nurses who say the hospital is trying to shame them into getting a flu shot. "They're just bullying people," said Ellen Smith, who works in intensive care at the health system's university campus. Smith, who was wearing a mask Friday, said she has not gotten a flu shot during 20 years as a nurse.
Ann Fallon, both a nursing instructor and psychoanalyst at The College of NJ, helps her students learn how to deal with a bipolar patient who has been brought into a hospital and is insisting on being released. In her lessons, Ms. Fallon uses a simulated patient dubbed "Andrea Warhol" to help her students learn how to deal with a bipolar patient who has been brought into a hospital and is insisting on being released. For the simulation, Ms. Fallon wanted to give her students a vivid experience of what it is like to deal with a patient who is talking nonstop, has grandiose ideas about herself and her importance to the world, and resists treatment.
Registered nurses, respiratory technicians and X-ray technicians at 8 hospitals in the San Francisco Bay area, operated by Sutter Health, walked off the job around 7 a.m. in what will be a two-day strike. Nurses at two San Jose hospitals operated by Hospital Corporation of America went on strike for one day. The strike came as union leaders and hospital officials remained at odds over health benefits, sick leave and other issues. Union officials say the hospitals want to reduce the number of paid sick days for nurses and technicians, while eliminating healthcare coverage for those who work less than 30 hours a week.
Midland Fire Department is partnering with Midland Memorial Hospital in an attempt to lower the number of unnecessary emergency room visits. The new plan will add a physician's assistant or nurse practitioner as a part of emergency medical services. This is one of nine medical programs being developed through the Region 14 Delivery System Reform Incentive Plan—a regional health care partnership with 15 other counties.
At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Massachusetts, health reform means testing out new payment models and delivery systems. It also means changing the socks that patients wear. About six years ago, the health care system set a goal: It would aim to end preventable harm in its hospitals by 2012. It has just now released the results of that effort, which included "hundreds" of small changes–such as having patients wear socks with treads that could prevent falls. While the hospital has not eliminated preventable harm, it has seen such incidents cut in half–and might have a few lessons for hospitals elsewhere in the country. "There are a hundred things were doing differently. It’s really not so much about each individual project," says Beth Israel CEO Michael Tabb. "It's about a wholesale change in culture. And we think constantly about how do we improve our quality of care and how do we reduce any kind of harm to our patients."