Assessing the potential risks and benefits is an important step before proposing a new product or program for your facility. You need to anticipate all the possible things that could go wrong alongside the things you believe will go right. In today's post, we will examine what types of risks to identify and how they might impact your facility.
There are 6 reasons why Clostridioides difficile is such a menace. Each one of these aspects makes C. diff infections, or CDIs, a force to be reckoned with. All six make it one of the greatest threats in hospital infection control.
The first step in making a case for a healthcare innovation is collecting the data that supports it. This data includes evidence the the innovation works, that it is needed at your facility, that it would work at your facility, and that it has definite potential to improve patient outcomes and/or financial outcomes. In today's post, we will look at credible sources for that data, and how to make sure you are getting data free from conflict of interest.
C. diff, or Clostridioides difficile, is a Gram-positive, rod-shaped, anaerobic, endosporic, toxigenic, opportunistic, bacillus. Its scientific description makes it sound like a pretty standard bacteria. But this bacteria "causes almost half a million infections in the United States each year" according to the CDC. November is C. diff Awareness Month so stick with us all month to learn more about this microorganism and the unique attributes that make it so lethal. Today’s post will explore the basic definition of Clostridioides difficile. First, let’s unpack that long list of terms mentioned above.
Every successful organization, from a small grassroots group to a global corporation, has a way for ideas to percolate through the system and find their way to the top decision-makers. Human ingenuity can come from anywhere, including cost-saving ideas (the matchbox), ways to attract new demographics (Flamin' Hot Cheetos), retain current customers (Starbucks), and of course, launch completely new products (PlayStation). From our last post, we know that hospitals and healthcare systems allocate their budgets in advance, with limited protocols for integrating innovations. How can the individual with an idea get that innovation in front of the right people at the right time, and of course, in the right way? In today's post, we'll explore one method to get you there.
This post concludes our series on MRSA in support of MRSA Awareness Month.
Hospital finances are a complex process, involving all the parts of a service provider, a retail business, an investment venture, and a non-profit organization. Investment in medical innovations require buy-in from anyone (and everyone) from physicians and nurses all the way to the CFO and CEO. In today's post, we will introduce a series on the topic of how hospitals budget and spend money, and how an individual employee can use that information in order to bring an innovative idea to the right person at the right time.
There are countless contributors to the world of medicine who share Hispanic/Latino backgrounds, but there are a few noteworthy individuals whose work has been instrumental in advancing the fields of epidemiology and infectious disease prevention and treatment. In today's post, we will look at one of those key figures and his vital scientific legacy, Dr. Carlos Juan Finlay.
As we move into the last week of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we will turn our attention to the unique healthcare challenges faced by Hispanic/Latino Americans. Hispanic/Latino Americans are a very large (and growing) minority group, making up almost 20% of the US population. Within that group are multi-generational Americans, long-term residents (78% have lived in the US more than a decade) and recent immigrants, English-only speakers, bilingual speakers, and Spanish-only speakers, citizens (81%) and non-citizens. No single healthcare statistic applies to the diverse group of individuals, so in today's post, we will look at the most critical healthcare issues and what steps are being taken to reach the most vulnerable individuals, specifically, the use of promotores de salud, or community health workers.
