Healthcare-Associated Infections: Reactive vs. Proactive Solutions

by Erica Mitchell | March 11 2024

To address the persistent issue of healthcare associated infections, hospital professionals deploy two primary approaches: reactive and proactive solutions. There are advantages and disadvantages to both options, so a combination of the two is required to cover all reasonable contingencies. In this blog post, we'll explore the differences between these two strategies and their respective impacts on patient outcomes and healthcare systems.

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How Can I Bring an Idea to Management?

by Erica Mitchell | February 12 2024

Over the past few posts, we have been looking at how ideas make their way to hospital decision-makers. Nurses play a crucial role in patient care, and their insights can lead to significant improvements within a healthcare facility. However, the way a nurse can bring those ideas to fruition is not always transparent.  If you're a nurse with an idea for enhancing patient outcomes, workflow efficiency, or overall hospital operations, here are some steps you can follow that may help you bring your ideas to hospital management.

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Who Makes Decisions about Infection Prevention in a Private (Non-Government Owned) Hospital?

by Erica Mitchell | January 29 2024

Hospitals are the setting for countless decisions each day, decisions that impact patient outcomes, financial investments, community health and so much more. Decisions about the prevention of healthcare associated infections take place at all levels of a hospital hierarchy, from the environmental services cleaner to the Chief Executive Officer. In today’s post, we will look at who makes these critical decisions that impact patient safety, staff well-being, and the overall resilience of a healthcare system.


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How To Make the Case for a Healthcare Innovation

by Erica Mitchell | October 30 2023

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.

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How Do Hospitals Spend Money? An Introduction

by Erica Mitchell | October 23 2023

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. 

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How Can a Healthcare Investment Increase Market Share AND Reduce Cost of Care? Focus on Infection Prevention.

by Erica Mitchell | May 15 2023

Large-scale healthcare projects, from new projects to renovations, face a challenging future. After the tedious process of securing permits and getting approved plans and even issuing press releases, many of these ambitious projects stall due to financial pressures. Increasingly, healthcare systems may hit the pause button as they take a closer look at cost-benefits, with emphases on expanding market share and reducing cost of care. In today's post, we will look at how a healthcare project can help achieve both goals by focusing on proven infection prevention infrastructure.

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Infection Control and the Healthcare Supply Chain: Who Makes Decisions?

by Erica Mitchell | April 24 2023

Last week we provided a big-picture overview of the healthcare supply chain, from supplier to patient. This week, we will dig deeper into this process and try to identify places along the supply chain where decisions can impact infection control and prevention. While all hospitals must meet EPA- and FDA-mandated standards for cleanliness and device protocols, there is room for individual choices in how each facility will prepare and respond to pathogens. So where along supply chain are decisions made that influence infection control?

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Adopting a Standard of Care: Says Who?

by Erica Mitchell | February 6 2023

In our last post, we explored how adopting a new product can result in some heavy lifting. Not only does product adoption require financial investment, it requires significant investment of time and resources even before the decision is made. Even after the new product is in place, the heavy lifting can continue, especially if the intended users are resistant to change. In today's post, we'll look at the obstacles to adopting new products, even if they are proven to improve patient outcomes or save money. Even if they are considered standard of care.

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New Product Adoption: Are You Ahead of the Curve? (And What To Do if Not Everyone Else Is)

by Erica Mitchell | January 30 2023

The release of any new phone model reveals much about where people fall on the product adoption curve. There are the camp-outside-the-store-since-midnight enthusiasts all the way to the I-like-my-flip-phone skeptics. All of us fall along the curve somewhere and we may fall into different segments of the curve ourselves, depending on the product. When it comes to the adoption of medical innovations, consumers fall into the same basic categories. This can lead to complex negotiations when one person at a facility is an enthusiast while another important decision-maker is a skeptic. What can we do to stay ahead of the curve - the most important place to be when new research and innovations can be life saving - and find a way to keep everyone satisfied?

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The First Peoples: First In Modern Medicine

by Erica Mitchell | November 11 2022

One of the most universally-recognized impacts from the colonization of North and South America is the horrific de-population of indigenous peoples due to the myriad diseases brought by Europeans colonists. Some exposure was accidental, some was weaponized, but all exposure led to massive loss of life counted in the millions. In today's post, we want to highlight a health topic that is often overshadowed by this tragedy: The First Peoples' approach to medical care had made significant advances compared to European practices, many of which have been rediscovered only within the last century.

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© EOS Surfaces and EOScu Blog, 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to EOS Surfaces and EOScu Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.