by Scott McIntyre on Wednesday, July 28, 2010
1RAGBRAI, the mobile festival that each year crosses Iowa on 10,000 pairs of skinny bike tires (give or take a few thousand), is about halfway through its 2010 route as the mass of cyclists, support vehicles and vendors makes its way from Clear Lake to Charles City today.
Perhaps the most recognized event in Iowa, RAGBRAI is a huge undertaking for everyone involved, particularly in the towns and cities at the end of each day’s ride. Hospitals play several important roles in that preparation.
RAGBRAI is driven by volunteers. As pools for talent and manpower, few entities match up to hospitals. Inevitably, hospital employees – from CEOs to nurses to materials managers – end up participating on (and often leading) organizing committees. This is in addition to handling their most important mission: making sure the hospital can respond to the medical needs of the community at all times.
This is a real challenge when RAGBRAI comes to town. For instance, take Charles City, which is served by Floyd County Medical Center. With a population of less than 9,000, the city will more than double in size when RAGBRAI is in full swing later today.
The hospital’s 200 employees must be prepared to serve that population, which today will be particularly susceptible to injury and illness. At the same time, those hospital employees have been called upon to volunteer at their churches, schools and other organizations that are also working to make sure RAGBRAI is a success. Those activities are uniformly supported by hospital leaders; they recognize that the community needs the manpower. But it’s a difficult balancing act for hospitals, which, unlike other businesses, cannot easily down-staff or close for the day (or any part of it).
It’s no coincidence that on every RAGBRAI route, year after year, nearly every overnight community has at least one hospital. But the hospitals provide more than health and safety for RAGBRAI participants; hospitals are also a big part of the economic health of their communities. Along this year’s route, hospitals employ more than 13,000 people and have an economic impact of nearly $700 million.
This means that in addition to providing some of the best health care in the nation, these towns and cities have the quality of life and overall vibrancy that attracts RAGBRAI organizers and delights RAGBRAI participants.
by Chris English on Monday, July 26, 2010
Jessica Mattioda (right) shows Terri Nobles (left), Third Floor Nurse Manager, and Jeannie Williams (center), Medical Records department, a few capabilities of the new Apple iPads recently purchased by Cherokee Regional Medical Center.
The idea seems as if it could be straight from an episode of Star Trek. Nurses and physicians using tablet-sized computers at a patient’s bedside in lieu of typical paper charts. Then again, how unreasonable can that seem when robots are already being used to assist with surgeries?
But as each new wave of technology comes around, the health care industry is quick to see how it can be utilized to improve patient treatment. Innovations in modern medicine such as x-ray technology really made health care professionals aware the final frontier had not yet been realized. Now a new question is coming to light: Could tablet computers be the next big chapter in health technology?
In Iowa, one hospital is already attempting to boldly go where no medical professional has gone before. At Cherokee Regional Medical Center (CRMC,) the new Apple iPad is getting its debut on the medical floor.
The initiative has been led by Jessica Mattioda, nurse supervisor at CRMC, who felt that the new tablet computing device could have many applications within her hospital.
“After hearing of paramedics using iPhones in the field, and seeing doctors use applications on PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants or palm top computers) to look up medication information, I thought that Cherokee Regional Medical Center could definitely benefit from this cutting edge computer technology. After researching the possibilities, I was confident that the iPads would be a good fit for our needs,” Jessica said.
The Apple iPad is the first device in a whole new generation of what are being dubbed as tablet computers. Roughly the size of a notepad, the user installs specialized programs (known as “apps” in pop culture). These apps are controlled on the tablet by touching one’s fingers to the screen to type, tap and manipulate objects within the app.
When first rolled out, Apple and other tech sources on the internet touted high hopes for its potential use in the health care industry. Hospitals such as CRMC are finding many uses for the iPad so far, including the use of a surprisingly large library of apps that can assist with administrative tasks, tracking vitals and research. Hospitals will also want to keep their eye out for apps that are designed for handling and sending electronic health records. However, it goes without saying that security is everything in health care tech. CRMC extensively researches all apps it is considering and ultimately only uses apps that come from verified sources.
While the concept of the tablet device is not new, Apple has set the bar high by modeling the iPad off of the iPhone, which has already broken many barriers in how users utilize mobile computing technology. Even in a few short months since the iPad’s release, the competition already have their hands full when trying to design and curtail their own products that may attempt to challenge the iPad. This is important to know because Apple is not the lone dog in the show. Companies such as HP and Cisco have already announced their own tablet devices and tech industry reports already indicate that over 50 tablet device products will be unveiled in 2010 alone.
Hospitals interested in incorporating this new technology will be wise to keep up with what’s coming out because while Apple’s iPad is designed with everyone’s uses in mind, certain devices are rumored to be in development that will have industry-specific purposes. It’s possible that the best tablet option for Iowa’s hospitals has yet to be revealed.
by Scott McIntyre on Friday, July 23, 2010
Sister Mary Brigid at the Clark Street House of Mercy in Des Moines.
Sister Mary Brigid Condon, a former IHA executive and a longtime advocate for nurses and nursing education in Iowa, died this week at Provena Mercy Medical Center in Aurora, Illinois. She was 93 years old.
A graduate of the University of Iowa with both master’s and doctoral degrees in nursing, Sister Mary Brigid was well known in the field of nursing education, especially in Iowa, where she spent nearly 50 years. She began in Marshalltown in 1943, where she was the director of nursing and the school of nursing and then took on similar duties at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City.
She was head of the department of nursing and a professor at Davenport’s St. Ambrose College (now St. Ambrose University) and Marycrest College from 1954-1973. In March 2010, St. Ambrose recognized Sister Mary Brigid by dedicating a classroom in her honor at the school’s new Center for Health Sciences Education, located on the campus of Genesis Medical Center.
At IHA, Sister Mary Brigid was a vice president for seven years in the 1970s and 1980s and was appointed by the governor to the Iowa Board of Nursing and the Physicians Assistants Board. During this time she served as a consultant to all Iowa hospitals and spoke at medical seminars nationally and abroad. At age 70, she became the founder and executive director of House of Mercy, a home for single mothers and children in Des Moines.
A Liturgical Wake service will be held July 26, at 2 p.m., followed by visitation until 8 p.m. at Provena McAuley Manor, 400 W. Sullivan Road, in Aurora. Mass of Christian Burial will be July 27 at 10 a.m. in McAuley Chapel, also at Provena McAuley Manor. Interment will be at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Aurora. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Sisters of Mercy.
by Art Spies on Thursday, July 22, 2010
Fiber optic cable gets installed at IHA offices in Des Moines.
Construction has begun on the fiber optic connection to the Iowa Rural Health Telecommunications Program (IRHTP) network for IHA. The work is part of the IHA –coordinated network that is connecting dozens of hospitals all over the state.
The Iowa Rural Health Telecommunications Program (IRHTP) is a joint effort consisting of a consortium of more than 80 Iowa rural and urban hospitals, IHA and the Iowa Communications Network (ICN) with the purpose to connect Iowa hospitals to a dedicated broadband fiber network using existing ICN infrastructure.
The fiber build-out provides “last mile” fiber connection for the hospitals, Radiology Consultants of Iowa, Iowa Radiology and IHA to the closest appropriate ICN point of presence.
With the fiber build-out complete for 12 IRHTP hospitals, another 17 in progress and another 10 connected by indefeasible right of use contracts (a 20-year lease of two strands of fiber), the build out of the IRHTP network is well underway. Once the electronic network core is tested and operational the hospital end point electronics will be installed and tested to complete the connection to the IRHTP network.
What does connecting to a fiber optic network mean for Iowa hospitals? The primary benefit is being able to quickly transfer massive amounts of data to and from the hospital. This ability is especially valuable in the area of medical imaging; high-resolution x-rays, CT, MRI and PET scans create very large files that are slow to transfer and have a tendency to “bog down” typical networks. But with fiber-based networks, these images can be shared quickly and efficiently, a crucial tool for hospitals that need images analyzed by a radiologists in other locations.
Fiber technology also offers opportunities to use “tele-health” to connect individual health care professionals and patients. This technology is already being used to connect remote sessions between mental health professionals and patients, making it an important tool for states like Iowa, which has a severe shortage of psychiatrists.
For IHA, the broadband network holds the promise of bringing together hospital leaders and staff from all over the state without requiring travel, increasing IHA’s ability to provide education and information to Iowa’s hospitals and their 74,000 employees. It will also provide more efficient data transmission between IHA and hospitals, an important function as IHA continues to be the hub for a growing collection of hospital-based data in Iowa.
by Scott McIntyre on Monday, July 19, 2010
Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and Web.
Iowa News
Iowa Health Systems spending $18 million to expand fiber optic network
Iowa’s largest hospital group is investing nearly $18-million in federal economic stimulus money to expand its statewide wireless and fiber-optic health-care network. Bill Leaver, president and C.E.O. of the Des Moines-based Iowa Health System, says the improvements will help bring telemedicine devices into the homes of patients in rural areas so their doctors can watch over them more closely. (Radio Iowa)
Syphilis cluster found in Polk County
Polk County’s health department is reporting a spike in the number of syphilis cases. Health department officials say they have confirmed six cases of the sexually transmitted disease in the past six weeks. That is approximately the number the agency confirms in a typical year. (Sioux City Journal)
U.S. News
The debate over electronic medical records
The whole purpose of IT is to improve efficiency and make information more readily available to those who are qualified to receive it. But it’s also about to set off a debate that will likely last years, if not decades, about the trade-offs between efficiency and patient care, patients’ rights and what constitutes adequate care. This is the kind of debate that hasn’t taken place outside of groups like the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association; it’s now wide open for public review. (Forbes)
Grassley demands report on Medicaid finances and enrollment
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, pressed the Obama administration to release a congressionally mandated report on the status of the Medicaid program. The report, due Jan. 1, is required to cover the “financial status of, enrollment in, and spending trends for” Medicaid. (The Hill)
How a checklist saved lives at Ann Arbor area hospitals
Michigan hospitals joined in a study they say kicked off a culture change in local intensive care units by requiring doctors to use a short checklist to remind them of proper procedures for inserting central IVs — and giving nurses the authority to call them out if they didn’t. Infection rates for the procedure plummeted. (AnnArbor.com)
Home-care program gives mother and daughter, 110 and 85, long-awaited reunion
An intensive program at the Washington Hospital Center is designed to care for very sick old people in their homes and keep them out of the hospital. “The idea . . . is to do home-based primary care for the most ill elders in the community,” said Eric De Jonge, a physician with the hospital’s Medical House Call Program. “That’s the mission.” (Washington Post)
He’s not a patient, but plays one for class
Matthew Sharbaugh, a second-year student at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, Maine, signed away his youth for 12 days to play the part of an 85-year-old man in ailing health at the Old Soldiers’ Home in Chelsea. (Boston Globe)
Hospitals try new approach to patient-specific marketing
Customer relationship management systems are making their way into the health care industry so hospitals can market to patients and physicians the same way supermarkets do — by sending information they think a customer needs or wants based on their history. (American Medical News)
