California’s community hospitals are on the front lines of
providing quality patient care, 24 hours a day, seven days a
week. As hospitals struggle to meet the increasing health care
demands of California’s growing and aging population, hospitals
are continuously working to improve the safety of the care
provided and quality outcomes for patients.
State Sen. Lois Wolk wants to encourage – not require – that
health care workers get annual flu vaccinations if they come into
contact with patients in hospitals and nursing homes. No
right-thinking person could possibly oppose her legislation.
Pharmaceutical robotics has made its way from futuristic,
cutting-edge technology to almost becoming just another highly
sophisticated tool with great benefits. Leaders at the
University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, say their
robotic system has greatly improved safety.
Many patients infected by the deadly superbug Clostridium
difficile, long thought to be contracted mainly during hospital
stays, are already exposed when they are admitted to the
hospital, U.S. infectious disease experts said on Tuesday. Rates
of C. difficile, the most common hospital-based infection in the
United States, continue to climb. The infection can cause severe
diarrhea, inflammation and bleeding in the colon, and death.
Certain California hospitals are taking steps to dramatically
reduce early elective deliveries, citing the dangers of early
births for women and infants and the potential cost savings of
curbing the practice, the Contra Costa Times reports.
December 1, 2011MountainView Voice, November 30, 2011
El Camino Hospital has seen a significant drop in reported cases
of a serious infection commonly found in hospitals and nursing
homes across the country, hospital officials said.
Hospital-related infections like sepsis are important to catch
early. That’s why San Diego hospitals are involved in a statewide
initiative to prevent these infections. KPBS Health
Reporter Kenny Goldberg takes a look at what one San Diego
hospital is doing to protect patients.
September 11, 2011Sacramento Business Journal, Aug. 26, 2011
Hospitals throughout California are making significant strides in
their ongoing efforts to reduce the risk of infection for
patients — an essential component of providing high-quality care
and keeping patients safe during their hospital stay.
The goal: Cut costs and save lives by preventing hospital-related
infections from taking root. ‘We’re definitely making progress,’
says a doctor in Newport Beach.
August 3, 2011California Healthline, August 2, 2011
Physicians, nurses and caregivers in California have begun
receiving training on treating the blood infection sepsis as part
of a three-year, $6 million statewide program to improve patient
safety and cut health care costs, the Sacramento Business Journal
reports.
An American Hospital Association survey of 820 hospitals across
the nation found that almost all of them reported a drug shortage
in the last six months, and nearly half of them reported 21 or
more drug shortages. That growing shortfall has prompted some
patients to take less-effective drugs or delay treatment because
of drug shortages, the survey showed.
June 10, 2011San Francisco Chronicle, June 10, 2011
Over the years, leaders in industry have learned that doing
something right often costs less than doing it wrong. This week
we’ll come together in San Francisco to talk about how applying
that principle in health care can protect lives and save billions
of dollars.
By taking relatively simple steps and arming health care workers
with greater knowledge, Bay Area medical centers have made
dramatic strides in reducing death rates from sepsis, the leading
preventable cause of deaths in hospitals.
March 8, 2011University of California San Francisco News, March 7, 2011
With a new automated hospital pharmacy, believed to be the
nation’s most comprehensive, UCSF is using robotic technology and
electronics to prepare and track medications with the goal of
improving patient safety.
February 15, 2011California HealthLine, February 09, 2011
Debby Rogers of the California Hospital Association, Kim
Delahanty of the UC-San Diego Health System, and Kevin Reilly of
the Department of Public Health spoke with California Healthline
about efforts to curb health care-associated infections.
February 8, 2011California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting, January 24, 2011
City of Hope is an outlier in the world of hospital infections.
Its physicians perform 500 bone marrow transplants a year, a
third of all such transplants in California.
Its infection totals are higher than at most because its patients
are so vulnerable, and the staff must be extra vigilant in
diagnosing and recording infections.
February 8, 2011California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting, January 24, 2011
Visitors riding the elevators at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in
Los Angeles find themselves face-to-face with colorful
floor-to-ceiling posters on the inside doors.
“Zero is the Greatest Number,” reads the logo, part of the
prestigious hospital’s campaign to drive down to zero the number
of infections within its walls. The posters appear in all 42
elevators in the facility, reminding employees and assuring
patients and visitors that Cedars has infections in its sights.
