Hospital ER follows ‘extra mile’ policy

Huntington Beach – I had the tough experience not too long ago of racing over to the hospital where a dear friend and neighbor had just been rushed. It’s always disorienting to enter an emergency room and not know the status of the situation, where the room is, who the doctor is, etc. Sadly, I quickly learned our friend had passed on.

His family and a tight-knit group of friends were together in a waiting room at the hospital, trying to cope with the sudden shock of what had just happened. Plenty of prayers, tears and supportive words flowed for the next hour or two. In the midst of this most painful situation, one couldn’t help but notice how exceptional the emergency room staff was.

Compassionate and supportive, the team did everything they could before, during and after the tragic event. It made such an impression on me that I wanted to return a few months later to meet them again under different circumstances — which is what brought me back to Huntington Beach Hospital on a recent evening to watch what life is like in our most local ER.

The hospital, in case you’ve missed it, is at 17772 Beach Blvd. I say, “In case you’ve missed it” because, it sits back a bit from the road, and so it is easy to pass without notice (even though it’s been here for 40 years). When I get to the emergency room, it’s just like I remember it from my recent visit: calm, quiet and spotless. It’s not that there aren’t patients here; it’s just that the mode of operation here seems to be one of cool efficiency.

True, it may be a relatively quiet night here at the ER, but still, there is none of the cliché ER panic popularized by Hollywood — no frantic medics clearing a path for a stretcher through a crowded hallway screaming “Get me two pints of O positive!” (I learned one never uses the word, “Quiet” in an emergency room. It’s sort of like uttering the term “no hitter” in a baseball game. Bad form and possibly bad luck. “Comfortable” is the term of choice).

As I sit down with Dr. Lee Weiss, the director of emergency services, he explains to me that’s just the point.

“The philosophy at Prime Healthcare Services (the company that runs the hospital) is to create the most efficient, productive, clear-thinking environment possible. We build the hospital around the emergency department — it’s what drives everything here. The highest benchmarks and standards are applied here in the emergency department to create efficiencies that are fast becoming the standard for other hospitals,” he said.

Weiss speaks passionately about Huntington Beach Hospital.

“Here, everything is analyzed to see how can we make things run optimally. How long does it take for a patient to see a physician? How much time is spent in the emergency? How long to get an X-Ray, blood count? We want to exceed every national benchmark. Our average length of stay here in the ER is less than two hours. Up in Los Angeles? It can run six to nine hours,” he said. “What if your mom was admitted here? Would you want her to sit around and have to wait? That’s what drives our environment. The nurses here are extraordinarily professional, they’re happy where they work and they have formed an incredible team with the doctors. Think of this as a small town hospital within the city — the values, the hands-on care — this is a special place.”

We’re talking in the EMS lounge — a place created specially for the Emergency Medical Services workers who might need a place to sit, catch their breath, have a soda — all before the next run.

The lounge is another example of the “extra mile” philosophy here.

Denise Flaws, director of the emergency department/intensive care unit, gave me a tour of the sparkling facility.

She explains the short turnover time here has become a prime reason for bringing patients in.

“People will call from other emergency rooms where the wait is too long,” she said. “What’s worse than waiting when you’re sick or injured?”

Chris Comstock is an eight-year veteran here, a nurse who spends many overnight shifts on duty. Both she and another 7 p.m.-to-7 a.m. nurse, Suzie Greganic, appreciate all of the positive changes implemented by Prime Healthcare Services.

The two women are dedicated, upbeat and thoroughly committed to what they do — they love being nurses, which helps make the mood here so positive.

The emergency room at Huntington Beach Hospital is a special place, a true community hospital where ultra-modern efficiency meets warmth and professionalism. I can’t say I hope I see them all again soon, that is, here in the ER.

But if I do, I know I’ll be among some of the best that are out there, a group who mixes big-city innovation and small-town attention.

Hospitals Accused of Dumping Patients on Skid Row

KABC-TV – The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating two more alleged cases of hospital patients being dumped on L.A.’s Skid Row. In the last several days two patients came to Skid Row, one in serious need of medical care, and the other in serious need of psychiatric care.

One patient told the guards that he was in severe pain and could barely walk, and had come from the Veterans Administration Hospital. According to the Union Rescue Mission, it appears to be a violation of L.A.’s anti-dumping law.

Two days earlier, a similar incident. A man named Brian, who carried discharge papers from Western Medical Center in Anaheim, more than 24 miles from Skid Row. A staff member notes that “Patient has no realistic plans for self-care. Patient is agitated, delusional, and threatened staff with physical harm.”

LAPD is investigating both cases. “We have to determine if there was prior notification to the Mission, the shelters, on whether there’s availability for beds,” said LAPD Captain Jodi Wakefield.

Service Workers at Rady Children’s Hospital Want Out of the Union

Just four months after securing a first-ever contract for service workers at Rady Children’s Hospital, the union that waged the hard-fought battle for the labor agreement is on the ropes. Rady managers and some workers are pushing for a decertification vote that, if successful, would remove the Service Employees International Union from the hospital and nullify a two-year contract that covers 700 of Rady’s 3,200 employees. A defeat could stifle the union’s plans to organize more service workers at other hospitals in San Diego County – a key part of the group’s national strategy to boost membership. The recent rancor has crushed any hopes that a cooling-off period would follow the contract ratification. “The path they are going down right now doesn’t sound like it will be productive for anyone,” said Craig Barkacs, a University of San Diego professor who teaches classes on business law, ethics and labor. “What it signals to me is that distrust and suspicion abound here.”

Sally James, a clinical assistant who is part of the bargaining unit represented by SEIU, said she started circulating a petition last fall seeking the vote because she believed the union was doing a poor job representing workers. “I think the union is very bad,” she said last week. “It’s too political. It’s not a hometown union for our hometown hospital.” Some of the harshest criticism of SEIU’s effort came from representatives of the United Nurses of Children’s Hospital, a union that represents 850 nurses and 350 technical workers at the hospital, who compared the tactics to blackmail. “The children of San Diego are not and should never be a bargaining chip,” said intensive care nurse Nichole Kennelly .

Councilman Jim Madaffer called SEIU’s move “one of the most despicable hijackings of a public process that I’ve ever witnessed.” The council unanimously rejected the union’s request to postpone the construction project, mirroring an earlier vote by the city’s Planning Commission. Although SEIU’s tactics were judged extreme by some, they didn’t surprise Ken Jacobs, chairman of the University of California Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

“They are a union that is both very effective on the organizing side and plays hardball when they need to,” Jacobs said. In many cases, those tactics have paid off, making SEIU’s United Healthcare Workers West one of the fastest-growing unions in the country in recent years, Jacobs said. The defeat of the Rady union before the San Diego Council, coupled with the emergence of a decertification petition among dissatisfied SEIU members, marked a shift in the protracted local labor battle. Service workers at Rady voted to organize in January 2004.

Union affects St. Mary Medical Center

While the recent voting conducted by National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency over the course of Thursday and Friday is inconclusive there is growing concern that St. Mary Medical Center, an acute care facility owned and operated by Sisters of St. Joseph or Orange, may turn to worse upon unionizing. The votes were nearly a tie between those that want to unionize and those that felt unions do not help them.

 

The employees that voted in the union are the ones will be in for a surprise, if they believed that unionizing would secure them the pay that nurses are getting. There is an acute shortage of nursing professionals in the nation, which has driven up the wage scales for the nurses. However, there is abundant supply of other medical technical professional, especially those wanting to get into medical professions after school. The prospects for medical technicians after school are slim without specialized training and experience.

 

Some argue that even the SEIU representative suggested that a contract would not be very good. Implying that unlike the situation with the nurses, union role would create disincentive for improved performance. Opponents of the union fear that the union will encourage those employees that have poor attitudes, and under perform. Such work ethic could seriously affect the patient care quality.

 

Low pay, reduced hours, rampant favoritism and understaffing may be typical accusations made by unions, to motivate employees to join the union. Leaving out the 5 contested votes, the results reported here are that 176 non-professional employees voted to unionize, and 177 voted, not to. That’s hardly a landslide vote of confidence that was expected by the union.

Medicare Says It Won’t Cover Hospital Errors

The New York Times – Nancy E. Foster, a vice president of the American Hospital Association, agreed that doctors and hospitals knew how to prevent the transfusion of incompatible blood products and should not be paid more if they accidentally left objects in patients during surgery.

But Ms. Foster said that some of the conditions cited by Medicare officials were not entirely preventable. Commenting on the proposed rules in June, the American Hospital Association said, “Certain patients, including those at the end of life, may be exceptionally prone to developing pressure ulcers, despite receiving appropriate care.”

In most states, Ms. Foster said, hospital records do not show whether a particular condition developed before or after a patient entered the hospital. Under the new rules, she said, hospitals will have to perform more laboratory tests to determine, for example, if patients have urinary tract infections at the time of admission.

Dr. Tammy S. Lundstrom, the chief medical officer at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Mich., said, “The rules could encourage unnecessary testing by hospitals eager to show that infections were already present at the time of admission and did not develop in the hospital.” Moreover, she said, “Serious, costly infections can occur even when doctors and nurses take all the recommended precautions.”

Some of the complications for which Medicare will not pay, under the new policy, are caused by common strains of staphylococcus bacteria. Other life-threatening staphylococcal infections may be added to the list in the future, Medicare officials said.

Antelope Valley Hospital Gets a Healthy Dose of Data Center Technologies From IBM

ARMONK, NY — (MARKET WIRE) — 08/17/07 — IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that Antelope Valley Hospital is migrating from 70 Dell systems to just four virtualized IBM System x servers to dramatically improve data center performance and reduce energy costs. With fewer physical servers, the hospital’s datacenter will run cooler and energy costs will be significantly reduced.

Paradise Valley Hospital Awarded Full Accreditation from the Joint Commission

NATIONAL CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE) — Paradise Valley Hosptial has earned the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval™. By demonstrating compliance with the Joint Commission‘s national standards for health care quality and safety, Paradise Valley Hospital has been awarded its full and unconditional accreditation.

A Union-Busting Habit

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange trace their roots back to 17th-century France; the order is well-known for a solid record of commitment to the poor. They’ve marched with Cesar Chavez and supported janitors’ and garment workers’ union-organization efforts. They opened their first hospital in Eureka in 1920 after the big flu epidemic of 1918, giving birth to a health-care system that is now 14 hospitals strong and served just more than 2 million patients last year. The St. Joseph Health System says it endorses its employees’ rights to unionize. Hospital representatives say the sisters endorse their employees’ rights to choose whether or not they want union representation. They say they honor the federal rules set forth by the National Labor Relations Act.

Dr. Kali Chaudhuri might gain control of Valley Health System

Idyllwild Town Crier – Following a heated debate Wednesday, Aug. 8, the Valley Health System (VHS) directors voted 5-1 to sell the three hospitals and a nursing care center to Select Healthcare Solutions of Del Mar. In November, district voters will have the opportunity to approve or to reject the board’s decision that includes Hemet Valley Medical Center, the closest hospital to Idyllwild.
   
The opposition, led by the Hospital Defense League, has no desire to see the hospitals in private hands. One of its major concerns is the possibility that Dr. Kali Chaudhuri might gain control of the entire system. Chaudhuri’s company currently manages the financially failing VHS.
   
Although the sales document prohibits both Chaudhuri’s involvement and any of his businesses from controlling the hospital and its management for five years, opponents argue that five years is not enough protection. Furthermore, they are not convinced the covenants protect the system.
 
“Chaudhuri may not own the operating companies,” said Clyde Osborn of Hemet, “but he can own the real estate. If the board votes ‘yes’, the public will be a ‘no.’”
    
“You think you’re doing the right thing, but you’re not,” Glenn Newman told the board. “I can’t understand why you’re giving it away. People who wanted to buy the system thought it could make money if managed appropriately.”
    
Director William Cherry announced that he would recuse himself from the vote on the sale, although he voted on the election request. His business relations with Chaudhuri could appear to be a conflict, he said. Marshall stressed that the relations would not formally disable him from voting, but it would be preferable if he recused himself.
   
The only director to oppose the sale was Robert O’Donnell from the Sun City, Romoland and Menifee district.
   
“I had two reasons,” he said after the meeting. “There are a lot of promises in the document, but no guarantees. The control is gone after five years and one day. The management company can come back. Kali is just too comfortable with this.”

Facilities busy as St. John’s closes

As St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard closed Tuesday for at least 10 days, Maria Gutierrez stood outside her house a few blocks away, a white bandage on her neck covering the tracheotomy she had more than a month ago.

“It’s horrible,” she said of the 265-bed hospital’s closed doors. “If I have an emergency, I have to go all the way to Ventura. That would probably take 15 minutes, at least 15 minutes.”