Healthcare Career Blog, Physician Blogs

Surgeons, anesthesiologists and their patients warm to Bair Paws Flex reviews

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 26.01.2010 | Category Anesthesiology jobs, Healthcare Career Blog, Hospitals, Medical Product Reviews, Physicians

It gets cold in the Midwest, but at Arizant Inc., a forced air blanket provider in Minnesota, the heat is on. The company has created a surgical gown called Bair Paws Flex; made of wood fibers, polypropylene, and polyester, a machine blows warm air between layers of paper, warming up the wearer before, during and after surgery.

Patients benefiting from the puffy gown joke that it’s no fashion statement, yet like it well enough to inquire of their surgeons: “Can I get this at home?” The short answer is no, but the good news is, the healthcare facilities buying Bair Paws are up by 400 in the past year. Considering that OR temperatures average in the low 60’s, it’s no small wonder patients want to beat the arctic factor and wear this gown—and they’re not the only ones who are crowing.

Bair Paws makes surgeon and anesthesiologists jobs easier because it’s loaded with Velcro and can be manipulated during procedures so the right parts are accessible, while the rest of the body stays covered and warm. Another advantage: patients wearing it go easily from waiting room to OR—no wardrobe change required. At $15 each, the gowns run a few dollars more per case than forced air blankets, but their popularity endures, especially among anesthesiologists, responsible for monitoring patients’ temperatures.

Daniel Sessler, an anesthesiologist and department chair at the Cleveland Clinic, studies patient warming and says that preventing even a 2% drop in body temperature reduces risk of heart problems, wound infections, blood loss and prolonged recovery. But beyond the basic desire to make patients more comfortable, doctors are motivated by new standards from Medicare. The government is now connecting two percent of medical pay to performance, of which reporting on and controlling body temps (during a surgical procedure lasting an hour or more) is a huge factor.

Your one line take-away from this story: Global warming bad; patient warming, priceless.

Leapfrog’s Announces Top Hospitals for 2009

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 15.12.2009 | Category Healthcare Career Blog, Hospitals, Locum Tenens, Physicians, Retired Physician, healthcare reform, jobs

The Leapfrog Group released its 2009 list of the nation’s best hospitals. Leapfrog’s top hospitals are determined using information gathered from the organization’s free, voluntary hospital survey. The survey assesses hospitals based on criteria involving both safety and efficiency practices. Top hospitals must meet standards for Computerized Physician Order Entry systems (CPOE), which have been shown to reduce medication errors by 85%, as well as for ICU staffing and complex procedure performance. New to the survey this year are criteria regarding hospital efficiency; these criteria are based on the quality of patient outcomes, lengths of stay, re-admission rates, and occurrences of hospital-acquired infections.

The Leapfrog survey is intended to educate patients and medical providers, but is also used to initiate improvements in health care reliability, affordability, and safety. While hospitals are not required to participate in this survey, the Journal of the Joint Commission reports that the hospitals that choose to participate in the Leapfrog survey have lower mortality rates and better quality of care than those who decline to respond.

Among this year’s top hospitals are the Mayo Clinics in Rochester, MN, and Phoenix, AZ; various Kaiser Permanente Hospitals throughout California; University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore; Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA; and many more.

Not only can patients use the Leapfrog comparisons to be better informed when choosing a local top hospital, but medical practitioners can also use this survey and other data on the nation’s best hospitals in their own searches for new physician jobs.

Visit Candidate Direct to search for permanent or locum tenens job postings in some of the nation’s top hospitals.

Retired Physician Career Opportunities with Locum Tenens

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 09.12.2009 | Category Healthcare Career Blog

Locum tenens is ideal both for doctors in search of 20 or 30 hours of practice and for providers looking to supplement quality patient care. Top salaries are available, along with malpractice insurance, housing, paid travel and competitive benefits.

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Physician Salary

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 01.12.2009 | Category Locum Tenens, Medical doctor jobs, OB/GYN physician jobs, Physicians, healthcare software

Despite the current economic climate, health care positions are still in great need. According to Medical Group Management Association, physician salaries continued to show a modest increase throughout 2008.

Of course not all physician jobs showed the same demand and salary increase. Though there continues to be a shortage of primary care physicians, including family practitioners, general internists, and pediatricians, general practitioners continue to show the smallest salary increases, while cardiac and neurosurgeons show the highest trends in physician salaries.

Locum tenens physicians also find themselves in these higher earning categories. Leading staffing agency, Candidate Direct, offers great benefits for locum tenens positions, including private housing, transportation, and malpractice insurance. Locum tenens jobs are posted on their easily searchable database and advertised on their live RSS feed, which sends updates on new physician job opportunities. The Candidate Direct website also offers links to financial resources to help physicians make the most of their salaries in these difficult economic times. Physicians can also increase their earnings by signing up for per diem shifts using Candidate Direct Stay Staffed Internal Staffing Management Software, which shows new shift openings in real time.

Locum tenens jobs offer the perfect career opportunity for young physicians just starting out and for retired physicians wanting to keep up with their careers, as well as for anyone looking to travel and earn strong benefits. Visit Candidate Direct to apply online today.

Health Care Technology on the Rise

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 17.11.2009 | Category Google Health, Hospitals, OB/GYN physician jobs, healthcare software

Google Health was first launched in May 2008, and it has been slowly gaining popularity over the past year and a half. The concept behind Google Health is that it allows patients to take control of their own medical information. The website has partnered with pharmacies, insurance companies, and health care providers to offer patients a way to keep all of their medical records in one convenient, accessible location

Blue Cross Blue Shield patients, for example, can have their medical records downloaded to Google Health directly from their insurance company. Patients whose medical providers have not yet partnered with Google Health can enter their medical records by hand or scan in any paper copies they may have, but as more providers become Google Health partners, this process will become even easier.

Hospitals and physicians have begun working with Google Health to give their patients a more complete view of their care. Patients of participating hospitals and clinics can access test results, make appointments online, and email their physicians from their Google Health account. Physicians can keep in closer contact with patients, and patients are empowered with knowledge about their medical situations. Gynecologist Stephanie Taylor, MD, has over 60% of her patients on Google Health and claims that the website enhances the doctor-patient relationship as it allows for easier communication on both sides.

Similarly, software is becoming available to provide hospital administrators with web-based health care staffing solutions. Stay Staffed offers a variety of IT options to increase hospital productivity while decreasing administrative costs. Stay Staffed offers three major software programs: Stay Staffed Candidate Direct, SmartShift Internal Staffing Management, and SmartShift Vendor Staffing Management.

Contact Stay Staffed to learn more about Workforce Management & Hospital Management solutions.

Read SmartShift Software Case Studies