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.

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

Breaking news for professionals seeking opportunities in hospitals nationwide

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 28.07.2009 | Category Anesthesiology jobs, CRNA, Colorado Physician Jobs, Healthcare Career Blog, Hospitals, Locum Tenens, Medical doctor jobs, OB/GYN physician jobs, Physician Career Path, Physicians

The Candidate Direct Healthcare Career Blog brings you this breaking news for professionals seeking opportunities in hospitals nationwide.

Given the severe shortage of physicians jobs and CRNAs, many current position postings for permanent and locum tenens are in often in urban and rural communities in a multitude of healthcare settings. There are also physician jobs in the top rated university teaching hospitals in the nation.

If you like the idea of working in a community setting in less populated areas, you are in luck! It’s no coincidence that many of these places are also in choice locations for locum tenens who wish to combine work and leisure and visit places like Fort Lauderdale Florida, Colorado Springs, or Atlanta Georgia.

America’s Best Hospitals

U.S. News and World Report released its annual list of the country’s best hospitals, ranked by various specialties like cancer care, heart treatment and children’s health.

Of the 174 hospitals that are ranked in one or more specialties, 21 qualified for the Honor Roll by earning high scores in at least six specialties. Here are the top 11 (two tied for 10th place):

1. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
2. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
3. Ronald Reagan U.C.L.A. Medical Center, Los Angeles
4. Cleveland Clinic
5. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
6. New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell
7. University of California, San Francisco Medical Center
8. Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
9. Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University, St. Louis
10. Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston
11. Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.

For more information and Physician Career Resources, be sure to visit the  Physician Career Resources page

Learn how retired physicians can re-enter the workforce; find guidelines for physician re-entry regulations by state; update a CV; resources for physician residents, physician credentialing and much more.

Rural Doctor Bill to Help Repay Medical Student Loans up to $160,000

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 04.06.2009 | Category Education, Hospitals, Medical Student Loans, Physician Shortage, Physicians

The Texas House of Representatives passed a bill that will make it very attractive for a new medical school graduate to work in rural Texas or areas that are underserved.

HB 2154, initiated by Pampa Republican Warren Chisum who represents the largest number of rural counties in the House, will set up a fund to repay medical student loans of up to $160,000 to any medical school graduate who agrees to practice in a rural county in the state for at least four years. You ask, “Where will the money for this fund come from?” Mr. Chisum added into the bill that the money will come from a tax placed on smokeless tobacco products.

Adding to this exciting news, HB 3485 was also passed that will allow hospitals in counties with populations no greater than 50,000 to hire physicians as their employees. Texas is one of a few states where doctors are self employed, even if they only work at hospitals.

So not only will you get assistance to pay off your loans, you will have the security of knowing that you will have a paying job to go to without having to worry about paying office overhead. For a medical school graduate starting out, this is a wonderful opportunity to jump on!

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