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.

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.

Physicians Key Players During Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 08.10.2009 | Category Family Medicine, Healthcare Career Blog, Medical doctor jobs

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month and a time when attention to the disease is at a year-long peak. While breast cancer remains the most common cancer among women in the US, the death rate from the disease continues to drop, according to a new American Cancer Society report. However, there still remains much work to be done in prevention, screening and treatment, in particular among lower income groups that may not have as much access to early detection procedures.

This month, as always, it is a key part of any medical doctor’s job to emphasize the benefits of healthy lifestyle changes and potentially life-saving procedures such as regular self-exams and mammograms. There are many misconceptions in the general population about causes of cancer, treatment options and survival rates. Patients (and friends and family, too) should be encouraged to consult knowledgeable experts like their family physician, or even reliable online sources such as the American Cancer Society (www.cancer.org) or the Susan G Komen Foundation (ww5.komen.org) websites.

Often patients and their families grow anxious because they feel there is not enough they can do in the face of a frightening and somewhat unpredictable disease. Volunteering is a great way to regain some personal control, and October is the month to do it.

Physicians — along with all healthcare workers — will get a special boost out of participating in local breast cancer awareness events like walks and fundraisers. Being involved demonstrates your concern for the community and most medical doctors — just like the rest of the world — have family members who have been affected by breast cancer.

Want to participate in a neighborhood event? Check out the American Cancer Society’s local event finder tool: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PAR/PAR_9_Calendar_Of_Events.asp

And if you’re looking for a more extended volunteering opportunity, the ACS needs volunteers in advocacy, patient service, online support communities: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/emp/emp_2_volunteers.asp

Candidate Direct Physician Staffing Offers Easy Search of Locum Tenens and Permanent MD Jobs

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 24.09.2009 | Category Healthcare Career Blog, Locum Tenens, Physicians

Physician job seekers can visit Candidate Direct’s new physician jobs board or browse through the company’s  physician career resources page with its innovative real-time physician job listings.  Job seekers can review position requirements and facility descriptions as well as a brief sketch of the area where the healthcare facility is located. MD’s looking for permanent positions or locum tenens jobs can narrow their search or browse through the whole list. If a job interests them, they can apply online, all the while knowing they’ll be contacted almost immediately by a Candidate Direct representative ready to facilitate a job search

And if physicians don’t see the exact job they’re looking for, they can use the unique “Design a Job” feature to send their ideal job specs straight to Candidate Direct’s physician placement experts.

“We work hard to place physicians in their desired locations,” said Robert L. Bok, Candidate Direct’s Chief Executive Officer. “We have access to physician job openings in metropolitan destinations like New York, Chicago, and Miami. Or if a physician is looking for a more small-town feel, we have positions in rural and community hospitals throughout the country.”

Backed by 25 years of medical staffing expertise, Candidate Direct specializes in locum tenens jobs and permanent medical doctor jobs that advance the goals of physicians and their employers. Candidate Direct’s affiliate staffing company, Travel Force, which specializes in placement of rehabilitation therapists, offers a similar therapy jobs search for candidates in that field. Read the latest Travel Force press release about therapy jobs search tool.