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Article
March 2007
Century City Doctors Hospital: Is paperless possible? (English)
Century City Doctors Hospital (CCDH) is a Los Angeles, California-based acute care medical center that is one of the largest physician-owned and -operated hospitals in the United States. The 178-bed facility was designed and built to be fully digital, paperless, and state-of-the-art, with integrated information...
Information management
Process optimization
Article
January 2007
Can barcoded wristbands improve patient safety
In the majority of U.S. healthcare institutions, patient wristbands do not contain barcodes, creating a situation where patient data is manually typed into a database or point-of-care device, leaving plenty of room for error.
In light of error statistics issued by the United Kingdom’s National Patient Safety Agency...
Process optimization
Information management
Preanalytical phase
Glucose
Article
January 2007
What does “lean” have to do with patient safety?
Ever since the landmark document “To err is human” [1]
was released, patient safety has been the paramount objective in US
hospitals. “Patient safety” became the catch phrase and focus for
all activities; a trend that was rapidly taken up by the rest of
the world’s hospitals. Suddenly a new catch phrase – “lean” –
...
Process optimization
Point-of-care testing
Article
January 2007
All you need to know about mock inspections
Mock inspections are a great way to prepare for
real-life inspections from regulatory agencies such as CAP and
JCAHO. But where do you start? And most importantly, what should
you look for?
Lou Ann Wyer, Clinical Specialist, POCT at the
Virginia-based Sentara Laboratory Services and Theresa Kulik,
Point-of-care...
Point-of-care testing
Quality assurance
Glucose
Article
January 2007
Sleep like a baby?
Where do you go for help, when you are a parent of a child who stops breathing while it sleeps? If you live in the south of Sweden, you go to Halmstad County Hospital, where a team of specialists are ready to monitor your sleeping child by polysomnography (PSG).
The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Halmstad has ...
Neonatology
Blood gases/acid-base
Glucose
Article
January 2007
Pseudohyponatremia
Measurement of plasma/serum sodium concentration is one
of the most frequently requested blood tests in clinical practice.
Although usually performed in the laboratory, the test is also
available at the point of care using technology incorporated into
blood gas and other point-of-care analyzers.
In health, sodium...
Electrolytes
Preanalytical phase
Glucose
Kidneys/fluids
Article
January 2007
Emergency assessment of oxygenation
Hypoxia and hypoxemia describe states of oxygen
deficiency: hypoxia is deficiency in oxygenation at tissue or
cellular level whilst hypoxemia is a suboptimal normal partial
pressure of oxygen. Hypoxia and hypoxemia are interrelated, as
untreated hypoxemia will ultimately result in hypoxia.
It should
also be noted...
Blood gases/acid-base
Bilirubin
Article
October 2006
Mayo Clinic’s 10 key factors for creating and maintaining a quality POC program
What does it take to create and maintain a quality point-of-care program in a world-renowned healthcare institution? acutecaretesting.org recently asked that question to Paula Santrach, MD, Interim Chair of the Dept. of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the Mayo Clinic in the US. She came back with a list* of 10...
Point-of-care testing
Quality assurance
Glucose
Article
October 2006
Kaizen – lean in a week
How to implement improvements in hospital settings within a
week
Jens Weirsøe is one of Radiometer's most experienced
Master Black Belts in Transactional Process Improvements (TPI or
kaizen). He has facilitated 90 kaizen events in several countries
(USA, Japan, Germany and Denmark), in several different industry...
Point-of-care testing
Process optimization
Article
October 2006
Taking the myth out of capillary sampling
Hospital do Coração (HCor) in São Paolo, Brazil is a hospital for cardiac patients, many of whom are children and newborns.
Cardiac patients are closely monitored with respect to acid base and blood gases, and even the newborns have several arterial and venous blood samples drawn daily.
Dr Alberto Duarte from the...
Neonatology
Preanalytical phase
Blood gases/acid-base