The Importance of Hospitals

Taking care of our health is one of our responsibilities. Healthy lifestyle is not just the recommendation of the physician, but is something we should aim for in general. We should avoid the things that can ruin our health. However, no matter how much we take care of our bodies, we cannot avoid illnesses. Because of the weather and other uncontrollable circumstances, there are times when we feel under the weather and realize that we are sick. Sometimes, it only takes over the counter medicine, and everything turns out well. But, there are major illnesses that require a diagnosis from a physician.

Hospitals are the only place that we can go to help us cure our sickness. They have complete facilities for different kinds of illnesses. There are doctors and nurses who will assist us to make our stay comfortable and convenient. These hospitals are responsible for the treatment and recovery of patients with both mild and extreme medical cases. Medical treatments allow us to extend our lives. Without these medical establishments time with our love ones and friends may come to a sudden halt. There is no question that hospitals are significant in our lives. There lots of hospitals that offer low cost healthcare, while being able to provide high-quality service.

We should take some times to appreciate the existing hospitals, clinics, and other medical facilities in our area. Living without them will cause so much inconvenience to say the least. Visit your physician even when you feel you are only suffering from something mild. It may lead to a serious condition that the doctors should be able to control. In today’s world where health problems become more and more complicated, let us be more open to regular check-ups, and always be thankful to have a place that can ensure we are in our prime health conditions.

Nurses Working at Hospitals

Hospital career employment keeps growing, as demands for healthcare professional services expand over time. Whenever you think about hospital careers, you will most likely think of doctors and nurses that happen to be two examples of fantastic hospital professions. Nevertheless, you will find more kinds of hospital professions. If you do not want to be a physician or a nurse, there are numerous hospital profession alternatives for you for almost any education level or niche.

Several hospitals are huge, some are small, just like some other employer, every single hospital features its own customs and work environment, some are much better than others. When choosing an employer, you will need to locate a hospital that most closely fits your personality and work ethic, but of course you need to pass their qualifications.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), more than 2.5 million nurses constitute the biggest labor force within the medical industry. Nursing professions offer a wide selection of roles and a wide scope of accountability. There are lots of various kinds of nurses, and lots of new ways to acquire nursing professions.

Nurses always work with doctors as an essential portion of the patient health care workforce. The physician makes some key judgments concerning the medical diagnosis, treatment method, and medicine, and it is the nurse’s role to provide that care on an ongoing basis to be sure of the effective recovery of the patient. Given that they might actually spend more face-to-face time with a patient than physicians, nurses have to be specifically skilled at reaching out to patients, placing them in a comfortable place, and aiding them in their recovery, and general well-being.

Exercise Benefits for COPD Patients

According to recent studies, staying active can help keep chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients out of the hospital for a longer period of time. COPD is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. which makes it a very dangerous disease. This is why many health care programs are currently focused on providing interventions at hospital discharge to reduce re-admissions.

exerciseThe study captures information regarding patients’ typical physical exercise before the first hospitalization and offers evidence that supports the promotion of exercise across the COPD care scale.

Researchers discovered that people who exercised for at least 150 minutes a week were 34 percent less inclined to be readmitted to the hospital within the next 30 days, compared with individuals who were inactive. This gives more reason for people with COPD to go out and exercise. Even at home, COPD patients can do simple exercise to improve their system. The more they become active, the more they activate their cells and promote a healthy lifestyle.

Even those individuals who relatively or vigorously exercised less than 150 minutes a week had a 33 percent lower readmission risk, in comparison with people that were inactive. A simple exercise is already good enough to keep you away from the hospital.

Exercise is connected with lower hazards of hospitalization for COPD patients. Particularly, individuals who either maintained a low physical exercise level over several years — as well as people who decreased their exercise levels during this period — had a higher hospitalization rate compared to those who maintained high physical exercise levels.

Exercise is a good and healthy habit to reduce hospitalization for COPD patients. It costs you nothing to exercise and will give you more benefits than you expect. It will reduce your hospital fees and exposure to medicines. So start stretching and keep yourself away from the hospital.

Importance and Duties of Housekeepers in a Hospital

Hospitals all over the world require constant maintenance and restoration to maintain order and to avoid accidents or spread of diseases. The assigned housekeepers have a less noticed job, but their presence is important and without them, other services will not be performed or given.

housekeepingThere are various duties that housekeepers do within the hospital. The most common job is to prepare the bed for the arrival of the new patient. They must ensure that the sheets are clean as well as the blankets. They must sanitize the tables and other equipments surrounding the patient. The floor must be cleaned as well and be sanitized.

You will be disgusted when the comfort room is not properly cleaned. It is the job of the housekeeper to maintain the restrooms. They must sanitize it and replace tissues and trash bins daily. This is to ensure that the patients are comfortable with their stay and to avoid the spread of diseases. Their main job is to maintain cleanliness in every area of the hospital. They must clean the spills, like blood or feces, at the floor from the entrance to the rooms. They must also take the soiled laundry to the designated area where the laundry service will pick it up.

They must also ensure that the equipments are returned to their proper spots when not in use, like wheelchairs, IV stand, nebulizers etc. Services will be delayed when these equipments are not in place when needed. They will also ensure that sufficient equipment such as gowns etc., are back in the same wards and make sure that there is enough amount of clean laundry. The housekeeper job is not as noticeable as compared to other jobs in a hospital like nurses and doctors, but their job is necessary in order to provide the complete services to the patient.

 

Hospital Credit Rating

Hospitals private or public have been relying on many different sources of income to continue operation. Many hospitals rely on bond funding for their development and the procure of new apparatus.  Revenue that is created by the hospital is then used to pay back the bondholders.  The risk to bondholders is that they are generally paid after the hospital pays its operational expenses.  Therefore, if the hospital is less profitable than expected (or not profitable at all), bondholders assume the financial risk.

hospitalLow-rated hospitals before have used strategies such as merging with higher-rated hospitals, diversifying payer mix, recruiting doctors, and opening new service lines in order to boost their credit ratings.  But these tactics may not always work in a system that rewards value rather than volume. Therefore a stable source of financial capital must be develop in order to increase the quality of healthcare services.

The CMS quality measures being tied more and more to hospital reimbursement CRAs are looking at ways to apply quality metrics to their hospital investment grade ratings.  These savvy agencies recognize the basic tenet that hospitals which give a higher level of quality care tend to be more profitable.  In the move from fee-for-service to value-based payment models in health care, it’s not surprising that CRAs are looking at different quality metrics when assessing investment risk.

The factors they are looking into include Medicare reimbursement rates publicly available quality scores, HCAPS scores, and commitment to establishing a culture of safety.  Some CRAs are also planning to highlight IT investments such as EHRs and data analytics platforms.They also looking at meaningful use and ICD-10 readiness.

The ultimate ability to change quality of care lies in the hands of the front-line health care providers. Tying these quality factors to hospital credit ratings and subsequent bond funding available should help to bring quality even more front and center in c-suite and hospital board meetings.  With the bottom-line becoming increasingly tied to quality and patient safety, hospital administrators need to work closer than ever with physicians and other constituents of the health care team to help them with the resources they need for institutional conversion.

Hospitals needs to be focusing on improving their eminence of care in advance of these changes. Those institutions that wait for the CRAs to act first may find themselves in an increasingly difficult place to receive bond financial support.  With the recognized inverse relationship between health care quality and expenditure, it would make sense to assume that those hospitals who might need bond funding the most may be the ones in worse shape to begin with.

Qualities of a Patient Care Technician

Patient Care Technicians mainly aids physicians and other healthcare staff in providing patient care services. Most of his tasks include collection of samples, monitoring the health status, record health information while assisting in their personal needs. A PCT is under the supervision of a registered nurse or physician. He will depend on them on what action to perform or any particular nursing interventions during his working shift.

Hospitals, living/rehabilitation facilities and nursing homes requires their PCTs to have a training in patient care and mostly the experience in dealing with different situations that may occur. The Patient Care Technician must have a strong communication, time management skills and the ability to work under pressure. Part of their task is to ensure that the patient needs or request are well responded.

patient_careCandidates who want to apply as a patient care technician must have an attractive set of objectives on his resume to attract employers. While making it convincing, one must be very careful in choosing an objective statement to avoid rejection. Some statements might not be in accordance to the objectives of the health care institution you are applying.

A successful PCT must have sufficient knowledge to conduct standard patient care activities. They also must be empathetic to the patient and aware of their needs just like any other healthy individual. They must also have an eye for details. Some procedures might be risky for the patient if not properly done.

Passion is also a must and should always be the driving force of the PCTs to work harder. The working shift can be so tiring and stressful and may require physical toughness. So if you have no passion in assisting others, making patients feel at ease and better, and the willingness to serve, this work may not be suitable for you.

Future of Hospitals in the U.S.

According to the latest Presidential vote, we as a country do actually wish to nationalize medical care.  We do believe that a bigger government is the response to our problems and lastly, it is ok to ask for more taxation to allow this to go on. Bottom line prediction:  Under pressured work programs, physicians will keep medical care, hospitals and other Government programs in huge figures. Individuals will have government protected medical care but less physicians will be available to care for them. Following the latest Presidential election, this position will be more strongly and quickly actualized.

I often listen to the discussion that other “civilized nations” such as Canada and Britain has socialized health care and that it is a pity that America does not follow their lead and assure health care to all individuals. Unfortunately, no one is asking, “If these nations provide free care, does this mean that most individuals are getting good care”? If asked this query, they would see that sufferers are declined services in hospitals every day while the program is still paying for their “care”. I think we can say politically, we are offering for all and we do not need to ask the next query “are the individuals really getting care?” I have suggested all along that assuring everyone does not mean actually offering health care. Saying that a socialized health care program is “covering everyone” does not mean that proper health care is being provided. Perhaps we should ask ourselves, “if the nationalized health care design is looking after everyone, then why is it in these socialized nations, the rich go outside of the nation or outside of the socialized health care program to get their needs met”?

Before this vote, but many years into the PPACA law, we can now say that in the US, there is a “silent exodus” of doctors in the labor force. Can this be relevant to the point that the country is going towards only one payer, (Medicare/Medicaid) system which is allowing hospitals and other large organizations (i.e. wellness insurance coverage companies) to be the only heirs of a bureaucratic wellness plan which is staging a coup against its people. Other data reveals that there is a lot more hospital employed doctors. Hospitals are now currently using 20% of practicing doctors. Many others are in group methods owned by health systems.