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To prevent hospital admissions, hospital staff should gather as much information as possible about the patient's discharge needs, psycho-social needs, and support systems in the community, says Cory Sevin, RN, MSN, NP, director with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. They should talk to family members and primary care providers who know the patient and can provide first-hand information, Sevin says.
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The need to address childhood obesity is often in the news because the numbers are staggering.
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Healthy 100 Kids at Florida Hospital for Children in Orlando is open to children ages 6-17 who have a body mass index (BMI) of 85th percentile or above in children of the same age and sex. One parent must be willing to participate with the child.
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To help children struggling with a weight problem learn how much fat is in their favorite lunch; instructors at WHAM, a wellness, health, action, and motivation class at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock; weigh out caulk on a gram scale and put it in small take-out boxes. On the top of each box is a picture and name of the food item, such as a taco salad from Taco Bell.
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To improve breastfeeding initiation and its continued practice, administrators at the Prentice Ambulatory Care (PAC) Clinic of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago set in place a peer counseling program. Their efforts boosted the rate of women initiating breastfeeding to 84%, from 40%.
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Hip fractures are among the most debilitating and expensive diagnoses to treat, but your hospital can significantly improve outcomes and lower costs if it moves hip-fracture patients into surgery quickly, explains Anthony Balsamo, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and head of the Geriatric Fracture Care Program (GFCP) at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
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You may be pressured to return an injured employee to work as soon as possible by management, human resources, or supervisors. However, returning someone to work too soon can put the employee, the company, and yourself at risk, warns Mary D.C. Garison, RN, COHN-S, CCM, COHC, FAAOHN, an Angleton, TX-based occupational health nurse.
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It may seem like a "no-brainer" to you, but it's not always enough to simply ask workers to make changes for better health. You may need to offer other incentives to get them to take action, says Margie Weiss, PhD, CEO and community health advocate at the Weiss Health Group, a Neenah, WI-based consulting company that works with companies and communities on health and wellness.
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Social media is opening up new avenues for delivering health and safety information. Employee health professionals can download training videos from YouTube, track occupational health news or research on a blog or Twitter, and even communicate with their own employees through social networking sites.
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You may go to great lengths to achieve good participation in Health Risk Assessments (HRAs), but the data is of no good to you unless you use it.
