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There's little doubt that as health care reform rolls out and all payers tighten their reimbursement, hospitals are going to depend more and more on case managers to help them ensure that patients receive the appropriate services in an efficient manner and safely move to the next level of care.
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There will be dramatic changes in the works for patient access departments as a result of health care reform legislation. That is for certain. But many important details are still unclear.
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A new rapid tuberculosis test promises to help reduce health care worker exposures through early identification of patients.
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"Health care personnel refers to all paid and unpaid persons working in health-care settings who have the potential for exposure to patients and/or to infectious materials, including body substances, contaminated medical supplies and equipment, contaminated environmental surfaces, or contaminated air.
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"I was injured at work almost seven years ago. I am still going through financial difficulties. I can never return to nursing. I am left with a lot of nerve damage to my legs and continuous back pain. I receive about $400 biweekly from worker's comp. This is nowhere near my pre-injury pay. Learning to live with pain and limited mobility and chronic money problems has been the worst of it all. Nurse's post on an online forum of Work Injured Nurses' Group (WINGUSA)."
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Amid the successes in sharps safety in hospitals in the 21st century, there is one glaring gap: The operating room. Sharps injuries there remain as much of a problem as they were in 2000, when the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act was signed into law.
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As the nation's population ages, a growing number of registered nurses, certified nursing assistants and nurses' aides will be working in patients' homes rather than in hospitals. But many of them will be working without the basic safety devices that most nurses now take for granted, safety experts say.
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Editor's note: In this issue, we continue our special report on needle safety issues. Safety needles are now commonplace at hospitals around the country, but sharps injuries persist both from conventional and safety devices. The problem may lie in selection of the device, inadequate training or, as in the OR, in resistance to sharps safety advances.
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To keep young, vulnerable patients safe from a potentially life-threatening disease, the University of North Carolina Health Care in Chapel Hill requires employees to have a vaccine that protects against a respiratory illness.
