HMP 721 Blogger

For this blog post I chose to write about an article I came across titled, “ Short on staff: Nursing crisis strains U.S. hospitals,” from Reuters. In the article, it states how a non-profit hospital is starting to take a toll and feel the burden of the short nursing staff. In order for the Charleston Medical to run day to day operations they have to hire visiting or “travel” nurses which is costing them $12 million by the end of the year.   Not just Charleston Medical but across the country the amount spent on visiting nurses has doubled in three years. Hospitals are trying their best to retain nurses by offering higher salaries and other benefits such as student loan repayment, free housing, and career mentoring. Ron Moore, a retired nurse, was quoted saying, “It’s better to pay a traveler than to shut a bed.” In situations like this where hospitals need to decide whether to hire visiting nurses or close departments they need to refer back to their mission statements and the ...

For this blog post I chose to write about the wildfires in California, that are forcing hospitals to evacuating patients. CNN reported on October 9 th , “Hospitals evacuated and many injured as wildfires ravage Northern California.” The wildfires in Northern California have decimated nearly 57,000 acres and have destroyed everything in its path. Two hospitals have had to evacuate patients to other hospitals to avoid being in the path of the wildfires. Kaiser Permanente’s Santa Rosa medical center had to evacuate 130 patients by ambulance and city buses. In the report, it states how ever since the start of the wildfires local hospitals have seen overflow of patients coming in with injuries from the fires such as, serious burns and breathing issues. Like in my other post, Controlled Chaos at Las Vegas Trauma Center  , hospitals need to be able to respond to whatever is at hand. Every day we hear of natural disasters taking lives and causing injury and illness. Hospitals must work...

On October 2 nd, The New York Times posted an article titled, “Replacing Faulty Heart Devices Costs Medicare $1.5 Billion in 10 Years.” In the article, it discusses how about 73,000 people on Medicare had to have a heart device replaced because of recalls, failures, infections, or necessary upgrades. These replaces have cost Medicare $1.5 billion but also costs $140 million in out of pocket payments for patients. From 2003 to 2012 device recalls have nearly doubled, this is troubling for health officials. Not only are the patients receiving faulty devices but hospitals have to go back and collect detailed information identifying failed devices, this is an extra step officials must take in the care process. While hospitals have no clue when they are implementing these devices, many times they are blamed for the failure of the equipment. When patients face complications they often go back to the hospital questioning what’s wrong. Like the rest of the world we live in there are cons...

After the event that happened Sunday in Las Vegas, I chose to use this as my topic for this week’s blog. The Vegas Massacre as it is now being called is the deadliest shooting in United States history. 59 people were killed and 527 were injured. I found an article on The New York Time titled, “Controlled Chaos at Las Vegas Hospital Trauma Center After Attack.” In the article, it discusses a first-hand insight on how hospital staff had to react to number of patients that were rushing into the trauma center.   One of the nurses, Toni Mullen, was called back in after a 12-hour shift to help treat the patients. She was quoted saying, “The minute I got there, I looked at the situation and said, ‘How am I going to utilize my resources?’”. Mullen had to think on her feet because for the next 3 hours’ patients were coming in, in ambulances, trucks, and cars. With the over flow of patients staff had to think on their feet and react quickly. When there are this many people coming in at ...