Visual means: Patient Status at a Glance (PSAG)

A recent HSJ came with a CHKS supported document on Top Hospitals. Page 14 considers Worldwide comparison and learning from others with three items on Patient Status at a Glance (PSAG) Boards; Developing a safety culture; and Reducing readmissions.

All are related (communication, safety, outcomes, multidisciplinary collaboration), but PSAG stands out to me for obvious reasons as it acknowledges the value of visual management, a quick heads-up overview of status. On PSAG four brief sentences note that South Tees Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in the UK has applied experience from Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle to develop PSAG in surgery.

Of course this application is focussed, being quite specific in the value of fewer nursing interruptions and a daily update for bed managers. This now contributes to making many wards more productive.

Hodges' model is a 'PSAG' of sorts, but it is more general, global in scope, summative. Perhaps it could act as a precursor to discharge?
Like the astronomer's blink comparator it could provide a before:after visual cue.
So, I wonder if Hodges' model could provide not only Patient Status upon Reflection, but Care Status upon Collective Reflection. This is vital at a time when we also need the patient and carers to be more productive in terms of supporting and sustaining their own care.






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Hot Bod in a Box Kick Butt With 50 Exercises from
TVs Toughest Trainer

Hot Bod in a Box book – Kick Butt With 50 Exercises from TVs Toughest Trainer, now redesigned in full color, portable flash-cards you can take to the gym, are directly from Jillians bestselling book Making the Cut. Channel your inner Jillian and use her exercises and workout circuits to push you towards your fitness [...]

Hot Bod in a Box Kick Butt With 50 Exercises from TVs Toughest Trainer

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http://www.fitnesstipsforlife.com/hot-bod-in-a-box-kick-butt-with-50-exercises-fr
om-tvs-toughest-trainer-book.html

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Learn More about B-Complex Vitamin Deficiency in
Celiac Disease Sufferers

The Importance of B-Vitamins For Celiac Sufferers

Malabsorption can be a very serious symptom and side effect of Celiac Disease.   Most nutrients from food are absorbed in the small intestine, and people with Celiac disease will most often have difficulty absorbing important vitamins & minerals. 

B-Vitamins, more commonly referred to as B-Complex vitamins are the group of 8 essential B vitamins necessary to metabolize dietary fat and protein and critical to healthy hair, skin, nails eyes and liver function.  B’s are also key for proper nervous system function, so mood, energy and motor function can all be affected by proper or low levels.

• Vitamin B1 (thiamine)
• Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)
• Vitamin B3 (niacin or niacinamide)
• Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid)
• Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine, pyridoxal, or pyridoxamine, or pyridoxine hydrochloride)
• Vitamin B7 (biotin)
• Vitamin B9 (folic acid)
• Vitamin B12 (various cobalamins; commonly cyanocobalamin in vitamin supplements)

Are you stressed?  B-Complex vitamins are depleted in your body as it combats the effects of stressors, and are used up quickly ~ replenishing your B vitamin levels helps your body battle symptoms of stress. If you’re suffering from Celiac Disease, you could already be deficient in B vitamins, making it an even harder struggle for your body to recover in stressful times.

Milk, Yogurt, Eggs, Beef, Beans, Oranges and Apples are all great sources of B vitamins.  B Vitamins are water soluble and do not accumulate in your body.  They need to be replenished in sufficient quantities each day through the food you eat.  If you suffer with Celiac Disease, your body isn’t able to extract nutrients as easily from food, and a B-Complex supplement may help to keep up a steady good balance of energy levels, positive mood and mental focus.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/celiac-disease/DS00319

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High Fructose Corn Syrup Makes You Dumb

I heard this story on the news this morning and it makes a bit of sense to me, even if I am not a rat. High Fructose Corn Syrup is pretty bad for you anyway and this study seems to show that. A new UCLA rat study is the first to show how a diet [...]

High Fructose Corn Syrup Makes You Dumb?

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Home remedies to treat sore throat

I have been suffering from throat related problems since I was a child. I am now a middle aged person and still get irritation feeling in throat which sometimes turns into infection of throat or sometimes I simply can't swallow food.
What is the best solution to treat throat problems?
This post helps you learn about home remedies to treat sore throat symptoms.
First let's get some basic information about 'sore throat'or Pharyngitis which is discomfort, pain, or scratchiness in the throat. It often makes it painful to swallow.

Pharyngitis is caused by swelling (inflammation) of the pharynx, which is in the back of the throat, between the tonsils and the voicebox (larynx).
Most sore throats are cauesd by a viral infection, such as the cold or flu. Some viruses can cause specific types of sore throat, such as coxsackie infection or mononucleosis.
Bacteria that can cause pharyngitis include Group A streptococcus, which leads to strep throat in some cases.
Other, less-common bacteria that cause sore throats include corynebacterium, gonorrhea, and chlamydia.
Most cases of pharyngitis occur during the colder months. The illness often spreads among family members.

Most sore throats are caused by viruses.
Antibiotics do not help. Using them to treat viral infections helps strengthen bacteria and make them resistant to antibiotics.
Sore throats should only be treated with antibiotics if a strep test is positive. Strep cannot be accurately diagnosed by symptoms or a physical exam alone.

Home remedies to treat sore throat:

• Drink a lot of water or tea- Hot fluids, such as tea or soup, may help decrease throat irritation. Fluids may help thin secretions and soothe an irritated throat. 
• Take hard candies or throat lozenges. Young children should not be given such products because they can choke on them.
• A cool-mist vaporizer or humidifier can moisten and soothe a dry and painful throat. Use a shallow pan of water to provide moisture in the air through evaporation if you don't have a humidifier.
• Try over-the-counter pain medications, such as acetaminophen.
• Gargling with salt water can help a sore throat.The salt is healing.
• Steam inhalation is the other most popular and effective sore throat or lost voice remedy that can help solve or at least reduce the problem overnight. It helps to effectively clear the nasal passages, ensuring that there is no congestion at all
• Pineapple works great. This is a natural remedy that really works great for sore throats and a cough. Just eat pineapples. Fresh is better than canned.
• If you have a really bad sore throat and don?t feel like swallowing any food, I have also tried this. Get the pineapple and just chew on it and swallow the juice of this pineapple, you can throw away the part you don?t want to swallow.

Caution: Call your health care provider if:You develop a sore throat that does not go away after several daysYou have a high fever, swollen lymph nodes in your neck, or a rashSeek immediate medical care if you have a sore throat and trouble breathing.

Reference: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001678/POST /rpc/ping HTTP/1.0 User-Agent: YOUR AGENT HERE Host: rpc.technorati.com Content-Type: text/xml Content-length: 250

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Lab Notes: American French Fry Brother Inspires
Chinese; Tripling of PhDs on Food Stamps

On our Lab Notes page CalorieLab’s editors select and rank the day’s essential health news items in real time. Readers can suggest, vote and comment on items. Below are brief summaries of yesterday’s (May 15, 2012) Lab Notes items. To see today’s items, visit Lab Notes.

1. American French Fry Brother Inspires Chinese

Jason Loose, or Lu Jiesen in Chinese, has become a sensation in China after performing a simple good deed that got recorded a bystander.

2. Tripling of PhDs on Food Stamps

The number of graduate degree holders who’ve had to apply for food stamps, unemployment or other help more than tripled between 2007 and 2010.

3. At-Home HIV Test Passes FDA Panel Vote

OraQuick In-Home HIV Test, made by OraSure Technologies Inc. may become the first over-the-counter HIV test used completely inside the home after an FDA advisory committee voted unanimously to approve the product

4. US Unveils First National Alzheimer?s Plan

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the formation of the Nat?t Alzheimer?s Plan, a strategy designed to find a better treatment for the disease by 2025.

5. Hypnosis and Acupuncture Help Smokers Quit

A major study has determined that hypnosis and acupuncture may be helpful to smokers who wish to quit but have had no success with, or have an aversion to using, conventional methods such as medications and behavioral counseling.

(By CalorieLab editors)

Lab Notes: American French Fry Brother Inspires Chinese; Tripling of PhDs on Food Stamps is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

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http://calorielab.com/news/2012/05/16/yesterdays-health-news-from-labnotes-777/

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Exercise is Valuable, Even if it Doesn’t
Make You Thin

(CC) Brandon Schabes/Flickr

It Can Help Your Heart Survive Your Beer Belly

The grim prediction issued by the Centers for Disease Control that by the year 2030 some 42 percent of adults in the U.S. will be obese, as reported in Lab Notes last week, was accompanied by a laundry list of recommended actions that could be taken to dampen this singularly unhealthy and ruinously costly trend. I was a bit surprised by how many of these stressed physical activity and exercise, since it has become well established that simple exercise is horribly inefficient, and largely ineffective, when it comes to shedding weight. We’ll get back to that.

The report, which was presented at the recent Weight of the Nation conference in Washington, also considered an array of causal or influential factors in our unhealthy national eating and activity patterns, of which there were a plethora, from the price of vegetables to the availability of the Internet. (Plug opportunity: For a truly comprehensive if nonacademic list of such factors, see my ebook, “115 Reasons Why It’s Not Your Fault If You’re Fat.” )

But more important than any of these single contributors, they found, was the simple aging of the U.S. population. Take the fact that people normally put on weight as they get older, add the Boomer generation, and you get an impressive chunk of our growth curve right there. The report also noted the discouraging statistic that some 80 percent of Americans who successfully diet wind up regaining any weight they lost, and often more. The dreary message seems to be, “You’re going to pack on more pounds as the years pass, and neither gym sessions nor manual lawn mowing will prevent that.”

But before this downbeat theme has you throwing out your jogging shoes and holding a garage sale for your free weights and bicycles, there’s breaking news in the matter of physical fitness and excess weight. Whole sheafs of studies have been done on the question, “Are there heath benefits to staying fit through physical activity even if you still get fat?” The findings have been all over the lot, from “Absolutely!” to “Not a chance!” But these studies all tended to be of the short-term or one-time-measurement variety.

Researchers at the University of South Carolina sifted through data that covered over 3,000 people for at least six years, with several medical exams over that time. What they found was that yes, indeed, almost everybody in the study got fatter. The healthiest subjects were those who hadn’t gained weight, unsurprisingly. But those fat-gainers who had remained physically and aerobically fit through physical activity were only 49 percent more likely than the non-gainers to suffer from the cluster of risk factors called metabolic syndrome. That’s hardly a cheery number, but it beats the 71 percent increased likelihood among the fat-and-no-longer-fit.

The study’s central conclusion was that exercise won’t erase fat or the health and heart risks that accompany it, but it can significantly help to increase your longevity odds. Since everybody ages, and most people put on fat in the process, exercise would seem to be more, not less, important as the years go by.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News):

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Exercise is Valuable, Even if it Doesn’t Make You Thin is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

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http://calorielab.com/news/2012/05/16/exercise-is-valuable-even-if-it-doesnt-make
-you-thin/

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