Tag Archives: Assistants

Health Care Industry Leader Joins Health by Design Executive Team

Health by Design of San Antonio, TX, a leading provider of health care services to businesses and individuals, has recently appointed Omar Rodríguez as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategic Planning. With nearly 30 years in the health care arena, Rodríguez assumes a newly created role to help Health by Design reach more companies with its unique approach to medical care. His first area of concentration will be to further develop the Texas market.

“Omar is an outstanding individual with a wealth of experience and knowledge both in managing companies as President and CEO and administering health care benefits for self-insured companies. As we look to expand our role in helping companies provide quality medical care to their employees through prevention, knowledge and personal care, Omar will be able to bring valuable industry insight to better serve our clients and mission,” said Health by Design CEO and Medical Director Dr. James Ogletree. Health by Design Management President Barney Randol also noted that through fiscal responsibility and client growth and retention Health by Design has had solid year over year revenue growth.

About Health by Design
Founded in 1982 by Dr. David Player in San Antonio, TX, Health by Design successfully blends medical care, physician knowledge and personalized care to provide quality health care for corporations, small businesses and individuals. Utilizing a long practiced unique approach to medical care, Health by Design physicians share a common philosophy of prevention, education and wellness. They perform comprehensive evaluations of a patient’s current physical condition and then develop a program that maximizes their health and lifestyle, while helping employers reduce health care costs and increase productivity. For more information, visit: www.hbdus.com.

Via EPR Network
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Online Sexual Partners Calculator

According to new research released by Lloydspharmacy, the typical British adult has slept indirectly with 2,811,024 people.

The leading community pharmacy chain has developed an online calculator which allows people to work out the number of indirect sexual partners they have had.

The sexual partners calculator has been developed to help people understand the risks of unprotected sex. According to the Health Protection Agency, cases of sexually transmitted infections rose last year by 0.5%, to 399,738 and cases of Chlamydia increased by eight per cent between 2006 and 2008.

The average British man claims to have had nine sexual partners while the average women claims 6.3 partners, giving an overall average of 7.65. However, as the new calculator demonstrates, they are potentially exposed to the sexually transmitted diseases of hundreds of thousands of others.

The calculator, which uses data collected from more than 6,000 UK adults, is called Sex Degrees of Separation, a reference to the famous theory first proposed by Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy which states that no one person is more than six steps removed from another.

When people enter the age range of each partner, the calculator raids its database to work out how many previous sexual partners people within that age range have had on average. It then repeats this process for five further ‘generations’ of partner. This is added together to give a Sex Degrees of Separation total.

The launch of the calculator coincides with the introduction of Lloydspharmacy’s Relationship Screen, an online postal service which allows people and their partners to have a Chlamydia test – the most common STI in the UK – Gonorrhoea test and HIV test before committing to full intimacy.

Clare Kerr, head of sexual health at Lloydspharmacy said: “When we sleep with someone, we are, in effect, not only sleeping with them, but also their previous partners and their partners’ previous partners, and so on. It’s important that people understand how exposed they are to STIs and take appropriate precautions including using condoms and getting themselves checked out where appropriate.

“A simple sexual health test will give both partners in a relationship peace of mind. The majority of STIs are easy to rectify, but if left untreated, the long term implications can be very serious.”

The Sex Degrees of Separation calculator, and more information about Lloydpharmacy’s sexual health services, can be found at online.

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Nursing Shortfall In The UK, According To Hays, Specialist Recruitment

According to Hays, specialist recruitment, the acute shortage of qualified workers, which continues to plague the nursing sector, is particularly apparent for A&E, critical care (ITU), theatre, intensive care (ICU) and emergency medicine nurses.

hays.com healthcare

The magnitude of the shortage has however now also spilt over into other areas of nursing jobs such as obstetrician, orthopaedic, anaesthetic and gynaecologist nurses are also highly sought after by the health service. Additionally there is currently a shortage of accident and emergency expertise and a growing requirement for nurses from an emergency medicine background.

“Without a doubt, there is a shortage of nurses in the UK. The available talent from abroad throws an important lifeline given the pressing need for skilled nurses. Around 10% of nurses working in the UK have trained abroad and it is important that skills shortages in the healthcare sector continue to be addressed where possible, using labour from overseas where necessary,” added Simon Hudson, the new Director of Hays Global Resourcing.

The UK has been able to benefit from the global mobility of the nursing sector and tap into the worldwide nursing talent pool to fill its vacancies, however, “The shortage of nurses is not just limited to the UK. Demand exceeds supply across the world, which in turn fuels this cyclical international movement of labour in the nursing profession,” continued Simon.

Many UK nurses are leaving to go and work abroad to destinations such as Canada, Australia, the Middle East and the United States. There are several reasons why nurses from the UK are attracted to overseas destinations, but clearly it is more a case of lifestyle and financial reasons rather than an inability to find a job in the UK.

Nursing in the UK not only offers excellent and varied opportunities to learn valuable skills but also enables individuals to make a positive difference to the lives of others. The NHS encourages applications from people with a wide range of academic and vocational qualifications.

“Going on a work placement or volunteering are excellent routes into the nursing sector and a great way to get a feel for the industry,” said John Faraguna, the newly appointed Managing Director of Hays Health and Social Care. Other ways of entering the industry include cadet schemes and apprenticeships, especially for those with previous NHS experience, for example, clinical support workers and healthcare assistants.

According to recent statistics from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), one in three community nurses are over 50 and over a fifth of practice nurses are over 55, which adds up to around 200,000 nurses who are due to retire over the next decade.

This represents almost 50% of the worker population and this will leave a massive skills shortfall if these problems are not addressed. This is a worrying prospect at a time when the size of the UK’s elderly population looks set to continue to increase over the coming years, meaning the demand for specialist nurses will continue to grow with it.

“The best solution to this issue is a combination of more effective utilisation and retention of skilled nurses, increased emphasis on training new nurses and, in the short term, increased international recruitment” concluded John,

 

About Hays Healthcare:
Hays Healthcare is part of Hays plc, the leading global specialist recruitment group. It is market leader in the UK and Australia, and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe. As at 30 June 2008, the Group employed 8,294 staff operating from 380 offices in 28 countries across 17 specialisms.

For the year ended 30 June 2008:
– the Group had revenues of £2.5 billion, net fees of £786.8 million and operating profit before exceptional items of £253.8 million; 
– the Group placed around 80,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 300,000 people into temporary assignments; 
– the temporary placement business represented 49% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 51% of net fees. 

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WeInterpret.Net and University of Maryland Medical System Expand Contract

WeInterpret.Net has signed a contract with the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) and has been providing sign language interpreting services to both the University of Maryland Medical Center and the University Specialty Hospital, both in Baltimore. The additional seven member hospitals have now been added to the contract. Located in Baltimore City and Glen Burnie, along with Cambridge, Easton, and Chestertown on the eastern shore, the list of participating hospitals includes Maryland General Hospital, Baltimore Washington Medical Center, Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital, Memorial Hospital at Easton, Chester River Hospital Center, Dorchester General Hospital, and the James Lawrence Kernan Hospital. As one of the largest hospital networks and related clinic services in Maryland, hundreds of patients each year require interpreting services to communicate successfully with hospital staff and medical personnel. WeInterpret.Net, providing interpreting services throughout the state of Maryland and in many locations across the country, is pleased to have been chosen by the University Medical System to provide services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Nationally Certified and Qualified Interpreters provided by WeInterpret.Net assure that the hospital is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. which requires equal access through appropriate methods of communication.

weinterpret

Appropriate communication methods vary by individual and We Interpret.Net can provide interpreters skilled in American Sign Language, Signed English, The Rochester Method, Cued Speech and Oral Interpretation. In areas such as the Washington / Baltimore metro area, interpreters are in high demand and short supply. “Full-time staff interpreters along with managers who are also certified interpreters, allows the agency to respond to every request with qualified interpreters even on the busiest of days or during the overnight and weekend hours,” stated Tauna Faries, Vice President of Operations for WeInterpret.Net.

About WeInterpret.Net
Maryland Interpreting Services, a Maryland corporation doing business as WeInterpret.Net and WeInterpretLinked was established in 1996. Owner and President, David Stephenson is a nationally certified interpreter. Since its establishment, it has provided some 6 million hours of interpreting services to some 900 customers through offices in Utah, Virginia, Maryland and New Mexico. Staff Interpreters and Independent Sub-Contractors numbering over 1000 provide On-Site (www.WeInterpret.Net) and Video Remote Interpreting. (www.WeInterpretLinked.com)

About University of Maryland Medical System
The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) was created in 1984 when the state-owned University Hospital became a private, nonprofit organization. It has evolved into a multi-hospital system with academic, community and specialty service missions reaching every part of the state and beyond. (www.umm.edu) UMMS is a national and regional referral center for trauma, cancer care, neurocare, cardiac care, women’s and children’s health and physical rehabilitation. It also has one of the world’s largest kidney transplant programs, as well as scores of other programs that improve the physical and mental health of thousands of people daily.

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WeInterpret.Net Signs With The University Of Maryland Medical System To Provide Sign Language Interpreting

WeInterpret.Net a Sign Language Interpreting agency in Maryland has a contract with the University of Maryland Medical System and is providing Interpreting services currently to the University of Maryland Medical Center and the University Specialty Hospital, both in Baltimore. This contract is for the provision of services to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing patients when communicating with their medical providers. As one of the largest hospitals in the area, the contract for interpreting services is one of the largest outside of the federal government entities in the state of Maryland. This contract allows the hospital to be in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

weinterpret.net

WeInterpret.Net has signed a contract with the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) and is currently providing signed language interpreting services to both the University of Maryland Medical Center and the University Specialty Hospital, both in Baltimore. As one of the largest hospital networks and related clinic services in Baltimore, hundreds of patients require interpreting services to communicate successfully with hospital staff and medical personnel. WeInterpret.Net, providing interpreting services throughout the state of Maryland and to many locations across the country, is pleased to have been chosen by the University Medical System to provide services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Nationally Certified and Qualified Interpreters provided by WeInterpret.Net assure that the hospital is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 which requires equal access through appropriate methods of communication

Appropriate communication methods vary by individual and We Interpret.Net can provide interpreters skilled in American Sign Language, Signed English, The Rochester Method, Cued Speech and Oral Interpretation. In areas such as the Washington / Baltimore metro area, interpreters are in high demand and short supply. “Full-time staff interpreters along with managers who are also certified interpreters, allows the agency to respond to every request with qualified interpreters even on the busiest of days or during the overnight and weekend hours,” stated Tauna Faries, Vice President of Operations for WeInterpret.Net.

About WeInterpret.Net
Maryland Interpreting Services, a Maryland corporation doing business as WeInterpret.Net and WeInterpretLinked was established in 1996. Owner and President, David Stephenson is a nationally certified interpreter. Since its establishment, it has provided some 6 million hours of interpreting services to some 900 customers through offices in Utah, Virginia, Maryland and New Mexico. Staff Interpreters and Independent Sub-Contractors numbering over 1000 provide On-Site (www.WeInterpret.Net) and Video Remote Interpreting. (www.WeInterpretLinked.com)

About University of Maryland Medical System

The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) was created in 1984 when the state-owned University Hospital became a private, nonprofit organization. It has evolved into a multi-hospital system with academic, community and specialty service missions reaching every part of the state and beyond. (www.umm.edu)

UMMS is a national and regional referral center for trauma, cancer care, neurocare, cardiac care, women’s and children’s health and physical rehabilitation. It also has one of the world’s largest kidney transplant programs, as well as scores of other programs that improve the physical and mental health of thousands of people daily.

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Deaf Individuals Are Now Provided With Cost Effective Interpreting Solution By WeInterpret.Net

WeInterpret.Net and We Interpret Linked open a Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) call center in Owings Mills, Maryland. This new call center, staffed with local, nationally certified Sign Language Interpreters, allows companies to obtain interpreting services for their deaf patients, clients and customers in rural areas nationwide. The costs of travel and last minute cancellations can now be minimized by taking advantage of state of the art technology while remaining compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

We Interpret Linked announces the opening of a call center in Owings Mills to provide access to communication during interactions between Deaf and Hearing individuals. Through state of the art Video Phone technology, hospitals, businesses, school districts and government organizations can obtain the services of an interpreter 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act has mandated that communication access be provided by all private companies to allow for equal access to all citizens who use alternative means of communicating. The new call center allows a single location to employ up to 20 full time interpreters available to consumers across the country at the touch of a button.

Although the preferred method of communication varies depending on individual preferences, the most common communication support service is that of an interpreter. In areas such as the Washington / Baltimore metro area, interpreters are in high demand and short supply. Often interpreters are not available and the situation is magnified by the fact that interpreters can spend as much as half of their day traveling from job to job. Costs of travel time and mileage are often passed on to the company responsible for paying for this service. “Citizens and businesses in rural areas of the country have difficulty locating interpreters within a reasonable travel distance,” says David Stephenson, President of Maryland Interpreting Services. Even in the most remote locations, interpreters are now available and companies can benefit by availing their goods and services to a larger community of customers. According to Gallaudet University, there are over 10 Million Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals, potential customers currently underserved in America today.


About WeInterpret.Net
Maryland Interpreting Services, a Maryland corporation doing business as WeInterpret.Net and WeInterpretLinked.Com was established in 1996. Owner and President, David Stephenson is a nationally certified interpreter. Since its establishment, it has provided some 6 million hours of interpreting services to some 900 customers through offices in Utah, Virginia, Maryland and New Mexico. Staff Interpreters and Independent Sub-Contractors numbering over 1000 provide on-site interpreting and VRI operation since 2007.

About Video Remote Interpreting

IP based video and audio communication technology allows an interpreter in a call center to be seen and heard at a remote site wherever business interactions occur between Deaf and Hearing persons. A light weight, portable Video Phone is required at the business site and at the call center interpreter work station. High speed Internet service is required at both sites as well.

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The Npower Health Through Warmth Scheme Has Been Commended In A National Report After Helping Nearly 2,000 Vale Of Glamorgan Residents With Cold And Damp Related Illnesses

The npower scheme has been referenced as an example of best practice by the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) in a report prepared for the Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes.

The Vale of Glamorgan is just one of 14 areas of England and Wales where the Health Through Warmth scheme operates, providing practical help, information and advice for vulnerable people who have inadequate heating and insulation, and whose health is adversely affected by their cold, damp living conditions.

Health Through Warmth is managed locally by the Vale of Glamorgan Council and relies on community workers such as health visitors, district nurses and housing officers, who observe cold and damp conditions first-hand, to refer people at risk.

Gary Ford, Health Through Warmth co-ordinator for the Vale of Glamorgan scheme, said: “It’s fantastic recognition to be referenced by a national body such as CSE. To date, the scheme has improved the levels of warmth, comfort and quality of life for nearly 2,000 people in the local community and we would like to remind residents that we are here to help.”

Health Through Warmth assesses each referral on an individual basis and accesses funding from a variety of sources including government grants, charitable funds, and the unique npower Health Through Warmth Crisis Fund.

Since the scheme launched in the Vale of Glamorgan in 2002, Health Through Warmth has facilitated more than £2,000,000 worth of heating and insulation measures in vulnerable people’s homes across the area.

*Figures from the Help the Aged and Age Concern research

About npower:
npower is one of Britain’s largest electricity supplier and supplies gas, electricity and related services to 6.6 million customers across the UK. npower is a market leader in renewable energy and sources the green energy for juice directly from renewable sources, at no extra cost.

RWE npower has been awarded the prestigious CommunityMark from Business in the Community (BITC). npower is the only utility business, amongst 21 other companies in the UK, to receive this accolade. The CommunityMark is a new BITC standard which has been created to recognise companies that are good investors in local communities and who have brought about real and positive changes.

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Texas Bills Filed To Regulate Anesthesiologist Assistants

Bills to license Anesthesiologist Assistants (AAs), highly trained anesthesia care providers, have been introduced in the Texas legislature. Though AAs have been providing anesthesia in Texas operating rooms for the past 11 years, they believe it’s time to ask legislators to give the AA profession the regulatory protection enjoyed by other health care providers.

“We aren’t trying to change the way AAs practice at all, but we believe that it makes sense to have oversight of the people taking care of us when we need medical care,” says Paul McHorse, a certified Anesthesiologist Assistant (AA-C), and President of the Texas Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants. “AAs have always practiced within nationally accepted guidelines, but we believe that critical care areas should be regulated, and that certainly includes anesthesia. It’s just a matter of good public policy.”

SB 1794 by State Senator Carlos Uresti (D-San Antonio) and HB 3376 by State Representative John Davis (R-Houston) were filed on Wednesday, March 11th and are identical. If passed, the legislation would require that AAs be regulated and licensed by the Texas Medical Board in order to practice in the state. AAs already practice in Texas, but are not regulated by the state.

The first Anesthesiologist Assistants joined the anesthesia work force almost 40 years ago, at the same time as the more widely known Physician Assistants (PAs). “The big difference between PAs and AAs is that PA training is designed to cover needs in many medical specialties, and AA training focuses exclusively on the specialty of anesthesia,” explains Deb Lawson, AA-C, President of the American Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants. “Good anesthesia care calls for a very high degree of training and education, and our profession was designed with that in mind from the beginning.”

Like PAs working as physician extenders, AAs work exclusively with anesthesiologists. According to Mr. McHorse, “most anesthetics in the US are given by more than one anesthesia provider working as a team; with a qualified anesthetist like an AA in the room at all times, the anesthesiologist may direct more than one case at the same time, being available for those patients that need more attention. The advantage is that all of the patients have the benefit of an anesthesiologist’s expertise. The reason this ‘Anesthesia Care Team’ model is so widely practiced is that it has been shown to maximize both safety and economy, and results in significantly fewer anesthesia complications. AAs are dedicated to these goals.”

Support is strong among those who work with AAs. “It is my experience and opinion as a neurosurgeon that Anesthesiologist Assistants are qualified and competent anesthesia providers,” says Dr. Peter Shedden, who works with AAs at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital. “Since AAs work closely with anesthesiologists, this unique relationship allows superior care in the increasingly higher acuity procedures characteristic of modern medicine. In my opinion, Anesthesiologist Assistants (AA) provide accurate, efficient and qualified care for patients and are pivotal for patients receiving a safe surgical experience.”

“The AA profession’s excellent track record of safety explains why interest in hiring AAs is at an all time high, and why the numbers of new employers and programs are growing,” says Ms. Lawson. “Other medical specialties have long had non-physician providers from both allied health and nursing, and anesthesia needs the same advantage. The shortage of anesthesia providers is well-known, and allied health professions have an added advantage: by not limiting their students to nursing experience, they don’t worsen the critical nursing shortage.”

“Our students enter training with the same background as students entering medical school,” says Joe Rifici, AA-C, M.Ed., and Program Director of the Master of Science in Anesthesia Program at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. “They spend the next two years learning the science, skills and art of anesthesia practice, from simple to very intense cases, in subspecialties such as cardiac, neuro, obstetrics and pediatrics. The gold standards of AA training include affiliation with a medical school and AA students always being paired with an experienced anesthesia provider, which maximizes both the educational experience and patient safety. Everyone benefits, and as everyone who has worked with AAs can attest, it’s an educational model that works.”

If AAs can already practice in Texas, why go to the trouble to push for licensing? Says Mr. McHorse, “Other states are seeking to utilize AAs as providers, and they will look to states like Texas, where AAs are established and have proven themselves, for guidance. Texas AAs would be proud to help establish a public policy precedent, and promote Texas as a leader in AA regulatory affairs.”

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