...Foodborne Illness Questionnaire SCI/162 Principles of Health and Wellness April 20, 2012 Write a 125- to 150-word response to each of the following questions: • What is the infectious agent (pathogen) that causes this infectious disease? For example, the name of the bacteria, virus, or parasite. Salmonella is a type of food poisoning caused by eating foods that are contaminated with Salmonella. Salmonellosis is caused by the Salmonella bacterium. There are a few different types of this bacterium, but the two different types most commonly found in the US are Salmonella serotype Typhimurium and Salmonella serotype Enteritidis. Young children, the elderly, and other people with compromised immune systems are the most likely candidates for having severe reactions to the salmonella bacterium. The most common way of contracting this bacterium is by ingesting foods that are contaminated, but also can be contracted by exposure to some animals ("Salmonellosis - Topic Overview", 1995-2011). The best ways of preventing salmonella bacterium contamination in your home are to only eat well cooked foods and to wash your hands after handling any uncooked foods, or handling animals (especially reptiles). • How is this infectious agent transmitted through food or water? Salmonella can be found in the stool of many kinds of animals. A person can become infected with the bacterium if he or she does not wash his or her hands after handling the animal. Certain animals, like hamsters...
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...Food-Borne Illness: Salmonella 1. What is the infectious agent that causes this infectious disease? For example, name of the bacteria, virus, or parasite. Salmonella is a bacterial infection of the intestines. It is also known as Salmonellosis. This bacterium is a shaped like a rod and takes on a reddish color. There are over 2,300 types of bacteria that make up the salmonella family. The bacterium that is the most common is Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium. Those types of bacteria are cause for over half of all cases of Salmonella. 2. How is this infectious agent transmitted through food or water? Salmonella is transmitted through food and water that has been in contact with feces. The most common ways salmonella is transmitted is through fruits, vegetables, undercooked meat, poultry and seafood. This happens though the process of harvesting food in unclean areas or in contaminated water. Other ways that Salmonella has been transmitted is through reptiles and amphibians because they do not get sick from carrying salmonella in their guts; they spread Salmonella through their droppings in their cages. Undercooked eggs or products that use eggs can cause a person to get salmonella if the chicken who laid the egg was infected. The lack of proper hygiene is the main reason that Salmonella is spread throughout so many places. 3. What is an example of a real life outbreak of this foodbourne illness in the United States? Around August 2012 there was...
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...Health Care Roles In Communication By: Daniel Jordaans University of Phoenix HCA 230 09/25/2011 Stephen Wilke 7 Communication is very important as you want to make sure all parties involved understand every piece of information that is being said in a conversation. When there is no communication than someone that is involved in a party will be left confused and might misunderstand what is being said. Concepts in the medical field can be very misunderstood as not everyone has the “lingo” medical terminology. Caregivers who do not make their patients feel comfortable might lead to that patient hesitating to ask questions, or even if a caregiver does not give adequate time for that patient to ask questions than that patient will surely be left confused about their diagnosis. Now caregivers can get overwhelmed just like a patient can, but the caregiver gets overwhelmed with how many patients they might see on a daily basis. This eventually leads to their patients not getting the accurate treatments that they should be having for the reason that they want to get straight to the point as quickly as possible. With being so speedy in seeing their patients this will ultimately lead to the patient not feeling comfortable, and will make the patient not want to ask proper questions about what they should do to better understand what the doctor has prescribed. To me I feel as if there is not enough communication between caregivers and their patients, therefore the patient may be...
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...Together We Stand James Leach University of Phoenix HUM111 October 21, 2012 Together We Stand We the people of the west community think something went wrong with the building process of the development of the community. We have noticed a number of outbreaks of residents getting ill. The illness is not spread past the housing community. We are concerned for the residents health and well being. We would like assistance in this matter so we can resolve the problems before they get any worse. Residents all received medical attention from their doctors. The doctors all rules out anything cause by viruses that were happening around the community. The evaluations from all residents were all the same no common illnesses around the community matched the one of our community. The doctor did tell us the cause of the illnesses could be caused by a gas leak from a long term espouser to a gas leak. The residents of the community still wanted to ask is there any other way something else could be causing this? Could it be a faulty part the gas company used? The community then had a different plumber that installed gas products to check each of the houses and see if there was any faulty parts. Then they checked the system for leaks. The findings determined there was leaks throughout the community in several locations. The gas company who installed the gas products during construction seemed to be at fault for this. The gas company could have not been installing the correct material...
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...Organizational Design on Health and Wellness Inc. l Health and Wellness Inc. The Department of Health and Wellness Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia, originally called the Health Department of Fulton County; this organization was originally founded in the year 1955 through a legislative ordeal by the Fulton County State Board of Georgia. When this action took place, the Fulton County Health Department was placed with many types of services under the jurisdiction of the state government. This organization meets the goal of families, and individuals with obesity related issues. The Health and Wellness Department is a health agency for the public individuals in Atlanta, Georgia, which is under the operation/supervision of a local government (Health & Wellness, 2011). There are several services and a number of different programs that provide comprehensive health care services for the Fulton County residents of Atlanta, Georgia. The organization may have developed internal issues, the external factors makes the organization very successful and competitive with other organizations. The services and programs includes: health programs for women and children’s, programs for infectious disease individuals, and environmental health programs. There are many other services that are available, such as programs for individuals with different types of health problems that include heart attack and stroke victims and also programs for prevention of these illnesses...
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...Ethical Issues in Nursing: Critically Ill Neonates Who decides and communicates the neonate’s prognosis? Where is the line drawn for treatment? Who is responsible for identifying positive versus debilitating outcome ratios in neonatal care? Who decides enough is enough? These questions only begin to touch the surface of what nurses and healthcare personnel face when it comes to providing ethical neonate medical care. According to Skupski et al. (2010), “The cusp of viability, where some but not all infants may be able to survive, has been pushed to incrementally lower gestational ages. The number of neonates born yearly at extremely premature gestational ages has increased dramatically.” (p. 579). With this said, difficult ethical decisions are becoming more and more demanding due to the advances in healthcare technology and treatment methods that give premature and critically ill neonates a chance at survival. Parents and families of these neonate patients grasp this advancement in health care and strive for positive health outcomes for their children, but in all reality health care personnel including physicians and nurses must work collaboratively to identify ethical health care goals to treatment and stand behind their decisions. The article, Moral Obligations of Nurses and Physicians in Neonatal End-of-Life Care, identifies several key objectives that deal with end-of-life care in neonates that focus on both the infant and their...
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...Changes in HealthCare We as a nation overspend all the other industrialized countries in the world for healthcare. The healthcare cost per annum runs into trillions of dollars that need to be trimmed and can be done by streamlining the healthcare delivery. We need to cut down cost by appropriately identifying and utilizing healthcare delivery resources; identify and eliminate waste; identify and eliminate fraud; control drug cost; enhance prevention mechanism and track and closely monitor patients with chronic conditions. There are a lot of impending changes in healthcare delivery that have been already implemented or will soon been implemented to bring down the astronomical cost of healthcare. The prime focus in this changing healthcare scenario is the cost of healthcare. This brings to forefront how we can best utilize our clinicians without lowering the quality and efficacy of patient care. General Physicians and Specialist are the highest paid healthcare workers. There are many functions they perform some of which are routine and some require special skills. The normal routine of gathering medical history; medication profile; body vital readings; height and weight; lifestyle profile etc can be efficiently documented by a nurse and does not need to be handled by a physician. The initial analysis of any patient can be done by a Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant. Then there are patients who have minor ailments or are patient with chronic conditions; palliative...
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...Case Manager Job Description: To provide ongoing support and expertise through comprehensive assessment, planning, implementation and overall evaluation of individual patient needs. The overall goal of the position is to enhance the quality of patient management and satisfaction, to promote continuity of care and cost effectiveness through the integrating and functions of case management, utilization review and management and discharge planning. Has accountability for the care, coordination and discharge planning of all patients. This position is accountable to the Director of Case Management. QUALIFICATIONS Associate degree in healthcare related field preferred. Bachelor’s degree is preferred. Licensed professional nurse may be considered. Bachelors or Masters degree in related healthcare field (such as respiratory therapy or social work) may be considered. Minimum of two (2) years of utilization review/case management experience or social work experience. Minimum of one (1) year experience in discharge planning from a hospital is preferred. Maintain current professional licensure in nursing or professional field of certification. Appropriate certification in case management preferred (e.g., Commission for Case management Certification (CCMC); Association of Rehabilitation Nurses (ARN)). SUMMARY OF MAJOR AND ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS Provides hospital case management/utilization review and discharge planning to assure that the patient progresses through the continuum of care and is...
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..."Hospitals should be motivated more than ever to commit resources and attention to patient safety...the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) eliminated or reduced payments...as preventable adverse events that should never occur in health care (CMS,2007)" (Thornlow,Merwin, 2009,p.263). Hospitals with the best outcomes, will be rewarded for their performance and hospitals with not-so-good outcomes will either receive no compensation or very little. Nurses play a vital role in the patients' stay at the hospital. Nurses interact with the patient everyday, and can immediately tell when the patient's health starts to decline. This means that nurses have to always be on their A-game. Unfortunately, with the hours and days that nurses work, and amount of patients nurses have a day, it can be quite difficult. One Sentinel Event that The Joint Commission published in 2011 was "Health care worker fatigue and patient safety." Fatigue can result from "an inadequate amount of sleep or insufficient quality of sleep over an extended period can lead to a number of problems." (The Joint Commission (TJC), 2011, p.1) One of the "problems" associated with fatigue was "slowed or faulty information processing and judgement" (TJC, 2011, p.1). This is dangerous to patients because it could lead to near misses, and medical errors that can be avoided. Every second counts in healthcare and if the healthcare team is impaired, the wrong decisions can be made. The Joint Commission...
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...Nurses strive to achieve the best quality of life for their patients regardless of their ailments, culture, religion, ethnicity, age and so on. Nurses are capable of assessing, planning, implementing, and evaluating care. Being a nurse requires someone who is able to care for others with a pure heart, rather than focusing on meeting merely the requirements. Nursing is a profession focused on the holistic care of individuals, families, and communities. Nursing not only focuses on what the health care team is concerned about but the patient’s outlook as well. It is an art combined with applied science to help people in their most vulnerable times, doing the things they cannot do for themselves. Nursing also plays an important role in balancing illness, health maintenance, and health education. It will always be the present and future of our economy. I want to be a nurse because I have a great desire to help people and care for them in times of need. I have been lucky enough to meet and work alongside some nurses who have inspired me, and I hope one day to equal their skill, attentiveness, and passion. I also think it would be very fulfilling that my input no matter how small, could impact the lives of those I care for. Also, nursing is a career with endless job opportunities....
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...Nurses use research to provide evidence based care that promotes quality health outcomes for the patients, families, communities, and the health care system. Nurses and other healthcare personnel are able to use the skills learned through evidence based research to decrease a patient’s length of stay, decreases morbidity and mortality, and healthcare cost. Nursing research is a scientific process that validates and refines existing knowledge and generates new knowledge that directly and indirectly influences nursing practice (Burns & Grove, 2011). Extensive research is needed to develop sound empirical knowledge for synthesis into the best research evidence needed for practice. This research evidence might be synthesized to develop guidelines, standards, protocols, or policies to direct the implementation of a variety of nursing interventions (Burns & Grove, 2011). One example of nursing research that has improved patient outcomes is through the use of VAP (ventilator associated pneumonia) bundles in an intensive care unit setting for patients that are intubated for more than twenty four hours. VAP is pneumonia that occurs in a patient who was intubated and ventilated at the time of or within 48 hours before the onset of event (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.) The Institute of Health Improvement (IHI) developed a ventilator bundle that incorporates several strategies to prevent morbidity associated with being on a ventilator. These strategies included: elevation...
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...for a specific illness. Those beliefs are seen daily from our older population of patients. Those beliefs are ingrained in them if they were born prior to 1960. Since they survived all the diseases (prior to 1940) that we now vaccinate our children from and they did not die from any environmental causes (1940-1950’s) from their work environment, they see no reason to a physician. It was also noted at this time that the environment that one worked in may be contributing to their state of illness, and it was noticed that you could ‘recover’ from your disease/illness but may not be able to be productive within society. It was during this time that the government started to get involved by funding hospital expansions and the development of the Department of Health Education and Welfare which is currently named Department of Health and Human Services. From the 1960s to the present, there have been incredible changes in the health care delivery system as federal and state governments have attempted to control spending and health care costs have escalated (Barr et al., 2003). Our current views of healthcare promotion are just that- views to PROMOTE health. Over the past 30 years, health promotion has been placed front and center in the health care arena. As evidence based research continues, we as healthcare providers have a better understanding of disease and illness within our society and gives us the basis for promoting health. Prevention of illness and disease is...
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...We Can But Should We: Quick Response Codes Quick Response (QR) Codes What is a Quick Response code? It’s a two- dimensional matrix/bar code. QR codes can provide a wide range of information to patients or family members on ones condition, or treatment. QR codes in turn can assist EMTs, or other healthcare providers with information about an individual such as allergies, blood type, DNR, emergency contacts, as well as other vital information that pertains to an individual (QR Codes in Education, n.d.). QR codes can be scanned or decoded by using quick response software or a scanner to access an individual’s information. With this easy process of accessing information it allows healthcare providers to be more efficient and more attentive with care provided to patients. Impact on Patient Care Delivery In the healthcare field time is of the essence when it comes to life and death situations. With QR codes medical responders are able to access important health information on individuals which in turn makes crucial health decisions simple. For example let’s say an emergency responder comes upon an individual who is not responsive (a diabetic but unknown to responders) as a result medical history such as allergies, medical problems or even current use of medication is now unknown. If this individual has a QR code then the responder is able to access all medical information allowing the responder to provide the best care possible without any major difficulties. Therefore these...
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...Running head: WOULD YOU RECOMMEND A FRIEND TO OUR HOSPITAL? 1 David M. Dowling Operations Management I Southwestern College 20 January 2011 Week 3 – The Culture & Quality at Arnold Palmer Hospital Running head: WOULD YOU RECOMMENT A FRIEND TO OUR HOSPITAL? 2 Abstract In this paper I will demonstrate the importance of instilling a culture of quality in employees and why it’s essential to establish a concise mission statement, code of ethics, procedures and processes that employees can utilize in order to carry out the hospitals philosophy and mission. I will also show what systems and processes I would set up in a new hospital to achieve a culture of quality in a hospital. The paper will also show some of the processes that the Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando, Florida uses to achieve such a high success rate in customer satisfaction. The bottom line of this paper is that it’s easy to claim or make the statement that a hospital provides a quality service. It’s another thing to deliver. Learned and established techniques from this text will help an operations manager achieve the desired goal for establishing an environment of quality, excellence and profitability. Running head: WOULD YOU RECOMMEND A FRIEND TO OUR HOSPITAL? 3 INTRODUCTION...
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...In medicine, compliance (also adherence or capacitance) describes the degree to which a patient correctly follows medical advice. Most commonly, it refers to medication or drug compliance, but it can also apply to other situations such as medical device use, self care, self-directed exercises, or therapy sessions. Both the patient and the health-care provider affect compliance, and a positive physician-patient relationship is the most important factor in improving compliance,[1] although the high cost of prescription medication also plays a major role.[2] Compliance is commonly confused with concordance. Concordance is the process by which a patient and clinician make decisions together about treatment.[3] Non-compliance is a major obstacle to the effective delivery of health care. Estimates from the World Health Organization (2003) indicate that only about 50% of patients with chronic diseases living in developed countries follow treatment recommendations.[1] In particular, low rates of adherence to therapies for asthma, diabetes, and hypertension are thought to contribute substantially to the human and economic burden of those conditions.[1] Compliance rates may be overestimated in the medical literature, as compliance is often high in the setting of a formal clinical trial but drops off in a "real-world" setting.[4] Major barriers to compliance are thought to include the complexity of modern medication regimens, poor "health literacy" and lack of comprehension of treatment...
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