Bariatric Times - January 2009 - (Page 34)

News and Trends works, including Aetna and Wellpoint, are also expected to follow suit in eliminating reimbursement for many “never events.” The OR1® Timeout Verification feature gives surgical teams a number of key benefits, including a comprehensive onscreen checklist with automated timestamps. The checklist can be accessed easily from within the surgical field or from the nurse station, and it can be routed to any surgical monitor. Automated alert functions notify the surgical team when any steps of the protocol are missed, and documentation is simplified by routing images directly to a capture device for storage or printing. “Many facilities don’t currently have an efficient means for verifying that the timeout checklist has been followed,” Bream adds. “Our OR1 Timeout Verification feature offers an ideal option for ensuring that surgical teams actively communicate and concisely document key details of verification procedures.” dencebased solutions to prevent patient falls. Both pressure ulcers and in-hospital falls are among the preventable conditions and events on Medicare’s “no pay” list. “Nurses play a role in all patient safety efforts and this scholar-in-residence program will give nursing leaders an opportunity to develop and share innovative solutions to these significant patient safety problems,” says Deborah Nadzam, PhD, FAAN, practice leader, Patient Safety, JCR. “At Hill-Rom we strive to use our resources in ways that make a difference every day in the lives of patients and their caregivers,” says Melissa Fitzpatrick, RN, MSN, FAAN, vice president and chief clinical officer for Hill-Rom. “We see collaborating with JCR in this important research as one key way to support the discovery of new solutions to truly enhance the safety and ultimate positive outcomes for patients. Collaborating with a world-class organization such as JCR enables us to accomplish patient safety goals that neither of us would be able to accomplish on our own. ” The goals of the program are: Bariatric Times • January 2009 As for the one surgery patient whose diabetes wasn’t reversed, the researchers said the reason wasn’t known, but they noted his mother and a younger sibling also had type 2 diabetes. Three years after the surgery, the teen was no longer overweight but still needed to take insulin. Another explanation could be that his diabetes was more advanced that the other teens, Inge said. Adult studies have indicated that the chances of diabetes reversal are better the sooner surgery is done after diagnosis, he said. “We caught the others in early stage of disease,” Inge said. “Did we miss the boat on this one?” improvement model and best practices for the prevention of harm. The program will be managed through JCR. Applicants are now being sought for the scholar-in-residence program. The deadline for applications is February 23, with the first scholars being announced in April, 2009. For more information about the program or to apply, please visit http://www.jcrinc.com/JCR-HillRom-Nurse-Scholar/. LIVER DISEASE MAY RESOLVE WITH WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY NEW YORK (Reuters Health)— Obesity surgery not only helps obese individuals shed a significant amount of weight, it also significantly improves or completely resolves a common obesity-related liver problem known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a review of published studies shows. So-called “non-alcoholic fatty liver disease” is an emerging problem related to the obesity epidemic. The prevalence of the condition is estimated to be around 70 percent in obese individuals and 85 percent to 95 percent in those who are morbidly obese. Studies have shown that weight loss achieved through bariatric surgery improves diabetes and lowers high blood pressure in obese individuals. However, the overall effect of weight loss on fatty liver disease remains unclear. To investigate, Dr. Gagan K. Sood from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and colleagues pooled data from 15 studies that looked at the impact of bariatric surgery on the liver. “Overall results are encouraging for improvement in liver disease associated with obesity,” Sood told Reuters Health. As expected, liver biopsies showed that the vast majority of obese individuals had clear signs of fatty liver disease. Obesity surgeryinduced weight loss improved or completely resolved fatty liver disease in most of the study subjects, Sood and colleagues report. For example, one severe, progressive form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease that can lead to cirrhosis and even liver cancer called “steatohepatitis” was present in 299 of 555 liver biopsies (53.8%) initially and the pooled proportion of patients with improvement or resolution of this problem was 81.3 percent, the team reports. “The most encouraging finding,” the team concludes, “is that a majority of patients experience complete resolution of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease after bariatric surgery, and the risk of progression seems to be minimal.” OR1® TIMEOUT VERIFICATION FEATURE NAMED INNOVATION OF THE YEAR BY SLS CULVER CITY, CA—KARL STORZ Endoscopy-America, Inc., is pleased to announce that its OR1® Timeout Verification feature was recognized as a 2008 Innovation of the Year by the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons (SLS). Recipients of this year’s Innovations of the Year were announced in September during the SLS 17th International Congress and Endo Expo in Chicago. Timeout Verification helps safeguard patients and increase customer satisfaction as an integral part of the KARL STORZ OR1® integration system. “Timeout Verification incorporated in the OR1 Icon Interface helps ensure that surgical teams are ready to perform the correct procedure on the correct patient and at the correct anatomical site,” says Devon Bream, Director, Sales & Marketing, OR1®. “KARL STORZ is the only OR integration vendor currently providing customers with a complete solution of this type.” OR1® Timeout Verification is a vital tool for complying with the Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO) universal protocol for preventing wrong site, wrong procedure, wrong patient surgery. This protocol requires a “timeout” immediately before starting a surgical procedure to enable the entire surgical team to actively verify and document key parameters. These include: correct patient identity, and position, correct side and site, agreement on the procedure to be performed, availability of correct implants or special requirements, correct x-ray film images, and certification of patient name and surgeon/physician. Beginning in October 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin withholding reimbursement for “never events,” which encompass medical and surgical errors that are so serious they should never occur, a definition that may soon include wrong site surgery. A number of major health net- JCR, HILL-ROM LAUNCH NURSE The study “opens the door” to weight loss surgery as a treatment option for severely obese teens with type 2 diabetes. —Thomas Inge, MD SAFETY SCHOLAR-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM Oak Brook, IL—Recognizing the important role nurses play in translating evidence-based findings to excellent care at the patient’s bedside, Joint Commission Resources (JCR) and Hill-Rom (NYSE:HRC), are collaborating to launch a Nurse Safety Scholar-in-Residence program in 2009. JCR is a not-for-profit affiliate of The Joint Commission. HillRom is a global medical technology company. The Nurse Safety Scholar-inResidence program will focus initially on developing tools and best practices to maintain skin integrity and prevent pressure ulcers. An estimated 2.5 million patients are treated for pressure ulcers in acute care facilities in the United States each year, according to studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2003 and 2006. In the future, expert nurse clinicians and scholars in the program will concentrate on putting into practice evi• Fostering the professional development of expert nurse clinicians and scholars to become translators of evidence into practice; • Identifying best practice processes and technology associated with providing safe care for specific clinical problems; and • Establishing hospital collaborative projects focused on clinical challenges and adverse events, initially relating to skin care and the prevention of falls. The selected nurse will serve a 12-month appointment as Scholar-inResidence and, in addition to other project responsibilities, will: • Receive training in patient safety and performance measurement and improvement; • Author a manuscript for submission to a refereed journal; • Participate in the selection of hospitals participating in the project; and • Coordinate the activities of participating hospitals and educate their staff regarding the performance http://www.jcrinc.com/JCR-Hill-Rom-Nurse-Scholar/

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Bariatric Times - January 2009

Bariatric Times - January 2009 Surgical Perspective Psychological Perspective Metabolic Perspective Editorial Message Table of Contents Editorial Board Anesthesiology Perspective Body Contouring Perspective Journal Watch Advertiser Index News & Trends

Bariatric Times - January 2009

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.