Imagine this: It's a busy Saturday evening at the hospital. You are understaffed and overworked and it's one of those days where everything seems to be happening at once. The medics bring in a patient suspected of having a STEMI. You know that when time is tissue, every second counts, so you follow proper protocol and, when you need to consult the cardiologist, Dr. Smith, you simply send him a page and continue on with your seemingly endless list of tasks and patients that need your attention.
Hannah Ostrem
Recent posts by Hannah Ostrem
2 min read
Miscommunication Found to be #1 Cause of Preventable Disability or Death in Hospitals
Topics: Stroke STEMI Healthcare Communication
6 min read
Lactate and Sepsis: 10 things you need to know to save lives
EDITORS NOTE: The following content originally appeared on EMS1.com as content sponsored by Pulsara. Special thanks to our guest blogger, Drew Rinella, for EMS1 BrandFocus.
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Lactate may be used to identify a common killer in the prehospital environment.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), one million cases of sepsis occur in the US each year, with 258,000 Americans succumbing annually to this life-threatening systemic inflammatory response to infection. Early recognition is crucial to the recovery of the sepsis patient, and lactate plays an important role in the diagnosis of this killer. Here are ten things you need to know about using lactate to identify sepsis:
Topics: Sepsis
2 min read
New Study Shows Improvements in STEMI Treatment Time With Care Coordination
We've said it before, and we will say it again: inefficient communication is costing our patients -- big time. A
recent study revealed that changing the way EMS and hospital teams communicate -- specifically by coordinating emergency care as soon as EMS arrived on scene -- reduced treatment times for STEMI patients. The study's senior author, Dr. Christopher Granger of Duke University Medical Center said "
It’s absolutely clear that to save the lives of people having heart attacks we have to open the artery quickly. We can probably reduce mortality by 60 percent."
Topics: STEMI
2 min read
How the Sugar Industry May Be Responsible For Increased Heart Disease and the Obesity Epidemic
A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine yesterday, reports that the sugar industry, in particular the Sugar Research Foundation (SRF), sponsored and groomed major research in the 1950s which ultimately down-played the role of sugar in Coronary Heart Disease (CHD).
The SRF paid researchers to publish (in NEJM, nonetheless) findings that suggested that sugar played no major role in CHD, but rather that fat and cholesterol were to blame for increased rates in the disease. According to the JAMA article, "The industry would subsequently spend $600,000 ($5.3 million in 2016 dollars) to teach 'people who had never had a course in biochemistry… that sugar is what keeps every human being alive and with energy to face our daily problems.'”
Topics: STEMI
2 min read
Survey: Most Hospitals are Far From Ready for the 2017 eCQM Reporting Deadline
If you're like the majority of hospitals in the U.S., you have a long road ahead when it comes to preparing to submit
electronic Clinical Quality Measures (eCQMs) by the February 2017 deadline, as required by the
Hospital IQR Program. T
he program, following the 2016 IPPS rule, mandates that hospitals submit four eCQMs for patients discharged during the third or fourth quarter of 2016.
A
recent survey conducted by the
American Hospital Association (AHA), Federation of American Hospitals (FAH), and The Joint Commission, revealed that of the 900 hospitals included in the study, 78% of them were not ready for the upcoming 2017
quality reporting leg of the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program
.
Topics: Healthcare
3 min read
Montgomery County Hospital District EMS Publishes Study to Examine Pre-Hospital Evaluation of LVO Stroke
EMS often has the first contact with stroke patients, and as such, plays a major role in the ultimate treatment of patients afflicted with the condition. It is up to the medics that arrive on scene to determine the severity of the stroke, and using the information they gather, decide which facility to take that patient to, based on the hospitals' resources and patient needs. Since recent data has shown that
large vessel occlusion (LVO) strokes can be treated much more efficiently when a combination of t-PA and a clot retrieval device are used together (versus t-PA alone), a burden lies with first responders to distinguish LVO strokes and take those patients directly to intervention-capable facilities in order to achieve the fastest treatment and best patient outcomes.
Topics: Stroke EMS
1 min read
Geographic Information Systems in Healthcare: A Crucial Intersection
Geographic Information System (GIS) software has long been employed by public health agencies to assess the health of populations in various locations. But now, healthcare providers are starting to turn to GIS too, in efforts to better identify health risk based on location; as a recent article on the subject points out, there is a strong relationship between people's health and the particular communities they live in.
Topics: Stroke STEMI Sepsis
1 min read
The Key to Reducing Deaths from Coronary Artery Disease [Infographic]
The key to reducing Coronary Artery Disease Deaths? Simple. Spread Awareness!
Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is the most common form of heart disease, and it kills more than 370,000 people per year. Because its symptoms mimic those of many other common ailments, some patients can be led to believe they have come down with the flu, or are simply tired or stressed. For this reason, it is of paramount importance that healthcare providers raise awareness of CAD symptoms and prevention with their patients, and understand and prescribe a combination of the most effective treatments for those patients in which the disease is already identified.
Topics: STEMI
2 min read
Eating to Reduce Stroke and Heart Attack: What You Need to Know [New Research]
Well, the time is upon us once again. It is nearly our country's Independence Day, and while the holiday generally brings with it plenty of camping trips, music festivals, family barbeques, etc., it also tends to be a time when many Americans find themselves indulging in lots of fatty, salty, and simple carbohydrate-rich foods from all of those post-river 4th of July cookouts.
Don't worry! I'm not here to chastise you for that. It's necessary to indulge once in awhile! Instead, I wanted to share the results of an interesting study that examined the diets of people with heart disease to see what effects a Mediterranean style vs. a Western style diet had on their likelihood of experiencing a stroke or heart attack.
Topics: Stroke STEMI
3 min read
What EMS Teams Need to Know to Improve LVO Stroke Outcomes
Montgomery County Hospital District (MCHD) EMS is just one of thousands of operations across the country working tirelessly to find the best solution to the issue coined the "pre-puncture problem." As alluded to by its name, this problem concerns determining the most effective course of action for getting large vessel occlusive (LVO) stroke patients to the best possible treatment center in the very limited time frame afforded to them.
| Photo courtesy of Mongomery Country Hospital District EMS |
MCHD personnel have recently chronicled their experiences and insights from managing this issue in an article published on EMS1 last week, titled "LVO stroke: How to improve EMS response and patient survival."
Pre-hospital care is crucial in determining stroke patient outcome, and as such, many institutions like MCHD have adopted various tools to determine the severity of a stroke when faced with a patient displaying symptoms consistent with the condition. These tools ultimately help EMS teams decide whether to take their patient to a primary stroke center or to a comprehensive stroke center, even if the latter is further away.Topics: Stroke
2 min read
Experts Call for Care Coordination Solutions for LVO Stroke Treatment
Stroke care protocols and best practices are rapidly changing thanks to recent research that demonstrates the efficacy of intra-arterial interventional treatments over tPA in large vessel occlusion (LVO) stroke patients.
And as these new techniques become the standard of care, they also necessitate a change in the way care teams approach stroke treatment beyond the technique itself: there is an "urgent need for integrated regionalized stroke care networks," according to a recent article siting experts Louis Caplan, MD, Anthony Furlan, MD, and Werner Hacke, MD, PhD.
To meet this aim, updates will be needed in the way stroke care is delivered at every stage of treatment. "The thrombectomy studies have created an ethical and practical mandate to upgrade stroke care," the physicians stated in a recent JAMA Neurology article. "This mandate will require changes in systems of stroke care delivery at all levels of care."
Topics: Stroke
2 min read
The University of Mississippi Medical Center Improves Patient Outcomes with Smartphone App for Stroke and Cardiac Care [Press Release]
Topics: Stroke STEMI Press
1 min read
Good Shepherd Medical Center Awarded for Superior Stroke Care
Bozeman, MT — Pulsara is thrilled to announce that a long-time Pulsara client, Good Shepherd Medical Center (GSMC), has recently been awarded the Get with the Guidelines-Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award in recognition of their success in implementing quality improvement measures for stroke treatment as defined by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association.
Topics: Stroke Press
3 min read
Happy National Nurses Week from Team Pulsara!
Pulsara would like to wish a heartfelt HAPPY NATIONAL NURSES WEEK to all of the nurses out there who dedicate their lives to providing excellent care to those in need.
Pulsara is blessed to have several amazing nurses on our own staff. Check out their bios below to learn more about these incredible individuals!
1 min read
Pulsara Featured in Video Interview at EMS Today 2016 [Full Interview]
Still wondering exactly how Pulsara works to coordinate care between EMS and the hospital care teams? Know how it works but wish you had a step-by-step video to forward to friends and connections? Just want to watch Clinical Specialist Brandon Means explain the ins and outs of Pulsara on repeat?
Well, you're in luck.
Topics: EMS Press
2 min read
OUR BIGGEST RELEASE YET: Pulsara version 4.1.16
You asked for it. We delivered.
Pulsara is connecting you to the rest of your care team in more ways than ever. Version 4.1.16 now allows you to track (I.E. creep on) all of your colleagues!
With Pulsara version 4.1.16, you have increased transparency into your care team’s habits, keeping you more in sync than ever. Track your facility's doctors' and nurses’ bowel movements, send them digital “wrist slaps” when they order a second beer on that weekend outing and instantly activate your co-workers' smartphone cameras to see what they're up to - ANY TIME YOU WANT!
Topics: April 1
1 min read
Published Research Shows Pulsara Reduces Door-to-Needle Time by 40 Minutes
Since they started using Pulsara's Stop Stroke module, hospital teams across the U.S. have been shaving time off of their cases, ultimately saving their patients tissue and reducing their recovery times. But now, there is hard data to show just how much time is being saved.
Topics: Stroke
2 min read
A Heart Healthy Way to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day With Your Pooch!
...Okay, well the most obvious way to celebrate St. Patrick's day in a heart healthy way with your pooch would be to take him or her outside for a short jog. Seriously, new research has shown that even exercising even as little as 5 minutes per day DRASTICALLY reduces all-cause AND cardiovascular mortality. But I digress.
Topics: STEMI
2 min read
ThedaCare Joins Industry Leaders in Use of Pulsara Acute Care Solution [Press Release]
ThedaCare, a seven-hospital system in Northeast Wisconsin, serves over 200,000 patients per year and has always prided itself on being at the forefront of implementing new ways to provide the best, cutting edge medical care possible for its patients. Recently (also announced in a press release on March 14), this goal has materialized in the form of ThedaCare's partnership with Pulsara.
Topics: STEMI Press
1 min read
The Sunny (Literally) Outlook for Fighting Cardiovascular Disease
We all know that Vitamin D is an essential nutrient and that deficiency can cause mood disorders, fatigue, and muscle weakness. But research has also shown that decreased exposure to the sun correlates with higher levels of heart disease.