All Mental Healthcare Articles
  • How to stop overnight communication errors at your hospital

    Lisa Mulcahy Healthcare Administration

    Overnight shift workers at your hospital face unique challenges when it comes to effectively consulting each other. These issues can impact patient safety. From the sleep-deprived intern trying to ask the right diagnostic questions to optimum consultations strategies, you want to make sure your staff is always communicating wisely and effectively. The good news: these science-proven strategies can help cut confusion, refocus concentration and ensure accuracy. Use these strategies to make your overnight policies foolproof.

  • Healthy eating at work: It may save your life

    Victoria Fann Food & Beverage

    Poor eating habits and work seem to go hand in hand. Just ask my sister. She’s worked in the corporate headquarters for a large retailer for the past 10 years. I asked her how easy it was to eat healthy there. She said that it depended on what level of healthy I meant, and broke it down into three levels.

  • Take 5 minutes and pause when providing care becomes overwhelming

    Lisa Cole Medical & Allied Healthcare

    Whether delivering care at the bedside or ricocheting from one meeting to the next, we as healthcare providers can benefit by putting pauses into our daily professional practice. Why? Even the hardiest of us get tired, overstimulated or emotionally hooked during our day. We don’t operate at our best when running on empty. So, as a kindness and a responsibility to ourselves and others, let’s consider recognizing when we need to stop and rest — if only for five minutes.

  • Study: More mosquito-borne infections associated with early season hurricanes

    Lynn Hetzler Medical & Allied Healthcare

    Hurricanes and other heavy rainfall events (HREs) can affect the transmission of vector-borne infectious diseases in the southern coastal United States and other temperate areas of the world. Stagnant water left in the aftermath of a heavy rainfall event provides rich breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which increases the likelihood of human infection. The timing of a hurricane has a significant influence on a storm’s effect on the spread of these infections, such as West Nile virus, Zika, chikungunya and dengue, according to the result of new study published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

  • 5 easy ways to repair a relationship with a patient

    Lisa Mulcahy Healthcare Administration

    As a primary care physician or specialist, you know that patients stop coming to a physician for a wide range of reasons — some of which are understandable, some not. Perhaps a patient has had a frightening experience during a test or procedure, or maybe a patient feels he or she hasn't had their concerns taken seriously enough. The good news is that you can easily stop a patent from switching practices, or worse, avoiding medical care altogether, with these proactive and effective tips.

  • Unique patient identifier ban lifted in House vote, still faces Senate

    Scott E. Rupp Healthcare Administration

    The 20-year ban on the ability of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish a unique patient identifier has finally been struck down — in part. A unique patient identifier (or the lack of one) has long been a primary issue for health IT insiders and leaders. The U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of ending the ban June 12. If it becomes law, it would allow federal funds to create the long-sought-after patient identifiers. The bill now moves to the Senate to be taken up for debate.

  • Law enforcement agencies, lawmakers develop new steps to combat the opioid…

    Bambi Majumdar Law Enforcement, Defense & Security

    The opioid crisis is real, and it's growing at an alarming rate. Authorities around the country are taking whatever steps necessary to avert further deaths. One example is the new opioid crisis response bill signed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Now, prescription drug manufacturers and distributors in Minnesota will have to pay increased annual licensing fees to do business in the state. Under the new law, the fee is set to jump from about $200 to up to $305,000 a year. The increased fees will raise $20 million per year, which will go towards addiction prevention and treatment and addressing the opioid epidemic in the state.

  • Research explains why bullying exists, inspires strategies for change in…

    Amanda Ghosh Medical & Allied Healthcare

    Anyone who has experienced bullying at work knows how mind-boggling it is to see professionals misbehave. Fortunately, we’ve learned why bullying exists, so we know how to design safer workplaces. For example, not all uncivil behavior constitutes bullying. According to the American Nurses Association, bullying is "repeated, unwanted, harmful actions intended to humiliate, offend, and cause distress in the recipient." Incivility is "one or more rude, discourteous, or disrespectful actions that may or may not have a negative intent behind them."

  • Study: Mouth bacteria found in brain clots of stroke victims

    Tammy Hinojos Oral & Dental Healthcare

    A study performed in Finland found trace amounts of mouth bacteria present in brain clots of patients who suffered strokes. The takeaway? Good oral hygiene does more than prevent cavities. It could help to prevent a stroke. This was what the scientists proposed after finding DNA traces of oral bacteria in samples of blood clots that had caused strokes. Of the study population, 69.3% were men and 30.7% were women.

  • 5 surprisingly simple cost-cutters to employ at your hospital

    Lisa Mulcahy Healthcare Administration

    As a hospital administrator, reducing expenses is always a top priority. There are many technologically complex strategies you can use to cut expenses. Sometimes, however, simple logic can be your best bet. Researchers have identified a number of simple but highly effective ways hospitals can save money and increase patient safety. You can put them into practice immediately. Try these recommendations.