Noise levels

Noise levels at Geriatric Surgical Care Rehabilitation Services at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital reach levels that interfere with communication. Personnel yell with one another in corridors rather than communicate at more reasonable volumes.

For one hour a day the lights should be dimmed a bit and everybody instructed to try a lower voice volume. This has been done at medical centers with great success.

Heimlich Maneuver

Training is needed in the Heimlich Maneuver for geriatric surgical care rehabilitation services. Geriatric Surgical Care Rehabilitation Services personnel did not know how to act other than slaps on the back for a choking patient.

Lemuel Shattuck Hospital
Healthcare Acquired Infections (HAI)
January 1, 2006 - October 31, 2007

Month
*Hospital HAI Rate (%)
* Percentage equals number of total hospital HAI's
divided by the number of total patient days.

**Geriatric HAI Rate (%)
** Percentage equals number of total Geriatric unit
HAI's divided by the number of total Geriatric unit
patient days.

Data as of November 23, 2007

HAI Rate %   HAI Rate %
Hospital   Geriatric

2007
Average 0.057   0.092
October 0.100   0.490
September 0.050   0.000
August 0.050   0.000
July 0.020   0.000
June 0.080   0.280
May 0.090   0.000
April 0.040   0.000
March 0.040   0.150
February 0.030   0.000
January 0.070   0.000
 
2006  
Average 0.131   0.446
December 0.026   0.000
November 0.137   0.000
October 0.090   0.150
September 0.040   0.150
August 0.092   0.150
July 0.380   0.150
June 0.040   1.700
May 0.026   0.000
April 0.540   0.160
March 0.090   2.900
February 0.044   0.000
January 0.066   0.000

11/23/07

Noise levels at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital get too high for a healing environment.

Who designed the architecture for the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital?...

What information is there about the masterplan, long range planning for the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital?...

What are the infection rates for Boston's Lemuel Shattuck Hospital?... and at the LSH Geriatric Surgical Care Rehabilitation Service?

Update

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The telephone made available continues to have dropouts and warbling.

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There appear to be no advisory groups at the LSH Geriatric Surgical Care Rehabilitation Services available to people interested, concered or affected by the services.

> Have you looked at "cordless" systems such as this:

http://www.spectralink.com/files/literature/Assisted%20Living%20MM.pdf
http://www.spectralink.com/products/linkwts/index.jsp

> BTW, were there never any in-room phones, no old wiring to re-use ??
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Thank you !

Question
Are there any other systems like at
http://www.spectralink.com/files/literature/Assisted%20Living%20MM.pdf
http://www.spectralink.com/products/linkwts/index.jsp

There could be old wiring. What's problematical is the bureaucracy and
lack of leadership with respect to telecommunications.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The difficulties with the cellular and the cordless telephones are the
hospital equipment interference, telephone signal dropouts, telephone
signal garbling and telephone signal warbling.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

What can be done where cellular and cordless telephones do not work in
many areas of an old 1950's hospital building?...

There are no bedside telephones for patients unable to get out of bed
at Boston's old Shattuck Hospital that has repositioned itself as a
community medical center with 26 ambulatory care specialties and
geriatric acute rehabilitation services for traumatic injury, surgery,
a cardiac or neurological event, cancer and such.

It's a technical problem and a problematical bureaucracy!
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

> Many healthcare environments are putting in
> Ascom systems for on-site wireless...
http://www.ascom.us/products_ws_us/
freenet-vowifi-communication-system.htm

http://www.ascom.us/products_ws_us/
freeset-dect-communication-system.htm

Telecommunications specialists needed at Boston's Lemuel Shattuck Hospital

Boston's Lemuel Shattuck Hospital should have a telecommunications specialist on staff to look into telephone communications for Geriatric Surgical Care Rehabilitation Services patients. Routinely, temporary telephone setups are done for professional conferences. Just as routinely, temporary telephone setups should be done for patients unable to get out of bed. The logistics of moving patients to other areas of the building for telephone calls taxes a nursing department that could be attending to the more direct care of the patients.

Each patient counts

Each patient counts at the Geriatric Surgical Care Rehabilitation Services of Boston's Lemuel Shattuck Hospital. Fulfilling that ideal at Shattuck Hospital is problematical. Geriatric Surgical Care Rehabilitation Services patients not able to get out of bed have no telephones. It's 2007 not 1950. Isolating patients is costly. Isolating patients keeps families and friends out of the loop. Recovery is longer. Hospital stays are longer. Nursing department resources are taxed in fielding telephone calls from families and friends trying to keep in touch with patients. Patients' telephones keep patients in touch with families and friends advocating for patients care. Signal interference create battlefield conditions, dropouts, garbling and warbling with cellphones' signals and cordless telephones' signals. Wallwired landline telephones are needed bedside for Geriatric Surgical Care Rehabilitation Services patients at Boston's Lemuel Shattuck Hospital.

For example, an iatrogenic skin infection developed in a patient. The hospital acquired infection had not been attended to early on and family and friends were unable to keep in touch by telephone conveniently. Not having a working bedside telephone keep family and friends at too long an arms reach from advocating for more attentive care for the hospital acquired infection and then having a secondary infection checked out that developed.

A state of learned helplessness develops in the Geriatric Surgical Care Rehabilitation Services patients at Boston's Lemuel Shattuck Hospital. Not only the patients. The learned helplessness is evident among the frontline staff and hospital leadership. Weeks have gone by with the telephone communications difficulties unresolved, the leadership unable to fix communications at LSH. There's no board of trustees. No advisory group of stakeholders has been available to look into hospital communications difficulties.

October 22, 2007
Elderly not receiving proper amount of care
http://blog.case.edu/ccrhd/2007/10/22/elderly_care
Health Disparities Blog

First we learned that children were getting less care than adults. Now it seems the elderly are also receiving less than optimal care.

From HealthDay:
http://healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=609256

The study found that vulnerable elderly patients -- those at risk of death or functional decline -- received only 65 percent of tests and other diagnostic evaluations and treatments recommended for a number of illnesses and conditions, including diabetes and heart disease.

"Thirty-five percent of the medical care interventions they should have received were not provided, indicating significant room for improvement. We'd much rather have everything higher -- say, at least 90 percent," lead author Dr. David S. Zingmond, assistant professor of general internal medicine and health services research at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.

The original study can be found in the journal Medical Care.

Posted by: dmp26 (David Porter) October 22, 2007 02:58 PM | Category: Health Disparities
http://blog.case.edu/ccrhd/2007/10/22/elderly_care
Health Disparities Blog

Vendors of healthcare telecommunications services

Vendors of healthcare telecommunications services specialize in solving institutional telephone communications difficulties. Tufts New England Medical Center's telecommunications vendor is an example. Geriatric Surgical Care Rehabilitation Services at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital needs such services immediately. The consequences of delay affect the health of patients.

Wallwired landline bedside telephones

Wallwired landline bedside telephones are needed for Geriatric Surgical Care Services patients unable to get out of bed at Boston's Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Massachusetts .

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Keeping in closer contact with famlies and friends improves healthcare quality for patients.

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Patients in closer contact with families and friends can recognize any health difficulties sooner.

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Nursing Department is allowed more time for nursing instead of taking time to field telephone calls for patients.

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Shorter lengths of stay. More convenient contact with families and friends lowers anxieties. Less isolated patients are more motivated.