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April 2003
BD to halt most U.S. conventional needle sales
Becton, Dickinson and Company, Franklin Lakes, NJ, announced plans to discontinue U.S. sales of many conventional needles and other “sharps” devices across a range of product categories. According to the company, the actions coincide with the second anniversary of the April 18, 2001 compliance date for the Federal Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act, and reflect the progress made by U.S. healthcare facilities in transitioning to safety-engineered designs.
BD estimates that U.S. hospitals have transitioned over 80 percent of their sharps product usage from conventional to safety-engineered designs in the following categories: IV catheters, “needleless” IV connectors, blood drawing needles, winged needle sets, and lancet devices. The level of transition is lower for syringes and needles, surgical blades and scalpels as well as for certain other categories of devices utilized for specialty medical procedures. Across all product categories, the overall level of transition to safety designs remains lower in clinics and physicians’ offices than in hospitals.
A study recently published by the International Healthcare Worker Safety Center at the University of Virginia indicates that the incidence of sharps injury to nurses in a multi-hospital network of U.S. teaching facilities declined by 51 percent between 1993 and 2001.
Blood banks to start West Nile testing
As if alerts about SARS weren’t enough to scare the populace, with the warm weather comes word that blood associations are ramping up testing blood for West Nile Virus. According to a report from the American Hospital Association, blood banking associations late last week announced plans to begin testing blood for the West Nile Virus (WNV), a mosquito-borne virus that last year infected roughly 4,000 people in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Nationwide testing is expected to start around July 1. The program will use nucleic acid amplification testing to detect the virus' genetic material in blood, a process successfully used to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis C. Data compiled from the blood screening process will be shared with the public health community, providing enhanced real-time surveillance of human WNV activity. For more, see the announcement at www.aabb.org/.
Artificial heart recipient dies
Surgeons Laman Gray and Rob Dowling and the Jewish Hospital/University of Louisville/AbioCor team said they were saddened by the death of Keith Blakeley, the eighth recipient of the AbioCor Implantable Replacement Heart, manufactured by AbioCor Inc. Blakeley died of multiple organ failure Thursday afternoon, on the eve of his 80th birthday. The six-hour surgery to implant the heart took place January 7. Blakeley lived with the artificial heart 101 days.
Imaging is everything to JPC deal
New York-based Joint Purchasing Corporation announced it has signed into a three-year sole source agreement with Medrad Inc., Indianola, PA, a provider of vascular injection systems, magnetic resonance accessories and services that enable and enhance imaging procedures of the human body. The agreement will provide hundreds of JPC customers nationwide with the full line of Medrad products including its injection systems, syringes and disposables, MR surface coils, monitors and related equipment.
More sepsis, but lower mortality
The New England Journal of Medicine reports in today’s edition that the occurrence of sepsis in the U.S. increased annually by 8.7 percent between 1979 and 2000, to nearly 660,000 cases from about 164,000 cases. However, the total in-hospital mortality rate fell from 27.8 percent between 1979 and 1984 to 17.9 percent during the period from 1995 through 2000, although the total number of deaths continued to increase. Mortality was highest among African-American men. The average length of the hospital stay decreased while the rate of discharge to non-acute care medical facilities increased over the period.
Portex acquires sharps safety product line
Portex Inc., Keene, NH, announced it has acquired the MPS Acacia line of sharps safety products from MPS Acacia Inc., Brea, CA. The acquired products include: Saf-T-Wing blood collection sets, needleless blood collection and transfer sets, as well as the CVS2 closed collection system. Customer service, marketing, inventory and production operations are all being transferred to Portex's New Hampshire facility. Portex will be marketing these products as Portex Saf-T Wing blood collection sets, Portex needleless blood transfer devices, and Portex Saf-T closed blood collection system devices.
Materials managers admitted free to critical care meeting
Materials managers and others involved with specifying, recommending and purchasing healthcare equipment, devices, supplies and pharmaceuticals are invited to attend the 30th annual Critical Care Exposition, held by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, May 20-22 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio. For more information, check the AACN website at aacn.org and/or e-mail randy.bauler@aacn.org or call 1-800-394-5995, ext. 366, by May 14 to receive complimentary admission certificates.
Vanguard seeks to triumph over waste
Vanguard Medical Concepts Inc., Lakeland, FL, announced it has become a "Champion" of the Hospitals for a Healthy Environment's (H2E) national initiative to reduce medical waste and toxins from the environment. H2E is a joint program of the Environmental Protection Agency, the American Hospital Association, the American Nurses Association and Health Care Without Harm. Its goal is to reduce medical waste a third by 2005 with a 50 percent reduction by 2010.
Healthcare facilities generate 6,600 tons of waste per day filling thousands of acres of landfills. Incinerated medical waste containing chlorinated materials such as PVC plastic is the third largest producer of dioxins, potent carcinogens that cause hormonal defects in both animals and humans.
The role of H2E Champions is to support healthcare facilities to achieve the national waste reduction goals, providing information about the financial, public health and environmental benefits of medical waste reduction and offering products and services to help facilities achieve significant medical waste reduction. As an H2E Champion, Vanguard is developing a tracking program for its hospitals customers on the disposal costs savings they achieve through medical device reprocessing. This information will become part of each customer's hospital savings report starting early in 2003.
Shared Services logs on to software pact
Atlanta-based Shared Services Healthcare says it has signed a two-year agreement with ActaView Corporation to provide participating SSH members with software- and Web-based performance management solutions. ActaView, which is also based in Atlanta, is a software and services company providing healthcare performance management, business intelligence, dashboard and interactive reporting solutions for hospitals and medical centers.
Premier in green lab deal
Premier's group purchasing arm awarded Laboratory Environment Support Systems (L.E.S.S., Inc.), Scottsdale, AZ, a two-year contract for providing reprocessed laboratory disposables and recognized the supplier through the alliance's Environmentally Preferred Purchasing program. The agreement took effect March 1. In it, Premier members can use L.E.S.S. Inc. services to reduce costs in purchasing reprocessed laboratory plastics as well as to meet local objectives in best environmental practices.
Seeking more independence, Neoforma makes board changes
San Jose, CA-based e-commerce exchange Neoforma Inc. said that Robert
J. Baker, president and CEO of University HealthSystem Consortium has left the Neoforma board of directors, effectively immediately. Neoforma
says that Baker's transition from its board, similar to the recently announced transitions of former related party board members Mark
McKenna and Curt Nonomaque and the recent appointment of independent board member Edward A. Blechschmidt, enables Neoforma to increase its
board's independence. Baker will remain actively involved with Neoforma as an executive at UHC.
With the addition of Blechschmidt and the transition from the board of Baker, McKenna and Nonomaque, Neoforma's board of directors now has
seven members. Other directors include: Neoforma CEO Bob Zollars; Andrew J. Filipowski, CEO and chairman, divine, inc.; Richard D.
Helppie, chairman and CEO, Superior Consultant Holdings Corporation; Jeffrey H. Hillebrand, COO, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare; Michael
J. Murray, retired president of Global Corporate and Investment Banking, Bank of America; and C. Thomas Smith, retiring president and
CEO of VHA.
Hospital mergers at 10-year low
Hospital merger activity declined significantly in 2002, hitting its lowest level in 10 years, according to a report released yesterday by Irving Levin Associates. In 2002, 58 hospital mergers or acquisitions involving 101 hospitals were announced, down from 83 transactions involving 118 hospitals in 2001, Levin reports. A single transaction, the purchase of Health Midwest by HCA, accounted for more than 30 percent of the total $3.5 billion in deals transacted in 2002. The number of hospital transactions declined 30 percent in 2002 and has plunged by more than 70 percent since peaking in 1997. Much of the decline in activity over the past several years reflects the diminishing role of non-profit hospital organizations as buyers, Levin adds.
Seeking growth, Hill-Rom reorganizes
Hillenbrand Industries Inc. announced today that its Hill-Rom healthcare unit established a new business structure designed to "accelerate its strategy for strengthening its core businesses while investing in new revenue initiatives."
Hill-Rom officials also reported the Batesville, IN-based company expects to eliminate between 250 and 300 current salaried positions globally during the next 12 months. During the same time period, Hill-Rom also expects to hire approximately 100 new personnel with the skills and experience necessary to establish and support new revenue initiatives. Hillenbrand Industries expects these actions to result in a fiscal 2003 third quarter charge of between $9 million and $11 million and, upon completion, to reduce net operating costs between $12 million and $14 million annually.
Hill-Rom's new business structure consists of a Care Environment Division headquartered in Batesville consisting of patient platforms, architectural, furniture, medical gas and infant care businesses; a Clinical Division headquartered in Charleston, SC, consisting of its therapy surfaces business; a Services Division headquartered in Batesville consisting of the capital service, parts and information systems businesses and its service center
network.
Congress moves on smallpox liability
Congress late last week passed the Smallpox Emergency Personnel Protection Act of 2003, legislation that provides changes in the government's voluntary smallpox program that allow hospitals to provide vaccinations without fear of liability if someone they vaccinate should become ill. It also includes a compensation fund that pays up to $50,000 a year for those sustaining a disability after vaccination and a death benefit of $262,000, an important first step in providing a safety net for those few people who suffer an adverse reaction to the vaccine. Congress approved $43 million to help fund the bill.
AHRMM takes a swing at charity
The Association for Healthcare Resource and Materials Management announced plans to host its Seventh Annual Charity Golf Tournament on Aug. 17 at Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla, CA. All proceeds support the Project Perfect World Foundation, a group that provides humanitarian medical care to children in Third World countries. Last year, AHRMM donated almost $25,000 in proceeds to PPWF. This year's donation will go to help Ecuadorian children receive dental and medical attention. Torry Pines, recognized as one of the nation's premier municipal golf facilities, was designed by William Bell Sr. in 1957 and is home to the Buick Invitational. For more on the tournament or to register, contact the AHRMM office at ahrmm@aha.org.
Premier Safety Institute testifies on needlestick prevention
Premier's Safety Institute vice president Gina Pugliese spoke recently at the International Health Congress in Santiago De Compostela, Spain, explaining how universal healthcare worker and patient safety concerns have become more important than ever. More than 1,000 healthcare professionals attended the four-day event, which was broadcast to hospitals in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay. Pugliese presented March 26 on "Patient and worker safety -- preventing needlesticks, the U.S. experience." Pugliese was also interviewed by the Spanish newspaper, El Correo Gallego for an article titled "Transmission can be avoided."
Agfa and Novation in PACS pact
Irving, TX-based Novation and Agfa HealthCare, Ridgefield Park, NJ, have signed an agreement covering the full suite of Agfa’s IMPAX PACS solution products. Under the terms of the contract, Agfa will offer VHA and UHC members access to Agfa's innovative IMPAX, Image and Information Management solutions.
Sisters of Charity Providence Hospitals signs IT deal with Lawson
South Carolina-based Sisters of Charity Providence Hospitals and Lawson Software, St. Paul, MN, announced Friday they have agreed on a multi-suite contract covering Lawson Financials, Human Resources, Procurement and Enterprise Reporting products. Providence, which operates two facilities -- Providence Hospital/Providence Heart Institute and Providence Hospital Northeast - with a total of 311 licensed beds -- also licensed additional technology extensions, including Lawson Self Service, ProcessFlow Professional, Design Studio and Lawson Add-Ins for Microsoft.
VHA names two new board members
Shareholders of hospital alliance VHA, Irving, TX, have elected Edwin Dahlberg, president and CEO of St. Luke's Regional Medical Center, Boise, ID, and Gerald Miller, president and CEO of Crozer-Keystone Health System, Springfield, PA, as their two newest board members. The two succeed Van Johnson, president and CEO of Sutter Health, Sacramento, CA, and Thomas Priselac, president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles.
Novation announces support for standards code
Irving, TX-based Novation says it has given support to the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC) as the primary means for classifying products and will be adopting it for its members-only website,
Marketplace@Novation. Novation joins other GPOs in supporting UNSPSC through its involvement with the Coalition for Healthcare eStandards (CHeS).
Development of this taxonomy has been an industry-wide collaboration. CHeS recruited subject matter experts from 25 organizations, including suppliers, healthcare providers, group purchasing organizations, e-commerce companies, and other third parties to add and refine the standard's category codes to cover all healthcare products.
The UNSPSC enables users to consistently classify the products and services they buy and sell. UNSPSC is the result of a 1999 merger of the United Nations' Common Coding System (UNCCS) and Dun & Bradstreet's Standard Products and Services Codes (SPSC).
GHX, MedAssets HSCA form strategic alliance
Global Healthcare Exchange and MedAssets HSCA, the St. Louis-based group purchasing organization, announced yesterday they have formed a strategic alliance they say will make e-commerce services available to more than 16,000 healthcare providers. Under the terms of the agreement, MedAssets has selected GHX, which is based in Westminster, CO, as an integrated e-commerce solution for members of its GPO. As a result, MedAssets members will be able to purchase products via GHX's Internet-based trading exchange using pricing data contained in the CDQuick E-Catalog, supplemented by the accurate product data in the GHX AllSource catalog.
Premier in CAD group buy
Premier Inc. said yesterday it has signed contracts with Milwaukee-based Instrumentarium Corporation and iCAD Inc., Nashua, NH, agreements that which will make up a group buy for Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) imaging technology and systems for the early detection of breast cancer.
HealthTrust signs CAD pact with R2 Technology
HealthTrust Purchasing Group, Nashville, TN, says it has signed a two-year, dual-source contract with R2 Technology Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, for R2’s ImageChecker Computer-Aided Detection Systems. The contract, which was announced earlier this week, took effect April 1.
Special websites help scientists fight SARS
As scientists race to understand severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, they are turning to the Internet as a way to foster international cooperation where normally there is rivalry. According to a report published in the New York Times, researchers in Hong Kong, the U.S. and elsewhere have been sharing data in real time on secure websites designed by the World Health Organization.
"Instead of having all the laboratories work independently and highly competitively, all of them are sharing information with each other," says Dr. Stephen M. Ostroff, deputy director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control. Photographs and genetic data that were once constrained by the speed of FedEx or DHL can now be shared electronically and instantaneously.
WHO spokesman Dick Thompson says the websites were set up internally by the organization to give scientists a place to share data that were not ready for prime time. "People need room to chat in private," Thompson says. These secure websites have played a pivotal role in beginning to understand the coronavirus that causes SARS, and in beginning to identify which patients are at the highest risk of dying from the pneumonia. There are no private-sector companies involved in setting up the websites.
Trading data on the Web has also allowed researchers to figure out which patients are most at risk from the disease. Using the secure websites, clinicians have been able to trade photographs and chest X-rays instantly, helping them to better understand how SARS patients deteriorate. Comparing one patient to another has led them to conclude that people over 40 years old and those with preexisting heart conditions are most likely to succumb to the virus.
More than 2,600 people worldwide have developed SARS, and between 3 percent and 4 percent of them have died. This is much worse than the death rate in the U.S. for influenza, which infects 25 million people annually and kills 30,000.
However, of the 154 possible SARS victims in the U.S., none has died, making the death rate in America zero percent. Why would it be so low? Ostroff says it may be because American doctors are counting milder cases, which appear more like a bad flu and less like pneumonia. Previously, researchers could only point out people who suffered from the worst and most lethal form of the disease. "If true mortality is around 1 percent," Ostroff says, "then it would not be surprising we've had no deaths."
Scrushy takes the fifth
Richard M. Scrushy, the former head of HealthSouth Corp. invoked his right against self-incrimination at a federal hearing yesterday as he refused to answer more than 50 questions about an alleged $2.5 billion accounting fraud at the Birmingham, AL-based company.
Scrushy, who was fired as CEO by the rehabilitation company he founded 19 years ago, will soon be charged in a criminal indictment. The hearing, which will continue today, was over whether Scrushy's personal assets should remain frozen while the government investigates what it calls a massive accounting fraud at
HealthSouth.
Eight former HealthSouth executives already have pleaded guilty, and a ninth has agreed to do so. U.S. Attorney Alice Martin declined to comment about whether Scrushy would be charged criminally. Scrushy already has given a sworn statement in the case, and the government revealed it had a secret recording of him made by a former HealthSouth executive who is helping investigators.
One time, Scrushy’s attorney allowed the embattled executive answer a question directly. Asked whether he would have fired any employee who fraudulently altered HealthSouth accounts, Scrushy quietly replied, “Yes.”
Scrushy also said he didn't recall the value of HealthSouth stock he sold while with the company. The government contends it was worth about $175 million.
VHA honors three suppliers
Irving, TX-based VHA Inc. has recognized GE Medical Systems, Milwaukee; Boise Office Solutions, Itasca, IL, and The Burrows Company, Wheeling, IL, for their work in supporting VHA's network of healthcare organizations during the past year. The awards were presented Monday at the 20th annual VHA Leadership Conference in Boston.
GE Medical was awarded the 2003 VHA Partnership Award for value-added services, support of VHA activities and contributions to furthering VHA's strategic direction. Boise Office Solutions received the VHA Service Excellence Supplier Award for providing VHA members with value and service in business products solutions, including office products, paper, furniture and computer supplies. The Burrows Company, which has been a distributor of med-surg products for more than 70 years and has enjoyed a successful partnership with VHA since 1986, picked up the VHA Service Excellence Distributor Award
China accused of lying about SARS
A senior retired military physician said that China's health ministry was lying about the number of people hospitalized in Beijing with severe acute respiratory syndrome, noting that the number in military hospitals alone could be "up to 100."
Dr. Jiang Yanyong said he "couldn't believe what I was hearing" as he watched the minister announce last Thursday that there had been only 12 cases and 3 deaths in Beijing. He said doctors at the military hospitals were "furious" about the statement, noting that on that day the military hospital designated to treat SARS cases, the People's Liberation Army No. 309 Hospital, already had 60 patients and 7 deaths from the disease.
"As a doctor who cares about people's lives and health, I have a responsibility to aid international and local efforts to prevent the spread of the disease," Dr. Jiang wrote in his statement.
Another doctor in the Chinese health system, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were also dozens of patients at Youan Hospital, a nonmilitary hospital in Beijing that has been designated as a referral center for the disease, known by its initials as SARS.
While the total number of cases is still not great, the fact that so many have gone unreported in Beijing underscores China's continuing lack of openness in confronting an outbreak that has left 1,279 people ill and killed 53 in this country. Worldwide, 2,750 have been infected and 103 have died.
In China, health statistics are often regarded as state secrets, particularly if they are negative. Chinese leaders are particularly reluctant to release bad news occurring in Beijing, the capital.
VHA, Novation pick innovative products for “Technology Lab”
Irving, TX-based VHA Inc. and Novation, its supply chain management arm, announced the selection of 13 innovative medical products to feature in a "Technology Lab" at the group’s 20th annual VHA Leadership Conference, which concludes today in Boston. VHA and Novation suppliers were invited to submit applications to highlight their most innovative products that are on contract with either company. Almost 50 companies responded and the 13 products made by 12 of those companies were selected by VHA and Novation staff based on criteria such as the incremental benefits a product brought to patient care, how recently the product had been introduced and the level of innovation it displayed. The names of the products may be found at the group’s website www.novationco.com.
Tenet’s Barbakow steps down as board chair
Tenet Healthcare Corporation announced yesterday that its board of directors has approved a comprehensive set of initiatives designed to enhance corporate governance. As part of these initiatives, the board will select four new independent directors and elect a non-executive chairman. Jeffrey C. Barbakow will continue as the chain’s chief executive officer, but he will relinquish his role as chairman after Tenet's annual shareholder meeting later this year and will not stand for reelection to the board. The company also said its three longest-serving outside directors -- Bernice B. Bratter, Maurice J. DeWald, and Lester B. Korn -- will retire from the board as of the shareholder meeting. Tenet also said it has dropped plans to close 153-bed Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital, Marina del Rey, CA, because of what it said was strong community support for the hospital.
Cerner under gun from class action suits
Five class-action lawsuits have been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri on behalf of purchasers of Cerner Corp. securities during the period between July 17, 2002, and April 2, 2003. The actions allege that Cerner, CEO Neal Patterson, company president Earl Devanny, vice chairman Clifford Illig, CFO Marc Naughton and COO Glenn Tobin violated federal securities laws by issuing a series of materially false and misleading statements to the market throughout the class period that artificially inflated the market price of the Kansas City-based IT company's securities.
STERIS acquires washer/decontaminator Hamo
STERIS Corporation today announced that, through a subsidiary, it has acquired Hamo Holding AG, headquartered in Pieterlen, Switzerland. Terms were undisclosed. Hamo is a provider of washing/decontamination systems sold under the Hamo name. The acquisition gives STERIS, which is based in Mentor, OH, a stronger European presence and, combined with its Amsco Reliance brand of washing/decontamination products, allows the company to offer a wider range of sterile processing solutions to customers worldwide. Hamo, which is based in this country in Miami, reported 2002 revenues of approximately $43 million.
VHA releases participating figures
VHA members received $1.53 billion in total cash and other value through their participation in the VHA healthcare alliance in 2002, a 20.4 percent increase over 2001 results and the best year ever for VHA members, according to figures released today by the Irving, TX-based cooperative. VHA distributes a portion of its operating income annually to member healthcare organizations based on their participation in VHA programs. Total cash distributed to VHA members for 2002 reached nearly $276 million, including cash and patron's equity redemptions, as well as incentives paid to members through the company's group purchasing organization,
Novation. The report said that VHA saved its members an additional $1.2 billion through Novation and other initiatives.
In 2002, VHA members purchased more than $16.9 billion worth of products and services through Novation and VHA programs such as contract and consulting services, a 10.3 percent increase over 2001 member purchases. VHA's financial performance in 2002 represents a 68-to-1 return to VHA members. In other words, VHA shareholder and partner organizations received or saved more than $68 for every dollar spent to be a part of
VHA.
In addition, based on the most recent public reports, the group said that almost 850 VHA members are committed to
Marketplace@Novation and almost 600 are actually transacting business -- purchasing more than $23 million in supplies daily. For their participation in
Marketplace@Novation in 2002, members earned $22.3 million in cooperative dividends through the e-commerce pool.
The report also said that “based on support from members of the VHA and University HealthSystem Consortium alliances,” Novation has become the largest supply chain management organization in healthcare, managing more than $19.6 billion in annual purchases by both alliances in 2002; approximately $15.6 billion in purchases from VHA members, a 10.8 percent increase over 2001.
Nellcor, Alliance Medical join in co-marketing pact
Nellcor and Phoenix-based Alliance Medical Corporation said today that have reached agreement on a co-marketing agreement designed to enhance the savings opportunities each company's hospital customers receive under their respective remanufacturing and reprocessing programs. The collaborative "Reprocessing Plus" program will promote Nellcor's pulse oximetry sensor remanufacturing to Alliance customers who currently do not participate in Nellcor's program.
Under the agreement, Alliance will integrate the collections for Nellcor's sensor remanufacturing program into its AIM (Assessment, Implementation and Management) savings maximization program. Alliance's clinical area service representatives will assist with the gathering of Nellcor sensor recycling collection systems with their existing programs at specific facilities. Alliance says it will be able to fill a gap in its service offerings by providing Nellcor's remanufactured sensor program to customers who require this service.
Kowalski-Dickow seeks participants in supply chain survey
Milwaukee-based Kowalski-Dickow Associates says it is initiating the 2003 edition of its Hospital CEO and CFO Survey on Supply Chain Management Satisfaction and Expectations. KDA has completed this survey every two to three years since 1983. The survey is intended to help supply chain management leaders know and understand the perceptions and priorities of senior executives and better target their own efforts. The survey will be nationally distributed, and two IDNs will participate, with their results tabulated separately and compared with the national responses. Surveys are scheduled to go out by April 30, with results available by early July. Senior IDN and hospital executives interested in participating should contact KDA at 262-241-7060 or kda@kdaconsult.com.
For preventing SARS transmissions, wash hands, wear masks
An infectious disease expert with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined on Friday strategies hospitals should use when treating a patient suspected of having severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). As reported by the American Hospital Association, Linda Chiarello, R.N., an infection control specialist with the CDC's National Center for Infectious Diseases, said during a webcast that hospitals should assume all patients suspected of having SARS are highly infectious until proven otherwise, since the various modes of SARS transmission remain unclear. She said hospitals should watch out for transmission via airborne, droplet, contact and contaminated materials. She stressed that caregivers shouldn't ignore basics like wearing surgical masks, adding that proper hand hygiene "is the cornerstone of disease prevention." Also critical, she said, are administrative measures such as communication, education of staff and enforcement of policies and procedures. As of Friday, 115 suspected cases of SARS are under investigation in the U.S. and 2,353 cases and 84 deaths have been reported worldwide. Also Friday, President Bush signed an executive order adding SARS to the list of communicable diseases for which quarantine can be declared.
VHA to honor six organizations with leadership awards
Irving, TX-based VHA Inc. announced the names of six healthcare organizations that will be honored this year with VHA Leadership Awards for their efforts to improve clinical effectiveness, operational performance, supply chain management and community health.
The winning organizations are: Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, and Crozer-Keystone Health System, Upland, PA, for clinical effectiveness; Rockingham Memorial Hospital, Harrisonburg, VA, and WellSpan Health, York, PA, for Community Health; Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Newport Beach, CA, and WellSpan Health for Operational Performance and Service; Hoag Memorial and Health First, Melbourne, FL, for Supply Chain Management.
The awards will be presented during the opening session of the 20th annual VHA Leadership Conference in Boston on April 7.
Hospital employment rose 0.20% in March
Employment at the nation's hospitals rose 0.20 percent in March, following a 0.21 percent gain in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Hospitals employed a seasonally adjusted 4,296,000 people in March, which is 9,000 more people than in February and 2.4 percent or 103,000 more than in March 2002. Those numbers without seasonal adjustment show hospitals employed 4,292,600 people in March, 103,200 more people than a year ago. The nation's overall unemployment rate was unchanged in March at 5.8 percent.
Premier in laparoscopic pact
Premier Inc. announced it has signed a three-year agreement with Applied Medical, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, covering the GelPort Hand Access laparoscopic product line. The contract took effect April 1. The GelPort hand access device allows open surgery to be performed through a mini incision rather than the more common large incision.
Fearing SARS, cancer group cancels world conference
With experts warning that the number of SARS cases will rise in Ontario in the next few days, the outbreak has led to the cancellation of a cancer conference that was to bring more than 12,000 experts to Toronto from around the world. The American Association of Cancer Researchers conference was to begin this weekend, says the Toronto Star, but the organization said late yesterday it "has decided, with much regret, to cancel its annual meeting."
"There was a growing concern that clinicians would go back to their institutions and risk transmitting SARS to their patients who are immuno-compromised," said Margaret Foti, chief executive officer of the association. The virus claimed its seventh Greater Toronto victim, 57-year-old woman, on Wednesday, according to a TV news report.
Bruce MacMillan, president and CEO of Tourism Toronto, said the move will probably cost the city between $15 million and $20 million in lost revenue.
Three new cardiac adverse events reported in smallpox vaccines
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday reported three new cardiac adverse events among civilian smallpox vaccinees, including two cases of myopericarditis (heart inflammation) and one heart attack. The cases were reported March 24-30 through the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Event Monitoring System. The American Hospital Association and the April 4 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report say that the myopericarditis cases involved a 56-year-old man with a history of mild hypertension and hypertriglyceridemia who was revaccinated, and a 32-year-old woman with no history of cardiac disease or risk factors for coronary artery disease who was vaccinated for the first time. Both patients have recovered. The heart attack was experienced by an active 64-year-old man with a history of dyspnea on exertion and productive cough for three months, and eight previous smallpox vaccinations. He returned to work on March 31.
New York Fire Department to use B. Braun Safety IV Catheters
B. Braun Medical Inc., Bethlehem, PA, announced that the New York City Fire Department has signed a contract for its Introcan Safety IV Catheter, an IV catheter designed to protect against accidental needlestick injuries that can cause exposure to bloodborne pathogens including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV).
Materials managers admitted free to critical care meeting
Materials Managers and others involved with specifying, recommending and purchasing healthcare equipment, devices, supplies and pharmaceuticals are invited to attend the 30th annual Critical Care Exposition held by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, May 20-22 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, TX. For more information, e-mail randy.bauler@aacn.org or call 1.800.394.5995, ext. 366 no later than May 14 to receive complimentary admission certificates.
Betty J. Shultz takes over as AORN president
The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses announced that Betty J. Shultz, RN, CNOR, has become the association's national president and will serve a one-year term. Shultz is the president and perioperative educator at Surgical Services Specialists, Westlake, OH, and a staff nurse and RN first assistant at University Health Systems of Cleveland. She has been a perioperative nurse for 36 years and a member of AORN for 30 years, and has actively served AORN as a volunteer, including serving as vice president, secretary, and a member of the group's national board of directors.
The group also announced that William J. Duffy, RN, BSN, MJ, CNOR, an assistant vice president of perioperative services at Evanston (IL) Northwestern Healthcare Corp., has been elected AORN's president-elect. Duffy, a perioperative nurse for 22 years and a member of AORN for 20 years, will serve as president-elect for one year and then assume the presidency the following year.
JCAHO to conduct unannounced surveys in 2006
The board of commissioners of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations yesterday announced its intent to begin conducting all regular accreditation surveys on an unannounced basis beginning in January 2006. Unannounced surveys will be pilot-tested in volunteer organizations during 2004 and 2005. Joint Commission says that plans to introduce a substantially new accreditation process beginning in January 2004 have been widely discussed with accredited healthcare organizations during the past year. The proposal to transition to unannounced surveys - approved by the board of commissioners at its March 28-29 meeting - was a direct outgrowth of those discussions.
AmeriNet puts contracting process on website
St. Louis-based AmeriNet said yesterday that it now handles all contracting inquiries and its bid calendar process for potential suppliers through its website, www.amerinet-gpo.com. According to the group, prospective suppliers should look at the site for information about contracting criteria, reviewing the bidding calendar and submitting information. The GPO says that the online process is now AmeriNet's primary method of accepting and reviewing new supplier information.
Nothing to sneeze at: flu shots could cut cardiac hospital stays
Flu shots may do more for the elderly than fend off the flu, new research shows. The shots may also protect against heart disease and stroke. A study of more than 286,000 people older than 65 that appears today in The New England Journal of Medicine says hospital stays for heart disease or stroke over two flu seasons were substantially reduced for people who had flu vaccinations.
"Influenza may be even worse than we thought," said an author of the paper, Dr. Kristin Nichol of the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center. "And flu shots might be even better than we thought."
The researchers checked medical records for people older than 65 enrolled in managed-care plans in New York, Minneapolis and Portland, OR, for 1998-99 and 1999-2000. In each season, more than half the subjects had received shots. They had 19 percent less time in hospitals for heart disease than unvaccinated people. Hospital stays for stroke fell 16 percent the first season and 23 percent the second. The researchers also found that the immunized groups spent a third less time in the hospital for pneumonia, a common complication, and had just half the risk of death from any cause. The findings are similar to previous studies.
Dr. William Schaffner, who is in charge of preventive medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said the results needed to be investigated further, but they reinforced an important message.
"It offers even more reassurance and affirmation as to the importance of getting your flu shot annually," Dr. Schaffner said.
Flu shots are recommended for adults 50 and older. In 2001, 63 percent of Americans older than 65 were vaccinated.
Tenet hospital charged with widespread violations
The California Department of Health Services in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said yesterday they have cited Tenet Healthcare's San Ramon Medical Center in the San Francisco Bay Area for what they term “widespread patient care violations” that have posed a significant threat to patient safety and comfort, according to a 125-page combined complaint. Among the findings are serious deficiencies in procedures for patients undergoing coronary bypass and other major surgeries, including failure to provide the required number of surgeons and the use of non-credentialed, improperly qualified support staff; outdated, mislabeled and unusable drugs on hospital crash carts, and failure to ensure that drugs are kept in locked storage areas; lack of policies or procedures for nutritional screening and assessment of neo-natal and pediatric patients; failure to secure an autopsy in all cases of unusual death; unsafe, unsanitary, and cross contamination conditions in the kitchen; and dead end corridors and other code violations that state fire marshals say "have created a life safety hazard."
The violations are a result of inspections by health officials conducted over a period of months. Nearly half of the violations have to do with a recently opened pediatric sub unit that opened in November 2002. Many serious problems were also documented during a survey in October 2002, with the hospital cited for failure to assure proper procedures, especially in cardiac surgery.
Three CO nurses may not have SARS after all
Three Colorado nurses who returned to Denver last week after touring health clinics in China and were thought to have contracted the deadly SARS virus may not have the lethal disease after all. According to a report this morning in the Rocky Mountain News, all three nurses are improving. None of the three, who returned to Colorado recently after an Asian trip, have developed pneumonia, which is the stage at which a suspicious case becomes a probably SARS case, according to CDC guidelines.
Spacesaver packs away pair of renewals
Spacesaver Corp., Fort Atkinson, WI, announced it has signed contract renewals with both Premier Inc. and Broadlane. Each agreement, both of which are for three years, covers Spacesaver’s lines of storage units.
Guidant buys stake in bioabsorbable stent developer
Indianapolis-based Guidant Corporation announced plans to acquire an early-stage company founded by SyneCor, LLC, a medical technology generator of new life sciences companies based in Research Triangle Park, NC, and Menlo Park and Santa Rosa, CA. The venture is working to develop new, fully bioabsorbable vascular stent platforms that will be safely absorbed by tissue following the restoration of blood flow in patients with coronary artery disease. Under the terms of the agreement, Guidant purchased a 51 percent stake in the company for $10 million. Upon meeting certain conditions of the agreement, Guidant will purchase the remaining 49 percent for $6 million, which is expected to occur in early 2004. Guidant also will make payments upon the achievement of certain regulatory milestones.
CDC issues infection control guidance for SARS
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued infection control guidance for people who live or have very close contact with patients suspected of having severe acute respiratory syndrome. According to the
CDC, SARS patients should limit interactions outside the home and should not go to work, out-of-home day care, or other public areas for 10 days after respiratory symptoms and fever are gone. It said people living with SARS patients should wash their hands frequently or use alcohol-based rubs, and wear disposable gloves for contact with the patient's body fluids. Patients or household members also were advised to wear a surgical mask during close contact.
CDC director Julie Gerberding, M.D., said investigators still believe the disease is spread primarily through droplets spread when an infected person coughs or sneezes, but “are concerned about the possibility of airborne transmission across broader areas and also the possibility that objects that become contaminated in the environment could serve as modes of spread." She said the disease is still primarily limited to travelers to Asia and to healthcare personnel and others who have had close contact with SARS patients. For CDC SARS updates, go to
www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/.
Novaplus line posts record return
Irving, TX-based Novation says that its Novaplus private-label program has provided hospitals the highest savings recorded in the program’s 18-year history. According to Novation, by choosing to purchase Novaplus brand products, VHA and UHC members saved an average of more than 14 percent over name-brand products in 2002, savings estimates that the group says were based on price comparisons of more than 45 studies, covering more than 700 line items. VHA and UHC members purchased $1.4 billion in mostly commodity supplies under the Novaplus brand in 2002.
CDC urges more smallpox vaccination exclusions
Three days after the government suspended smallpox vaccinations for people known to have heart disease, the New York Times reports that a panel of medical advisers recommended yesterday that people who have three or more major risk factors for cardiac disease —smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol — also be excluded. The initial suspension was announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which had received reports that seven healthcare workers had developed cardiac problems after being voluntarily vaccinated as part of the government's program to prepare medical teams to cope with a bioterror attack. Two of the workers, women in their 50's, died of heart attacks.
Health officials said it was not known whether the vaccine caused the heart problems, or whether they were coincidental, but the officials decided to defer vaccinations for some people until the issue could be studied further.
Heart disease includes conditions like a previous heart attack, chest pains, cardiomyopathy or other evidence of coronary artery disease. The recommendation to add risk factors to the list of exclusions was made yesterday at an emergency meeting of a panel of medical experts that advises the disease control centers. Some of the health workers who had heart trouble after being vaccinated had the cardiac risk factors that the panel said should now be used to exclude people from the vaccine program.
Abbott completes bar code initiative
Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL, says it has completed its initiative to affix unit-of-use bar codes to 100 percent of its hospital injectable pharmaceuticals and IV solutions. The project, which encompasses more than 1,000 products, is part of Abbott's initiative to help reduce medication errors and enhance patient safety in hospitals.