By Roger Guzman, M.D.
Community Guide? This plays a role in the fight against diabetes. And the National Diabetes Education Program has recognized the community as the place where people live, work and play. It is here where the diabetics utilize the facilities and where the team who helps them can use the resources in order to reach others who need support. This is how the community guide was born.
Better treatment and results are the ultimate goals. It will be easier to meet the diabetest (Note: The two words diabetes and test are put together.) challenge with the use of the community guide. Having met this adversity, the diabetics need the support to learn to deal with it. Despite the heart and the determination to carry on, they still need all the help they can get to keep up their commitment in meeting this challenge.
The greatest influence the resource people can do for the diabetics is to confirm to them that setting goals, hard work and preparation along with time management and discipline do pay off. People who have achieved their realistic goals as to their blood sugar level target attribute this success to the help accorded to them.
The resource persons will inform those concerned that diabetes is a serious disease that is costly but controllable. So how will they accomplish this noble gesture? They run campaigns and promote the scheduling the people with diabetes have to follow in order to beat this condition. All these will prepare them for the challenges they face.
From talks of diabetes educators that the community guide sponsor, the diabetics can learn that the most important thing they need is self-discipline. In anything one has to do, it is important to motivate and push oneself to improve. This winning attitude will help a lot in achieving the goals. Those who feel the gloom for having developed diabetes are helped to learn to leave the past where it belongs and focus on what to do to get well.
There is a community health representative (CHR) who can help the diabetics. This is someone in the community who can work with the diabetic and his family and the rest of the health care team which is a critical influence on keeping those with diabetes strong.
These health representatives are usually in the rural areas where contact with the doctors is more difficult. CHRs have to complete a skill test and attend a four-day training session. Of course, the skill and strength will be different depending on the individual CHR but they are required to update their skills yearly. These representatives are more common in Aboriginal communities.
An example of this is the SLDP (Sioux Lookout Diabetes Program) that provides assistance to Cree First Nations and Ojibway people from thirty communities that are so remote many of which can only be reached by plane. These professionals go to these remote communities to provide the education needed that the community guide advocates. The beauty of this type of program is the fact that they can make it fit the needs of the local group.
Please visit these sites for more diabetes help: [http://www.free-symptoms-of-diabetes-alert.com/communityguide.html]Community Guide Shows How To Get Involved and Sign Up for our Free Newsletter [http://www.free-symptoms-of-diabetes-alert.com/diabetesmeters1.html]What the Community Can Do
Brief Biography: Dr. Guzman worked for the Atlantic Health Corporation and was consultant to St. Joseph's Hospital, Sussex Mental Health Clinic, and St. Stephen Mental Health Clinic for many years. He was Director of Forensic Psychiatry at Centracare for ten years and published numerous articles in the Journal of the American College of Forensic Psychiatry and other medical magazines.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com
Saturday, November 27, 2010
A Conceptual Approach to Community Health Screenings For Hospitals
By Kevin Felker
The heart of a community's care is at its most trusted hospitals. In the same way that blood flows into and out of the heart, your hospital's message should flow out into the community with grass-roots marketing efforts in order to bring patients back into your hospital for care. By this I mean that a hospital's marketing efforts should not only focus on drawing patients into their facilities with billboards and magazine ads, but go beyond basic marketing efforts and into the community by offering free health screening events. In my experience working with one of the best hospitals in the South, I came to discover an effective system for coordinating free community health screenings that significantly increased patient volume to the hospital. What I have discovered is a concept, and I will explain the most successful way to develop your own community screenings program so that it will become a consistent source of revenue to your hospital, and build long-term patient loyalty.
In my experience working with a hospital in the South, I coordinated a community outreach program that offered free EKG testing. These tests were taken at free community events and were later confirmed as normal, borderline, or abnormal in the hospital's clinical database and were stored as baselines for each of the patients who attended the community events. In notifying the attendees of their results by mail, the attendees received a confirmed copy of their EKG which they could keep for their own records. The EKG program increased volume and accounted for $6M in hospital charges from June 2008 to August 2009. The EKG program brought in $2.5M in second quarter 2008, $1.6M in fourth quarter 2008, and $1.9M in first quarter 2009. This data was last updated in August of 2009.
There are many reasons why the EKG test is the most effective for driving volume for cardiac procedures, and generating revenue in total hospital admissions. These reasons include the nature of the EKG test itself, CRM and the process of event planning, and the follow-up that creates patient loyalty.
The first and most important reason why the EKG test is ideal for community events is because of the simple nature of the test itself. With the EKG test, the result can only be 1 of 3 things - abnormal, borderline, or normal. The EKG tests can be taken at the community event, the results can be processed at the hospital, and the confirmed results can be mailed to the attendee within 2 weeks of the community event. The fact that the EKG result comes in the form of a single paper report makes it easy to mail, and can be stored in a person's medical file for their own records.
If an attendee receives abnormal or borderline test results in the mail, they are also likely to follow up if given a call to action. From my experience in coordinating this campaign for over a year, 9% of EKG tracings were found to be abnormal, 11% were borderline, and 80% were normal. Out of 875 guests that received EKG's among 9 community events between February and April, there were 181 borderline or abnormal results. Among these 181 people, 162 people followed up with the hospital's call center for either a physician referral, an inquiry about the result, or a request for information from agencies that help the uninsured.
With a screening such as a carotid ultrasound, the spectrum of abnormality is more diverse - it is more complex and too specific of a test for a community offering. Also, an ultrasound machine is usually costly, and if a hospital's marketing department does not purchase its own equipment, there is a risk of damage in borrowing machinery from the hospital, if the event is held offsite. EKG machines are relatively inexpensive in comparison if they are being used for the purpose of offering free tests as a community outreach program. The hourly cost of an ultrasound technician in comparison to a medical assistant is also a factor to consider.
With a screening such as a full lipid panel, results are sensitive, so participants are advised to fast for the best results. An EKG test does not require fasting. EKG tests usually take less than five minutes on average. That means more EKG's can be done at events with less staffing.
The idea of storing EKG's as a baseline is also a marketable service - patients are made aware that if their EKG tracing is stored at your hospital, then heart care is readily available to them at your hospital too.
Another important step to creating a successful community EKG program is to advertise the events through direct mail and coordinate the process of booking appointments for these events. Research is performed to select the best zip codes in the community that have the highest household income to increase the likelihood of attracting a favorable payor mix to the events. A mailer should also be targeted for people who have the highest incidence of heart disease - those aged 45 and up. Once a direct mailer goes out, appointments can be booked for a full day. With 2 EKG technicians and 2 machines, over 100 people can receive EKG screenings in an 8 hour day.
In my experience, the appointments were successfully booked through the hospital's call center once the direct mailer reached homes. The information obtained through the call center is requested by the hospital's marketing department, and usually includes basic personal information such as first name, last name, date of birth, phone number, and address. Any basic information can be requested from the guest by the call center. This information can be used for a few purposes.
The first purpose is that it keeps an appointment log for the day of the event. The second is that this information is later used to process and send the results of the screenings to the person's house. The action of following up with the guest is the most important part of gaining patient loyalty.
Finally, by holding community events several times per year, there will be a loyalty group that forms a customer relationship with your hospital. In my experience, I have seen the number of loyal patients who regularly attended the hospital's community events. In the campaign of EKG screenings held between February and April of 2009, 71 guests had previously attended the hospital's community EKG events several months prior.
Building patient loyalty is simple, and there are multiple ways in which a hospital can do this creatively. A hospital should always follow up with guests who attended community screening events. Make sure that the results of their testing arrive in a timely manner. Make sure that the content of their results letter emphasizes the availability of care at your hospital. Think of creative ways to send the message of trusted care to the audience, and ways to keep them connected to you. One simple way of doing this is printing a patient identification card that includes the attendee's MRI number. If a person was to return to the hospital's emergency department with chest pain and present their patient identification card, the hospital's EKG department can quickly access their baseline EKG for a comparison.
Another way of building patient loyalty is through the use of a "patient care coordinator." Many hospitals implement a "patient care coordinator" who follows up with patients receiving serious care. In my experience, a patient care coordinator was successfully implemented in a campaign of community EKG screenings between June and July of 2008. During this campaign, attendees of the events who had borderline and abnormal results were contacted for follow up by a registered nurse. Of the 242 people who had non-normal results, 144 received physician referrals to seek follow up care. The remaining attendees were under the care of a cardiologist already, or declined to take action.
You might be thinking, "So if my hospital develops a free EKG program, I will have both long term patient loyalty and significant admissions within 3 - 6 months following a campaign of screening events?" The answer is a flat, simple yes.
If a hospital is interested in pursuing a community program that offers free health screenings, I strongly recommend structuring the program to involve free EKG testing. In comparison to other screenings, such as cholesterol testing and carotid ultrasound, EKG testing stands to show the most consistent success, and proves to be the most conducive for a community offering. It is a simple test that is non-invasive, and its simplicity allows several avenues for patient follow up. These avenues include uploading the EKG in the hospital's database as a baseline, mailing a copy of the report to the attendee's house after the event, and following up with the patient through the use of a patient care coordinator.
There are many more details that are involved in the development of an EKG program at a hospital. Those details may vary depending upon the resources available at your hospital. However, it is my belief that in working together as a team, any hospital can develop a successful community screenings program that will prove to be beneficial by producing revenue in the short term, and building patient loyalty in the long term.
By: Kevin Felker
Kevin Felker is a consultant specializing in marketing for hospitals. He has a niche for developing in-house community health programs to promote cardiovascular services. Follow him at [http://hospitalmarketingsolutions.wordpress.com/]http://hospitalmarketingsolutions.wordpress.com/.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com
The heart of a community's care is at its most trusted hospitals. In the same way that blood flows into and out of the heart, your hospital's message should flow out into the community with grass-roots marketing efforts in order to bring patients back into your hospital for care. By this I mean that a hospital's marketing efforts should not only focus on drawing patients into their facilities with billboards and magazine ads, but go beyond basic marketing efforts and into the community by offering free health screening events. In my experience working with one of the best hospitals in the South, I came to discover an effective system for coordinating free community health screenings that significantly increased patient volume to the hospital. What I have discovered is a concept, and I will explain the most successful way to develop your own community screenings program so that it will become a consistent source of revenue to your hospital, and build long-term patient loyalty.
In my experience working with a hospital in the South, I coordinated a community outreach program that offered free EKG testing. These tests were taken at free community events and were later confirmed as normal, borderline, or abnormal in the hospital's clinical database and were stored as baselines for each of the patients who attended the community events. In notifying the attendees of their results by mail, the attendees received a confirmed copy of their EKG which they could keep for their own records. The EKG program increased volume and accounted for $6M in hospital charges from June 2008 to August 2009. The EKG program brought in $2.5M in second quarter 2008, $1.6M in fourth quarter 2008, and $1.9M in first quarter 2009. This data was last updated in August of 2009.
There are many reasons why the EKG test is the most effective for driving volume for cardiac procedures, and generating revenue in total hospital admissions. These reasons include the nature of the EKG test itself, CRM and the process of event planning, and the follow-up that creates patient loyalty.
The first and most important reason why the EKG test is ideal for community events is because of the simple nature of the test itself. With the EKG test, the result can only be 1 of 3 things - abnormal, borderline, or normal. The EKG tests can be taken at the community event, the results can be processed at the hospital, and the confirmed results can be mailed to the attendee within 2 weeks of the community event. The fact that the EKG result comes in the form of a single paper report makes it easy to mail, and can be stored in a person's medical file for their own records.
If an attendee receives abnormal or borderline test results in the mail, they are also likely to follow up if given a call to action. From my experience in coordinating this campaign for over a year, 9% of EKG tracings were found to be abnormal, 11% were borderline, and 80% were normal. Out of 875 guests that received EKG's among 9 community events between February and April, there were 181 borderline or abnormal results. Among these 181 people, 162 people followed up with the hospital's call center for either a physician referral, an inquiry about the result, or a request for information from agencies that help the uninsured.
With a screening such as a carotid ultrasound, the spectrum of abnormality is more diverse - it is more complex and too specific of a test for a community offering. Also, an ultrasound machine is usually costly, and if a hospital's marketing department does not purchase its own equipment, there is a risk of damage in borrowing machinery from the hospital, if the event is held offsite. EKG machines are relatively inexpensive in comparison if they are being used for the purpose of offering free tests as a community outreach program. The hourly cost of an ultrasound technician in comparison to a medical assistant is also a factor to consider.
With a screening such as a full lipid panel, results are sensitive, so participants are advised to fast for the best results. An EKG test does not require fasting. EKG tests usually take less than five minutes on average. That means more EKG's can be done at events with less staffing.
The idea of storing EKG's as a baseline is also a marketable service - patients are made aware that if their EKG tracing is stored at your hospital, then heart care is readily available to them at your hospital too.
Another important step to creating a successful community EKG program is to advertise the events through direct mail and coordinate the process of booking appointments for these events. Research is performed to select the best zip codes in the community that have the highest household income to increase the likelihood of attracting a favorable payor mix to the events. A mailer should also be targeted for people who have the highest incidence of heart disease - those aged 45 and up. Once a direct mailer goes out, appointments can be booked for a full day. With 2 EKG technicians and 2 machines, over 100 people can receive EKG screenings in an 8 hour day.
In my experience, the appointments were successfully booked through the hospital's call center once the direct mailer reached homes. The information obtained through the call center is requested by the hospital's marketing department, and usually includes basic personal information such as first name, last name, date of birth, phone number, and address. Any basic information can be requested from the guest by the call center. This information can be used for a few purposes.
The first purpose is that it keeps an appointment log for the day of the event. The second is that this information is later used to process and send the results of the screenings to the person's house. The action of following up with the guest is the most important part of gaining patient loyalty.
Finally, by holding community events several times per year, there will be a loyalty group that forms a customer relationship with your hospital. In my experience, I have seen the number of loyal patients who regularly attended the hospital's community events. In the campaign of EKG screenings held between February and April of 2009, 71 guests had previously attended the hospital's community EKG events several months prior.
Building patient loyalty is simple, and there are multiple ways in which a hospital can do this creatively. A hospital should always follow up with guests who attended community screening events. Make sure that the results of their testing arrive in a timely manner. Make sure that the content of their results letter emphasizes the availability of care at your hospital. Think of creative ways to send the message of trusted care to the audience, and ways to keep them connected to you. One simple way of doing this is printing a patient identification card that includes the attendee's MRI number. If a person was to return to the hospital's emergency department with chest pain and present their patient identification card, the hospital's EKG department can quickly access their baseline EKG for a comparison.
Another way of building patient loyalty is through the use of a "patient care coordinator." Many hospitals implement a "patient care coordinator" who follows up with patients receiving serious care. In my experience, a patient care coordinator was successfully implemented in a campaign of community EKG screenings between June and July of 2008. During this campaign, attendees of the events who had borderline and abnormal results were contacted for follow up by a registered nurse. Of the 242 people who had non-normal results, 144 received physician referrals to seek follow up care. The remaining attendees were under the care of a cardiologist already, or declined to take action.
You might be thinking, "So if my hospital develops a free EKG program, I will have both long term patient loyalty and significant admissions within 3 - 6 months following a campaign of screening events?" The answer is a flat, simple yes.
If a hospital is interested in pursuing a community program that offers free health screenings, I strongly recommend structuring the program to involve free EKG testing. In comparison to other screenings, such as cholesterol testing and carotid ultrasound, EKG testing stands to show the most consistent success, and proves to be the most conducive for a community offering. It is a simple test that is non-invasive, and its simplicity allows several avenues for patient follow up. These avenues include uploading the EKG in the hospital's database as a baseline, mailing a copy of the report to the attendee's house after the event, and following up with the patient through the use of a patient care coordinator.
There are many more details that are involved in the development of an EKG program at a hospital. Those details may vary depending upon the resources available at your hospital. However, it is my belief that in working together as a team, any hospital can develop a successful community screenings program that will prove to be beneficial by producing revenue in the short term, and building patient loyalty in the long term.
By: Kevin Felker
Kevin Felker is a consultant specializing in marketing for hospitals. He has a niche for developing in-house community health programs to promote cardiovascular services. Follow him at [http://hospitalmarketingsolutions.wordpress.com/]http://hospitalmarketingsolutions.wordpress.com/.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com
Friday, November 19, 2010
The Many Community Mental Health Services Available to You
By Christine Crotts
Well developed and well managed community mental health services are actually associated with low suicide rates. Hence, mental health services for the masses can be improved by focusing on the community based and specialized mental health services.
If ever you are in need of mental health services, you can contact your local affiliates of the national self help organizations or the local mental health center. Most of these agencies have the relevant information on the various services designed to meet the different needs of those who are suffering from different types of disorders such as anxiety conditions, panic disorders, schizophrenia, etc. Apart from these, they also provide information related to community mental health services designed specifically for children, refugees, HIV infected patients, the elderly, etc. Here are a list of various community health services available for your use.
Mental health act has provided a great opportunity in rendering different kinds of community care based upon individual needs. The provision of good residential accommodation for various groups of mentally disordered or patients with disorders who need constant care by the government aided agencies is a step towards enhancing the community health services.
Generally community health services treat or support people suffering with mental disorders in a domiciliary setting instead of placing them in a hospital or a psychiatric asylum. The various services offered by these community services usually differ from country to country. Most of the community services consist of psychiatric wards similar to that of a hospital. These services are mostly rendered by professionals and government organizations. According to the world health organization, community services are very easy to access by a wide range of people and are quite effective and even aid in reducing social exclusion.
When compared to private mental hospital, community services are less likely to have possibilities for the violation and neglect of human rights which are rarely encountered in few of the mental hospitals. These community services also play an important role in educating the people about the various common disorders and their corresponding symptoms. This way, people gain knowledge on various disorders and can easily recognize individuals who may be suffering from these disorders but might not really be aware of them. Aged and older people who require constant attention, can get benefited by these community services, instead of paying huge bills at private hospitals, they can get good care at the community services.
With the population in the older age group on the rise, there is need for the development of community mental health services in various localities. Also, with many specialists willing to volunteer at the community services, clients can gain a lot of benefits. Since, most of the mental health disorders occurrence do not have a clear reason behind them, the treatment usually is a long term one and for people who cannot afford highly expensive treatments and consultations, community mental health services is the best place to choose. With government pitching in to provide funds for them, it is time people think of visiting them when needed.
Christine Crotts remembers when she thought that a bunk bed was the coolest thing ever. Christine has written a site containing reviews on [http://www.metalloftbed.net]metal loft bed, as well as [http://www.metalloftbed.net/articles/full-loft-beds.html]full loft beds.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com
Community Health Assessment Tools In A Developing Society
By Mpaiko Nkeng
Community health nursing synthesis the body of knowledge from the public health sciences and professional nursing theories for the purpose of improving the health of the entire community. Community health nursing practice therefore promotes and preserves the health of the population. The community is not an easily or consistently defined entity. It is a nebulous, complex concept. Thus a community in its broadest sense will be defined as a group of people living in an environment that has the ability to meet their life goals and needs.
The entry into the community is usually made possible by the chief medical officer through the issuance of letters to community leaders for easy acceptability and accessibility. Critical to the dynamics of a community are its patterns of communication, leadership and decision making and this occurs as a result of interaction between community members and the larger society. The different components of this community include people, environment and health care delivery system and together they determine the physical, social, mental states of wellness of the people.
For the people component there is:
a. Demographics such as population distribution, mobility, density and census data;
b. Biological aspects will include health and disease status, province/state of origin, nationality, age, sex, mortality.
c. Acquired aspects are twofold, social which takes into account occupation, activities, marital status, education, religion and cultural which include position, roles value, customs, norms, taboos.
For the environmental component there is:
a. Physical aspect which include natural resources, landscape, climate, terrain, relief, boundaries and limits;
b. Biological and chemical aspects such as animal reservoirs, toxic substances, food supply, standard of food control, water source, staple food, vector control, living arrangement, sewage disposal, water supply and refuse disposal;
c. Social aspects involve industry and economics, communication, transportation, recreation/recreational facilities and religion.
For the health care delivery system component, there is:
a. The organizational aspect involving government and private sectors, systems, linkages and
b. Resources which involve health personnel, health centers, clinics and hospitals, funds, services.
Through the complete understanding of these different components, then can health promotion, disease prevention and rehabilitative measures be implemented. Promoting health of the people and their welfare can be done through health education to both individuals and families. During these education sessions, various aspects of diseases, their prevention can be given as well as ways of rehabilitation when calamity strikes.
Community health problems will then be arrived at through two ways:
a. As perceived by the community and then
b. As perceived by the community health nurse.
A community diagnosis will then be reached, which can range from one to several. Recommendations can then be made to the appropriate people concerned.
In conclusion, the community health nurse, in doing this assessment, must strive to work as a team with the community involved and he/she must be able to achieve if not all, some of the eight components of primary health care, such as immunization against infectious diseases, an adequate supply of safe water, education concerning prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them.
By MPAIKO NKENG. (BNS)
NURSING CONSULTANT, Capetown, South Africa.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com
Community health nursing synthesis the body of knowledge from the public health sciences and professional nursing theories for the purpose of improving the health of the entire community. Community health nursing practice therefore promotes and preserves the health of the population. The community is not an easily or consistently defined entity. It is a nebulous, complex concept. Thus a community in its broadest sense will be defined as a group of people living in an environment that has the ability to meet their life goals and needs.
The entry into the community is usually made possible by the chief medical officer through the issuance of letters to community leaders for easy acceptability and accessibility. Critical to the dynamics of a community are its patterns of communication, leadership and decision making and this occurs as a result of interaction between community members and the larger society. The different components of this community include people, environment and health care delivery system and together they determine the physical, social, mental states of wellness of the people.
For the people component there is:
a. Demographics such as population distribution, mobility, density and census data;
b. Biological aspects will include health and disease status, province/state of origin, nationality, age, sex, mortality.
c. Acquired aspects are twofold, social which takes into account occupation, activities, marital status, education, religion and cultural which include position, roles value, customs, norms, taboos.
For the environmental component there is:
a. Physical aspect which include natural resources, landscape, climate, terrain, relief, boundaries and limits;
b. Biological and chemical aspects such as animal reservoirs, toxic substances, food supply, standard of food control, water source, staple food, vector control, living arrangement, sewage disposal, water supply and refuse disposal;
c. Social aspects involve industry and economics, communication, transportation, recreation/recreational facilities and religion.
For the health care delivery system component, there is:
a. The organizational aspect involving government and private sectors, systems, linkages and
b. Resources which involve health personnel, health centers, clinics and hospitals, funds, services.
Through the complete understanding of these different components, then can health promotion, disease prevention and rehabilitative measures be implemented. Promoting health of the people and their welfare can be done through health education to both individuals and families. During these education sessions, various aspects of diseases, their prevention can be given as well as ways of rehabilitation when calamity strikes.
Community health problems will then be arrived at through two ways:
a. As perceived by the community and then
b. As perceived by the community health nurse.
A community diagnosis will then be reached, which can range from one to several. Recommendations can then be made to the appropriate people concerned.
In conclusion, the community health nurse, in doing this assessment, must strive to work as a team with the community involved and he/she must be able to achieve if not all, some of the eight components of primary health care, such as immunization against infectious diseases, an adequate supply of safe water, education concerning prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them.
By MPAIKO NKENG. (BNS)
NURSING CONSULTANT, Capetown, South Africa.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com
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