2010 August | Hospital and Medical Technology

Travel Therapist Jobs Mean Seeing New Hospitals and New Parts of the Country

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Many remote regions of a country as developed as the U.S. still do not have adequate medical facilities, and even access to a doctor may be limited. If you were to visit some of the remote mountain regions of Alaska, you would be hard pressed to find a physician who could help you with simple ailments. Ailments, illnesses, and injuries can be very uncomfortable and even painful. However, if there is a therapist in the area, this person can provide treatment to many of these patients.

Travel therapist jobs are interesting not only because of the higher wages and perks, but also because they come with a sense of adventure as you begin working in a new place. Imagine living and working in a busy city hospital, and then getting to travel to a remote part of Montana, all expenses paid, where you could spend time in a small, rural hospital. It is a very attractive offer, and few travel therapists would want to miss a chance at getting one of these jobs.

If this is something that interests you, and you already work at a city hospital, make sure you learn everything you can during your time at that hospital. These large urban hospitals are great places to expand your knowledge, which may come in handy in remote regions where there may be no other “doctor” available besides the therapist.

Some of the things that you can learn at the hospital are first aid, administering simple over the counter drugs for ordinary ailments like fever or indigestion, CPR, and a host of other paramedical measures. Having these skills can make a big difference when you may be the primary medical personnel on site in a rural area.

Filed Under: Hospital Technology, Infrastructure, Medical Technology Tagged With: Health, Hospitals, Medicine, Montana

Better AIDS Care May Come from Altered Treatment Rather than New Medicines

AIDS has become a pandemic of devastating proportions. It affects people around the world and is one of the most deadly diseases in history. AIDS has remained resistant to isolation and treatment because it easily spreads and rapidly mutates because of it’s characteristics as a retrovirus. Treatment itself requires both a complicated assortment of different medications and can have serious and painful side effects. Much of the research on drugs has rested on raising effectiveness and simplifying the complexity of the so called “AIDS cocktail.” This research remains absolutely invaluable, but some of the most promising results have been shown in changing the pattern of treatment.

A recent study focused on the effects of beginning treatment earlier. The study relied on the time of treatment relative to the number of T-cells in the body. T-cells are a key part of the immune system that help target threats to the body. The study compared the usual time period of starting the treatment which later when the T-cells rested at 200 per cubed millimeter with the earlier treatment starting at 350 per cubed millimeter. The results of the study were surprising. The death rate dropped by 75% and tuberculous which is often arises among AIDS victims decreased by 50%. The conclusion is clear, earlier treatment plays the decisive role in combating this illness. While this study only concretely applies to AIDS, it still has important implication for the policies of medical institutions.

Institutions may ultimately save more on costs and provide better treatment by focusing on “simple” solutions applied earlier. This in no way reduces the importance of advancements in medical technology or pharmaceutical research, but may rather signal change of importance. Medical technology which increases the ease of treatment or reduces the cost for treatments may ultimately provide a better return then the search for high cost emergency medical technologies.

Filed Under: General, Health Tips, Medical Technology Tagged With: AIDS, Conditions and Diseases, Immune Disorders

Prescription Drug Treatment vs. Hospitalization

Prescription drug treatment has its positive side. You get to live a healthy life after you’re clean. Without a doubt, receiving drug treatment is less expensive than continuing to take drugs.

Have you heard of Jennifer Capriati? She is a famous tennis player who landed on the world scene at the age of 13. She ultimately won 14 major titles and a gold medal in the Olympics. Capriati was hospitalized in June 2010 for overdosing on prescription drugs.

The overdose was reported as an accident, but Capriati had a history of drug use. She was arrested in 1994 at the age of 18 for possession of marijuana, and at the time she was allegedly high on crack, heroin, alcohol, and painkillers. (Incidentally, in 1993, she was arrested for shoplifting a $35 ring.) Regarding the drugs, her father said, “She is a teenager. It’s a teenage thing.” Evidently not. Capriati is now 34 years old.

If you use prescription drugs to get high, you may be headed in the same direction. The difference is that you won’t be mentioned in the newspapers. You’ll get the hospital bill. You’ll have to pay for the recovery treatment. You’ll lose time and money at work. You’ll lose friends. But you won’t get mentioned in the national news.

Doesn’t drug treatment make more sense? Capriati voluntarily entered a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center after the 1994 incident. She may or may not have continued the treatment, but she definitely was undergoing a crisis and needed counseling. If you can relate to her problem, that is a good place to begin. Make the decision to get clean. Drug treatment is far less expensive than the emergency ward or the mortuary.

Filed Under: Health Tips, Hospital Technology Tagged With: Drug overdose, Hospital, Jennifer Capriati

Institution Can Save Money Through Careful Shopping for Mundane Items

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The key factor in determining the budget of any medical institution like a hospital, clinic, or private practice is the services offered. The cost of those services against the income generated by those services will form core of any budget. Certainly much of the cost of running an institution will be paying wages to staff trained in critical areas and to maintain expensive advance medical equipment which allows the offering of key services. However, there are additional ways to save money through the careful negotiation of price on more mundane items that are required for the daily operations of an institution.

An institution requires a host of different products not related directly to core services. Sterile gloves, anti-bacterial soap, and cleaning supplies are just a few of these key products. Their price can fluctuate greatly. A box of sterile surgical gloves can run as high in price as several hundred dollars. It’s quite clear that an institution can gain massive savings over time by negotiating these prices down over time, and it would be foolish for an institution not to encourage its purchasing agent to try. One should remember several factors when negotiating a price.

One should remember that price is a key factor, but not the only factor. Unlike other institutions, medical institutions cannot perform their functions without the related supplies. No matter how advance one’s operating table is, one can’t perform surgery without sterilized surgical gloves. In this case, quick and flexible delivery and service may remain more important than a few dollars in price. This is why the first step to any negotiation mean drawing up a list of objectives and determining where you have flexibility.

Next, one should analyze one’s supplier. If they’re a large supplier with multiple customers you’ll have less leverage than if they’re a small company and you’re their main customer. One should keep a realistic picture of what your supplier can actually do.

Finally, develop a negotiating strategy that fits your needs and stick to it. Don’t be swayed by pressure and walk away from anything that doesn’t fit your needs.

Filed Under: Hospital equipment, Infrastructure Tagged With: Healthcare, Medical equipment, Surgery

A Healthy Lifestyle Can Be Achieved with Small Steps

: Image by sweet mustache via Flickr

There you are spending an afternoon going over your finances, thinking of creative ways to save money such as bill consolidation or refinancing the home. Have you given that much attention to your overall fitness—especially your heart health?

There’s a lot of information going around about how to live a healthy lifestyle. It may seem overwhelming and confusing, but in reality it’s pretty easy. A person living this type of lifestyle has a healthy body weight, exercises regularly, eats a good diet, and doesn’t smoke.

And getting to a healthy lifestyle can be as easy as just make a few easy adjustments such as:

taking the stairs instead of the elevator
having some fruit with your breakfast cereal
drinking more water

One of the most important things about a healthy life style is regular activity. Get off the couch and turn off the television. Take a walk. Join a gym. It’s simple to just start out slowly and build up to a regular exercise regime. The more you exercise and get out there and move, the healthier you’ll find yourself.

This lifestyle can do and help with some of the following:

self esteem
range of movement improvement
joint stability
elevating your mood
improving depression or anxiety
improving stress
reducing the risk of diabetes, stroke or heart disease

You will see the benefits of this lifestyle even if you just start out with small changes. Studies have indicated that overweight and obese people who achieve a 10 percent weight loss will significantly reduce their cholesterol levels and blood pressure. So just do the small steps that can lead to success. Sometimes making large drastic changes can only lead to a lack of success. These small changes will result in rewards, so take the first step to a healthier lifestyle today. And a healthier you today will lead to a healthier you tomorrow.

Filed Under: Health Tips Tagged With: Health, Heart disease

Keep in Mind the Additional Features when Purchasing an Electrocardiogram Machine

An electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG) machine remains necessary in most many medical offices and is absolutely essential for all hospitals. The machine measures the electrical activity present in the heart. The technician attaches several electrodes to the patients body both at the location of the heart in the torso and at the extremities. These electrodes measure when the electrical energy builds up and releases as the valves in the heart tense and relax. This technology not only helps general practitioners identify any chronic problems through a careful analysis, but remains absolutely vital for the life of patients in any emergency medical institution which deals with sever cardiac events. However, it can remain unclear what one should look for when purchasing an EKG.

Ironically, most EKGs are pretty similar when it comes to the core features. One can expect them to read the impulses of the heart clearly and have the ability to print out those readings. In this case, machines which can’t accurately read seldom gain approval from the government. Instead, one should look for a machine which has easy calibration to increase accuracy. One should also check the size of the printer paper along with its cost as that can quickly add up over the life of the machine. However, it’s the secondary features which really separate EKGs from one another.

The secondary features of an EKG can simplify the entire process, save money, and help in the analysis itself. A screen remains the most important secondary feature. It makes it much easier for the technician to get an accurate baseline reading, see the real-time beating of the heart, and immediately visualize any abnormal readings. The ability to connect the EKG to a PC. This allows you to store all the EKG records together without the hassle of paper filing or the coast of buying reams of paper. Finally, it’s often quite helpful to get an EKG with computer memory. This allows you to immediately compare previous scans making it easier to identify any discrepancies.

Filed Under: Electronic, health Equipment, Medical Technology Tagged With: EKG, Electrocardiography, Heart disease, Technology