User Stories: Madrid's Emergency Services and Portable Ultrasound
Since point-of-care ultrasound systems were originally designed for dealing with emergencies in a battlefield setting, it's not surprising that ultrasound now plays a pivotal role in emergency vehicles around the world. Dr Ramón de Elías Hernandez, head of on-call doctors at SAMUR, Madrid’s municipal emergency service, describes the advantages that point-of-care ultrasound brings to his everyday life.
"I've been an ambulance doctor for the Servicio de Asistencia Municipal de Urgencia y Rescate (SAMUR) in Madrid for 20 years, 10 of those as head of on-call doctors. My day job is to…
Ultrasound-Guided Vascular Access Programme Saves St. Joseph's $3.5 Million
Becker's Infection Control & Clinical Quality
Matthew Ostroff, ARNP
The American College of Emergency Physicians issued a policy statement in 2016 advocating a new safety standard for vascular access through the use of ultrasound guidance. St. Joseph's Healthcare System, in Paterson, N.J., launched a programme that has yielded significant safety and quality of care improvements for all patients requiring vascular access. This article describes how St. Joseph's cut healthcare costs and improved patient outcomes by achieving the "one-stick standard".
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Anesthesia Ultrasound for Perioperative Care - Beyond the Block
The role of the anesthesiologist is evolving to include perioperative care
With hospitals seeking innovative ways to streamline patient care and improve outcomes, anesthesiologists are increasingly expected to provide patient care beyond general anesthesia and nerve blocks. But beyond the block, how does perioperative ultrasound help anesthesiologists do their jobs?
The answer has a lot to do with the changing practice of medicine.
In the United States, anesthesiologists are increasingly expected to perform a wider role in care of patients—that is, care before, during, and after surgery—a…
Watch the Value of Endobronchial Ultrasound Webinar
Are you a pulmonologist, interventional pulmonologist, or thoracic surgeon? Check out our webinar “Lung Cancer: The State of the Disease,” from the Endoscopy Division of FUJIFILM.
More people die every year from lung cancer than from colon, breast, and prostate cancer combined. In August 2016, we aired “Lung Cancer: The State of the Disease.” It’s a timely and informative webinar led by David Feller-Kopman, MD, Director of Bronchoscopy & Interventional Pulmonology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and a world-renowned expert in his field.
You’re invited to view this 40-minute webinar that…
Foetal Ultrasound of Pregnant SeaWorld Manatee
When you think of manatee migration, you don’t normally picture aircraft.But that is how Washburn the pregnant manatee was transported from Massachusetts, where she was rescued (just off the coast) to Sea World in Orlando, Florida, where she spent 2 weeks recuperating.After recovering from cold-related stress, Washburn was found fit to be released back into the waters off the coast of Florida.See some clips from Washburn’s foetal ultrasound (with a Sonosite Edge II) below!Watch SeaWorld’s rehabilitation of Washburn and her release
Ultrasound Answers Questions in Emergency Care in Spain
In the world of emergency medicine, there’s nothing fun about the guessing game. With a seriously ill or injured patient, every second counts and the wrong diagnosis can actually have a significant impact on health. That’s why having all available information is absolutely critical to stabilising patients and saving lives.
That’s also what makes point-of-care ultrasound so critically important in emergency care.
“[Ultrasound] allows us to determine the best course of action immediately, rather than making our initial decisions blindly and confirming later if we were right or wrong,”…
Ultrasound Guided Nerve Blocks, Not Opioids, for Post-Operative Pain Management
It’s no secret that the U.S. is in the throes of a major heroin epidemic, at least partly caused by the over-prescription of opioid painkillers by well-meaning physicians. When it comes to perioperative pain control, there are new ways to tackle patient discomfort without resorting to prescription opioids.Dr. Sonia Szlyk, an anaesthesiologist and director of regional anaesthesia for North American Partners in Anaesthesia's Mid-Atlantic division, explains how local anaesthesia (aided by ultrasound guidance) is helping control post-operative discomfort without limiting patient mobility. Dr.…
Six Secrets of Implementing Ultrasound in Paediatric Emergency Medicine
Becker's Hospital Review
Russ Horowitz, MD, RDMS
Ultrasound is an important tool for rapid assessment of trauma patients, CVC and regional nerve block placement, facilitating difficult PIV access, and assessing cardiac function during resuscitations. In this article, Russ Horowitz, MD, RDMS, discusses six strategies to help implement ultrasound at the bedside in paediatric emergency medicine.
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Proposed CMS Hospital Outpatient Department Rule Detrimental for Imaging Services in CY 2017
Healthcare Business News
Jill Rathbun, Managing Partner at Galileo Consulting Group, Arlington, VA
In this article for DOTmed News, Jill Rathbun discusses the proposed CMS hospital outpatient department rule and how it will impact imaging services in CY 2017. Read more to understand how payments may be restructured to reduce the total number of classifications.
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Sonosite Institute: Paravertebral Nerve Block Education Module
Log into Sonosite Institute today, and begin your ultrasound-guided paravertebral nerve block education with our new learning module.
This module will show you how to:
Describe the indications and contraindications of an ultrasound-guided paravertebral nerve block.
Review the gross and sono-anatomy of the thoracic paravertebral space.
Explore the common techniques for performing an ultrasound-guided paravertebral nerve block.
View the Ultrasound Guided Paravertebral Nerve Blocks webinar by Dr. Theresa Bowling, Director of Regional Anaesthesia, The Stamford Hospital. Here’s a sneak-…
User Stories: 25 Years of Point-of-Care Ultrasound in Anaesthesia
Dr. Thomas Grau, Head of Anaesthesia, Surgery, Intensive Care, Emergency Medicine and Pain at the Gütersloh Clinic, first studied ultrasound for a PhD on spinal imaging at Heidelberg University Hospital in the 1990s. 25 years on, he reflects on the role point-of-care ultrasound now plays in anaesthesia. "My first encounters with ultrasound were guided by efforts in Heidelberg to improve epidural anaesthesia in obstetrics. We identified that using point-of-care ultrasound to guide the needles could potentially help doctors to implement more effective epidurals more quickly, and might also…
User Stories: A Clear Path for Ambulatory Care
The Clinique Juge is a Marseille clinic specialising in ambulatory surgery. Combining regional anaesthesia with focused pre- and post-operative care, the clinic aims to allow patients to return home soon after orthopaedic surgery, often on the same day as their procedure. Anaesthetist Dr Philippe Grillo explains the benefits of this approach, and the role of point-of-care ultrasound in ensuring effective nerve blocks and post-operative pain relief."We treat around 15,000 patients a year, and have been using regional anaesthesia for approximately eight years to accelerate post-operative…
Emergency Medicine Professionals: What to Look For at ACEP16
There are a lot of things Las Vegas is known for – gambling, over-the-top entertainment, and world-class dining. Now there’s one more thing to add to that list: ACEP 2016 – the leading event for emergency medicine. In a few days, thousands of emergency medical professionals from around the globe will gather for ACEP16, an immersive experience that goes beyond what typical medical conferences offer. So what makes ACEP16 so important?ACEP16 is the largest Emergency Medicine focused conference in the US that brings together education, networking, policy development, and new medical…
3 Steps to Getting Buy-In For Your Ultrasound Programme
Anyone who has ever tried to change the way medicine is practised knows that inertia makes it difficult to get buy-in from colleagues and administrators. Introducing a relatively familiar technology, like point-of-care ultrasound, into a broader hospital setting might not seem like a difficult task, but all procedural changes face some kind of resistance.In Germany, physicians at the Evangelisches Krankenhaus have been able to expand the application of POCUS through multiple wards using three methods.1. Designate Your POCUS EvangelistAt Evangelisches Krankenhaus, this comes in the form of Dr…
Performance-Based Payment & Orthopedics: A Focus For The Medicare Program
Becker's Hospital CFO
Jill Rathbun, Managing Partner at Galileo Consulting Group, Arlington, VA
In this informative article for Becker's CFO, Jill Rathbun covers the newly implemented CMS Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement payment model. While the program began April 1, 2016, many of the hospitals were not, and are still not, prepared to participate. Read more to understand the basics of the model and how to be successful.
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Fujifilm Design Studio: Sonosite SII Wins Silver at International Design Excellence Awards
Last year, Craig Chamberlain and his team of designers traveled around the world – over 101,964 miles, to be exact – meeting clinicians in hospitals and clinics to observe how they use point-of-care ultrasound. Chamberlain is the Director of Experience Design at FUJIFILM Sonosite, heading up a team of Industrial, Experience, and Human Factors designers, and this type of “user-oriented” observation is part of Sonosite’s unique design process.“We’re extremely excited to have won the Silver at IDEA 2016,” said Chamberlain. “This award shows that we created an ultrasound system that achieved our…
8 Ways to Avoid Central Line Placement Complications
Central line complications: they’re risky, costly, and all-around burden to healthcare. Whether it’s CLABSIs or iatrogenic pneumothoraces, CVC complications are not just terrifying for patients and unnerving for doctors; they are also costly for medical facilities.
Fortunately, there are tested methods for Iatrogenic Pneumothorax Prevention with POCUS that can drastically reduce complication rates (and associated costs) for critically ill patients who require venous catheterization.
1. If possible, aim for ultrasound-guided PIV instead
The first step in avoiding CVC complications can…
Sonosite Patient Safety: Reducing Risk and Cost of Interventional Procedures
As point-of-care ultrasound becomes more common, hospital administrators across the world are understanding that bedside ultrasound can do more than provide patients with real-time diagnosis and increase satisfaction scores – it can also make patients safer.As we travel across the United States at our Patient Safety Education events in cities like Houston, Atlanta and Seattle, Sonosite will be discussing solutions and strategies for increasing patient safety. We’re inviting members of the healthcare community to learn how point-of-care ultrasound can help make patients safer by…
Supporting Homeless Veterans with Sonosite iViz Portable Ultrasound
It’s one of the central pillars of the United States military: You don’t leave a fellow soldier behind. That ethos pushed five Vietnam veterans, Jack Lyon, Bill Mahedy, Randy Waite, Paul Grasso, and Russ Kelly, to a breaking point in 1981 when they founded Vietnam Veterans of San Diego, a nationally recognised leader in serving homeless military veterans. As their history page shows, “they were struggling with the traumas of war and looking to enhance services from the VA that were available to them at that time. They were sitting around a group counseling session, talking seriously…
LIG Global Uses Sonosite Ultrasound in the Dominican Republic
By Raghu Thunga, M.D., COO, LIG Global FoundationLIG Global Foundation is a not-for-profit public global charity dedicated to helping provide proper healthcare to the underprivileged. In our recent trip to Dajabon in the Dominican Republic, we utilised the Sonosite portable ultrasound to assist our work. We saw over 150 patients and performed a multitude of surgical procedures, with the Sonosite M-Turbo ultrasound device being critical to our work. Since there was a scarcity of analgesic medication to treat pain for our postoperative patients, we relied upon…