Patients involved in major trauma frequently suffer from severe blood loss and anemia, which can be challenging to treat. Additional issues are presented in the population of Jehovah’s Witness patients, who refuse transfusions of allogenic blood or its components. We established a stable hemodynamic status in a young Jehovah’s Witness patient with major trauma by applying principles of patient blood management.About the Patient Blood Management Case Report Series

This case report describes the poor outcome of a female patient who underwent elective nephrectomy. Unfortunately, the patient was suffering from undiagnosed preoperative platelet dysfunction and anemia, although blood count and clotting were almost within normal ranges two weeks earlier at the day of preoperative assessment for anesthesia. In this respect, intensive preoperative evaluation of the coagulation system embedded in a comprehensive patient blood management (PBM) concept might h...

This book gives a brief overview of the "Patient Blood Management" (PBM) concept and is addressed to health professionals as well as all persons generally involved into hospital management."Patient Blood Management" (PBM) is a multidisciplinary, evidence-based approach to improve perioperative care. The concept is based on three pillars that target modifiable risk factors for adverse outcome: i) preoperative screening, diagnosis an...

Medical errors kill 24,000 Canadians each year, adversely affect hundreds of thousands, and cost close to two billion dollars. Victims of medical errors and their families who speak out often do so at considerable emotional, psychological, and financial expense. But their willingness to share their harrowing stories has helped to lay the foundation for numerous patient safety programs and continues to identify problems, provide solutions, and raise awareness.After the Error

In Why Hospitals Should Fly by John J. Nance, JD, the 2009 James A. Hamilton ACHE Book of the Year, he advanced a paradigm—a model of what a good, successful, safe and efficient hospital looks like. The name of the fictional hospital featured in that award-winning book could be stated in Naval terms as a clazz: A “St. Michael’s-clazz” hospital (like a Nimitz-clazz aircraft carrier). In this book, Charting the Course, written by John Nance, JD, and his wife, Kathleen Barth...

Cardioembolic strokes account for one third of ischemic strokes and atrial fibrillation (AF) representing the main source of this stroke subtype. The rate of stroke is 5%/year in patients with AF. Patients with AF have a 2-7 fold increased risk of stroke compared to patients without. Stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (SPAF) is therefore of utmost importance and represents a major point in the modern management of AF. This booklet provides an overview of new oral anticoagulants used,...

'Fast Facts: Advanced Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma' is for people who have or may have advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. It aims to help patients, and people close to them, understand the condition so they can have better discussions with the cancer team. Decisions about treatment and next steps are highly individual. They will depend on the site and features of the person’s cancer as well as their general health. With its clear text and diagrams, this booklet can help the p...

Doctors need hospitals and hospitals need doctors. Then why do they continue to communicate their needs to each other so badly? Why all the animosity, conflict, and mistrust?In The Physician's Survival Guide for the Hospital, Dr. Samuel H. Steinberg, an experienced hospital administrator, solves this problem by revealing the information needed for each of these groups to be successful in the hospital environment. Practice administrators will learn skills and information to...

The Quality Playbook and the companion Workbook (which you can purchase separately on the publisher's website www.SecondRiverHealthcare.com) are about creating great clinical outcomes and safer care for patients, families, and communities; creating healthcare organizations that rank at the top of the nation’s rating lists; and doing what most organizations have been unable to do: deliver top quality at an affordable cost—true healthcare value. If one is embarking on a new quality program o...

This online Clinics series provides evidence-based answers to clinical questions the practicing hospitalist faces daily. This issue, edited by Dr. Allen Repp, includes the following articles: Pericarditis; Bedside ultrasound evaluation of shock; Cardiac implantable device infections; Hypernatremia; Ischemic colitis; Guillain-Barre syndrome; Interpretation of thyroid function tests in the hospitalized patient; Terminal extubation; Parotitis; Preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infe...

An indispensable guide to reducing the suffering―of patients and caregivers alike―and to improving healthcare delivery for allIn our efforts to treat patients, cure illness, and manage institutions, healthcare professionals too often overlook the fundamental purpose everyone in the industry shares: to alleviate suffering.Press Ganey’s Chief Nursing Officer, Christina Dempsey, has worked everywhere in healthcare, from the ward floor to the hospital boardroom...

"Engaging . . . provides patients tools they can use to improve dialogue with their doctors and, ultimately, improve their ultimate medical outcomes."—The Times of IsraelThe health-care system in the United States is by far the most expensive in the world, yet its outcomes are decidedly mediocre in comparison with those of other countries. Poor communication between doctors and patients, Dennis Rosen argues, is at the heart of this disparity, a pervasive problem th...