cdistaffing.com Blog

Strike averted

Administrator — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:00:12 +0000

Nurses at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center have reached a tentative contract with management, averting a strike that was scheduled to begin next week.

The approximately 1,300 registered nurses at the two Manhattan hospitals are slated to vote on the four-year contract on Jan. 4.

In a memorandum to staff Stanley Brezenoff, CEO and president of Continuum Health Partners, the parent company, said the new contract “contains most of the parameters outlined” in a memo sent on Friday.

That memo referred to an offer that included “modest premiums” for health benefits—a sticking point in negotiations, as nurses currently pay no premiums—and an increased use of generic drugs. The offer included “generous lump sum payments” for this year and each of the next two years and wage increases between 2% and 2.5% per year in each of the next three years.

Doug

CDIstafing.com

Malaria vaccine hope

Administrator — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:49:00 +0000

British scientists have developed an experimental malaria vaccine that may have the potential to neutralize all strains of the most deadly species of malaria parasite.

Results from very early tests of the vaccine in mice and rabbits show it induces an antibody response able to halt many strains of the P. falciparum parasite, the form that causes almost all of the 655,000 malaria deaths worldwide each year.

Enough Nurses!

Administrator — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:14:11 +0000

Nationwide, the number of registered nurses ages 23 to 26 grew from 102,000 in 2002 to 165,000 in 2009, according to the study. The current cohort of young nurses is expected to be the largest ever, the study said.

If the trend continues, there may be enough nurses by 2030 to meet the projected needs of aging baby boomers and the expansion of the healthcare system, researchers said.

Stem cells for heart faliure

Administrator — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:28:18 +0000

In the new study, just published in The Lancet, a group of researchers led by Robert Bolli grew stem cells from patients’ own hearts, after the patients had suffered serious heart attacks, leaving their hearts permanently damaged. They measured the patients’ heart function by how much blood was being pumped through the left ventricle. The patients had an average LVEF of 30.3% at the beginning of the study, an indication of very severe heart disease. Four months later, the 16 patients who received the stem cells had an average LVEF of 38.5%, while patients in the control group showed no change. Even more dramatically, after one year the patients LVEF had improved further, to 42.5%.

Thus, remarkably, the cardiac stem cells seem to have “taken” in these patients, growing back into healthy cardiac cells in these severely ill patients.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

Arsenic in juice

Administrator — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:11:06 +0000

The apple and grape juice your kids are drinking may have arsenic at levels high enough to increase their risk of cancer and other chronic diseases, according to a new study by Consumer Reports.

A full 10 percent of the juices tested by the magazine had arsenic levels higher than what is allowed in water by the Food and Drug Administration.

Doug

CDIstaffing.com

BPA v. fresh soup

Administrator — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:56:03 +0000

researchers looked at the rise in BPA levels seen in the average participant who ate canned soup compared with those who ate fresh soup, they found a 1,221 percent jump.

“To see an increase in this magnitude was quite surprising,” said study leader Karin Michels, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

The levels of BPA seen in the study participants “are among the most extreme reported in a nonoccupational setting,” the researchers wrote in their study. In the general population, levels have been found to be around 1 to 2 micrograms per liter, Michels said.

Doug

Cdistaffing.com

Treatment for CHF!

Administrator — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:26:28 +0000

Mesoblast is taking center stage today at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting with some impressive new data from a small mid-stage study of its stem cell therapy–Revascor–for heart failure. While only recruiting 45 patients for the trial, patients suffering from congestive heart failure demonstrated an 80% drop in the risk of further cardiac events. And while the treatment is still some years away from potential commercialization, analysts were pointing to the therapy’s blockbuster potential if late-stage studies back up the early results.

Bell Potter Securities analyst Stuart Roberts, who has already touted the treatment’s ability to rebuild heart muscle while improving blood flow, noted that this is the most detailed data yet seen on a treatment built out of mesenchymal stem cells, according to a report in Bloomberg. He added: “Applications in heart failure, in heart attacks and in chronic angina represent multibillion-dollar market opportunities.”

Fruit Drinks bad!

Administrator — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:35:17 +0000

Many fruit drinks and energy drinks have as much added sugar and calories as full-calorie soda:
An 8-ounce serving of a full-calorie fruit drink has 110 calories and 7 teaspoons of sugar – the same amount found in an 8-ounce serving of a full-calorie soda or energy drink. According to a new study at Yale. Doug

CDIstaffing.com

10 million dollar ER delay

Administrator — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:13:46 +0000

The family of a California toddler whose feet, left hand and part of her right hand were amputated because of a lengthy emergency room delay has agreed to a $10 million malpractice settlement.

Malyia Jeffers was 2 years old when her parents took her to Sacramento’s Methodist Hospital last November with a fever, skin discoloration and weakness. According to court documents, the family was told to wait, that wait went to 5 hours before being seen.

Emergency visits have increased by 60% in recent years, delays and emergencies have moved wait times through the roof. More of these kind of suits are sure to follow. Doug

Nosocmial infections v. copper

Administrator — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:43:41 +0000

Study funded by DOD, found copper surfaces in ICU rooms cut the amount of bacteria in the rooms by 97% and reduced the rates of nosocmial infections by 41%. Time to put some blame on housekeeping and ease up on our washed and bleeding hands. Doug