What can happen when you change 100 year old hospital systems

[AussieNeil]

Not CLL specific, but we can hope that it might one day happen! I know many of us that have been caught up in the hospital silo system would greatly welcome this change being more widely extended and adapted. While the article by Kenneth Hillman, Professor of Intensive Care at UNSW Australia reviews how the change to a cardiac patient focused care system has reduced cardiac related deaths by about 50% or 12,000 patients per year in Australia, it does show what can be achieved when long established systems are changed and why making those changes is so difficult.

"Rapid response systems identify deteriorating patients by abnormal vital signs and observations such as low blood pressure and high breathing rates. As soon as the patient is identified, there is a rapid response by staff experienced in caring for the seriously ill. The right person attends the right patient at the right time.

Research my colleagues and I published in the Medical Journal of Australia shows the scheme has reduced cardiac arrests and deaths associated with cardiac arrests in hospitals by about 50%. Nationwide, this saves around 12,000 lives per year.

The system was first developed in Sydney, Australia in 1990 and the proportion of NSW hospitals with rapid response teams more than doubled between 2002 and 2009, to 74%. Response teams now operate in most Australian hospitals, with slight variations.

So why did it take more than two decades to achieve such coverage? It comes down to the rigid ways in which hospitals historically operate."

Full Article:

theconversation.com/rapid-r...

Neil

Photo: an Australian Ringneck or Mallee Ringneck parrot has just found the perfect fit for this year's brood. I was able to video an amazing courtship display with this male and his partner doing synchronised singing and tail wagging. It is now illegal to remove eucalyptus trees with hollows.