Health Briefs TV Examines How to Choose the Best Hospital

Hospitals are graded on several categories and by several different organizations. Health Briefs TV reviews how to find the best one.

The hospitals people choose has much to do about where their surgeon or specialist practices than the grades they get. If the best doctor for the medical need is affiliated with a specific medical center then that is where one will usually go. There have been more than 100 mergers and acquisitions in the medical care field since 2012. How does this affect the rating the hospital gets?

Basically, the patient or someone in their family might want to ask others they know about the facility and its services. Patients can ask the doctor if there is any other medical center they are affiliated with since some medical professionals are affiliated with more than one. One can also go online and search for reviews for the hospital. Often, this is best place for the most honest information about rooms, nursing care, food and services for the medical facility someone is about be admitted to. The Health Briefs TV show also knows that there are a few organizations which grade hospitals. But until they all agree on a standardized format, the inquiring patient may find different scores.  Patients with questions about specific health care institutions should address to them their medical care professionals. 

Health Briefs TV Examines Reusable Medical Equipment Guidelines

Reusable medical devices called duodenoscopes are the culprits in the recent rash of hospital patients diagnosed with medical experts call the “Superbug”. Health Briefs TV examines what they are and reviews guidelines for their usage.

Duodenoscopes are the flexible tubes fitted with tiny lights and advanced cameras used to diagnose or treat disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. Roughly 500,000 procedures a year in the United States alone take place using this piece of medical equipment.  The scopes are inserted down a patient’s throat so the physician can get perfect view.  When done, the scopes are put in a device which sterilizes them.  This is the health industry standard for ensuring reusable medical equipment is clean and sterile.

There have been several cases from hospitals in the country which reported that the standard way to sterilize equipment is not doing the job. Medical professionals have suggested, and some are using alternative methods of ensuring equipment is safe to reuse. These methods utilize ethylene-oxide sterilization and swabbing the equipment after each use to collect any pathogens left on them. They expensive ways to clean the equipment, but have reduced the number of patients infected with pathogens and bacteria from “almost clean” devices.

The Health Briefs TV show notes that patient health and safety should come before expense. When patients become very ill after reusable medical equipment is employed again, the cost of treating one patient can be quite hefty.  Prevention is always the best way to work and more so in a health care setting.