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In 2010 five New York City hospitals implemented a communication-and-resolution program (CRP) in general surgery. The program's goals were to improve reporting of serious adverse events to risk management, support clinical staff in discussing these events with patients, rapidly investigate why injuries occurred, communicate to patients what was discovered, and offer apologies and compensation when the standard of care was not met. We report the hospitals' experiences with implementing the CRP over a twenty-two-month period. We found that all five hospitals improved disclosure and surveillance of adverse events but were not able to fully implement the program's compensation component. These experiences suggest that strong support from top leadership at the hospital and insurer levels, and adequate staff resources, are critical for the success of CRPs. Hospitals considering adopting a CRP should ensure that their organizations can tolerate risk, their leaders are willing to reinforce CRP implementation, and resources are in place to educate clinical staff about how the program can benefit them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

End-of-life communication is an important process as it allows individuals' treatment preferences to be known, yet not every culture is receptive to such discussions. Planning for end-of-life care is not readily supported in Asian culture, and little is known about individuals' communication with family and health care professionals among older Korean immigrants related to end-of-life care. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 195 older Korean immigrants on end-of-life communication. Measures include end-of-life communication, attitudes toward end-of-life communication, perceived burden, number of adult children in the United States, health status, and sociodemographic variables. Overall, 21.9% (n = 42) of participants reported to have discussed their end-of-life treatment preferences with others, primarily family members. Attitudes toward end-of-life discussions, perceived burden, religiosity, and the number of children in the U.S. significantly accounted for end-of-life communication. Culturally appropriate interventions are recommended to promote dialogue regarding treatment preferences among older adults, family, and health care professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Text messaging has become the primary method of communication among teenagers and young adults. Cell phone owners between the ages of 18 and 24 exchange an average of 109.5 messages on a normal day; this suggests that text messaging may play a role in communication between adolescent patients and their healthcare providers. The purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility of a text messaging program for complimenting a clinical visit and augmenting health education in an adolescent healthcare setting. An integrated texting platform included three components: birth control reminders, health education messages, and a 'chat' function. Of the 700 patients made aware of the program in a 6-month period, 42% (291/700) used text messaging at least once for birth control adherence or educational purposes. The ability for patients to text questions confidentially and anonymously was popular with many questions requesting information about proper use of birth control. The study showed that text messaging may be a valuable and feasible tool to augment health education efforts for adolescents attending a primary care setting. Further studies are ongoing determining the effectiveness of text messaging in improving outcomes of patient adherence to and correct use of birth control methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which include cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes, all of which are associated with the common risk factors of poor diet and insufficient physical activity, caused 63% of all deaths globally in 2008. The increasing discussion of global NCDs, including at the 2011 United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases, and a request for multi-stakeholder engagement, prompted the International Food Information Council Foundation to sponsor the Global Diet and Physical Activity Communications Summit: 'Insights to Motivate Healthful, Active Lifestyles' on September 19, 2011, in New York City. The Summit brought together a diverse group of stakeholders, representing 34 nations from governments; communication, health, nutrition, and fitness professions; civil society; nonprofits; academia; and the private sector. The Summit provided expert insights and best practices for the use of science-based, behavior-focused communications to motivate individuals to achieve healthful, active lifestyles, with the goal of reducing the prevalence of NCDs. Presented here are some of the highlights and key findings from the Summit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the authors review the development of the Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) Program and recent landmark legislation in New York State in the context of advance care planning and shared medical decision making at the end of life. Social workers are central health care professionals in working with patients, families, practitioners, health care agents, and surrogates in the health systems and in the communication and conflict resolution process that is integral to health care decision making. The critical importance of ethics and end-of-life training and education for social workers is also addressed. Data from a pilot study evaluating interdisciplinary ethics training on legal and ethical content in communication and conflict resolution skills in health care decision making are reported. Recommendations are made for research on education and training of social workers, and investigation of the role and influence of systems in shaping social work involvement in end-of-life and palliative care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While all states have regulations requiring reporting of diseases from healthcare professionals and facilities, underreporting is substantial. To improve reporting to the New York State (NYS) Occupational Lung Disease Registry (OLDR), the NYS Department of Health's Bureau of Occupational Health initiated a multimedia campaign to increase case ascertainment and establish communication channels and partnerships for conducting prevention. The outreach campaign was successful in raising physician awareness about the OLDR, familiarizing physicians with reporting forms and procedures, and increasing physician reporting. It also raised awareness of the contribution of occupational factors to respiratory illness and other conditions. However, while our evaluation indicated it is possible to affect short-term outcomes, such as knowledge, attitudes, and behavior among health-care providers, the campaign was not as successful in promoting sustained reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

urate assessment of New York City (NYC) pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) resources and the ability to surge them during a disaster has been recognized as an important citywide emergency preparedness activity. However, while NYC hospitals with PICUs may be expected to surge in a disaster, few of them have detailed surge capacity plans. This will likely make it difficult for them to realize their full surge capacity both on individual and regional levels. If the pediatric resources that each NYC PICU hospital has can be identified prior to a disaster, this information can be used to both determine appropriate surge capacity goals for each PICU hospital and the additional resources needed to reach those goals. City agencies can then focus citywide planning efforts on making these resources available and more easily anticipate what a hospital will need during a disaster. Communication of this hospital information both prior to and during a surge situation will be aided by a stratification system familiar to both city planners and hospitals. The goal of this project was to design a NYC PICU surge stratification system that would aid physicians, hospitals and city agencies in regional surge capacity planning for critical pediatric patients. This goal was demonstrated through two objectives. The first identified major factors to consider when designing a stratification system. The second devised a preliminary system of PICU stratification based on clinical criteria and resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite early widespread recognition of the necessity of continuing medical education (CME) for practicing physicians and surgeons, medical schools and national medical organizations were slow to mobilize to address the need. One pioneering program, developed by the Albany Medical College in New York, not only provided CME, but did so in a live distance education format that allowed for interaction between the participants and the faculty presenters. The Albany Program commenced in 1955 using what was then state-of-the-art technology; it exemplified principles and practices that can be seen as the precursors for the distance education approaches used to reach physicians today. This short article describes the contributions of the Albany Two-Way Radio Conferences and places them in the context of developments in national organizations and policies in the 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]