Healthy employees are happy employees, and happy employees make better healthcare workers. That is one goal for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Employee Wellness Program. More than one-third of large employers in the U.S. have such wellness programs. They are designed to give employees “the information, tools and support they need to take charge of their health.” Advocates of the employee wellness programs claim that they reduce absenteeism, lower employer healthcare costs, and increase productivity. Tune in to the Children’s on Quality and learn about Nationwide Children’s Hospital Employee Wellness program. Listen to how this program has impacted the life of one of our employees.
With more than 80,000 visits per year, Nationwide Children’s Hospital has the 2nd busiest pediatric emergency department in the United States. Providing timely medical care to that many kids can be a real challenge. Yet, Nationwide Children’s Hospital has some of the best throughput times of any emergency department in America. What is patient throughput? How long is the typical emergency room wait time? How is it that Nationwide Children’s Hospital does so well? Find the answers to these questions on this edition of Children’s on Quality. My guests are Barbara Abdalla, RN and Kathy Nuss, MD from the Emergency Department at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
When infant car seats are properly positioned in the car, they can save hundreds, if not thousands of lives each year. But when they’re used improperly outside the car, these safety devices can lead to serious injury. When you place your infant in a car seat on a counter or table, or any high surface, you are putting your child at risk for a major fall. Infants can suffer from serious head injury, fractures or even asphyxiation. How should you properly use an infant car seat to prevent these injuries? Listen to Children’s on Quality and learn from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital experts about the safe use of infant car seats. “If it’s high, up it’s high risk.”
Worldwide, over 300 million people suffer from asthma, and many of these are children. Sadly, their numbers are increasing. The consequences of pediatric asthma are significant. These include recurrent hospitalizations, poor quality of life and even death. Proven therapies for managing pediatric asthma exist. Yet, recent reports suggest that these therapies are not widely used. Why is this? How is pediatric asthma different from the chronic inflammatory airway disease seen in adults? What should a parent know about their child’s asthma therapy? In this edition of “Children’s on Quality,” I pose these and other questions to Shahid Sheikh, MD, pediatric pulmonologist and asthma expert at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
The health care community has known about the problem of obesity in children for some time. Now, parents are getting the message. The National Poll on Children’s Health conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan lists obesity as the number one health concern of parents in 2009. Overall, 42% of parents rank obesity in children as a “big problem.” For the first time, Hispanic (46%) and African American (55%) parents have joined with Caucasian (39%) parents in identifying obesity as their top concern. Please join me as I talk with Judy Groner, MD, a member of the Section of Ambulatory Pediatrics at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and Robert Murray, MD, director of the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, regarding the epidemic of childhood obesity.
Recent reports confirm that skin and other infections with bacteria like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA are on the rise. In this podcast, I interview two leaders at Nationwide Children’s Hospital who see this problem first hand each and every day. Dennis Cunningham, MD is a pediatric infectious disease specialist and the medical director for epidemiology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Daniel Cohen, MD is a clinical associate professor and an emergency medicine specialist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. These MRSA experts offer insights into how to recognize and manage MRSA infections in children and families. They also provide an update regarding the quality improvement efforts to reduce MRSA infections both in and out of the hospital.
Did you know that to some extent, the quality and preparation of food in hospitals could have a therapeutic value? In this podcast I speak with Kathy Grover, Director of Nutrition Services at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Chef Matthew Shank, Production Catering Manager at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and Chuck Adams, Sr. Business Process Improvement Consultant at Nationwide Children’s Hospital about the food service quality initiative called Kaleidoscope. Listen to the podcast to learn more about the Kaleidoscope program:
Welcome to Children’s on Quality! My name is Dr. Rick McClead, Medical Director of Quality Improvement Services at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. I’ll be posting podcasts and posts that take an in-depth look at the quality issues affecting pediatric health care across the country by speaking one-on-one with those on the front lines of patient care, as well as those behind-the-scenes who contribute to overall quality and safety.
Be sure to subscribe to “Children’s on Quality” via the orange RSS button on this page to stay abreast of the latest in quality. I invite you to listen and join the conversation by posting your comments, feedback, questions and opinions on the issues discussed.
