We are proud to celebrate Patient-Centered Care Awareness Month. To learn more about patient-centered approaches visit Planetree's Website.

 

The Batz Foundation is a guest blogger on Get Better Health, and we are proud to support Dr. Val Jones and her "Healthy Vision"  radio show! 

ACUVUE^® BRAND CONTACT LENSES LAUNCHES “HEALTHY VISION™ WITH DR. VAL JONES”

 

Popular medical blogger hosts new online radio program focusing on eye health

 

 

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (June 15, 2011) – VISTAKON^®, Division of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc., today announced the launch of Healthy Vision^TM with Dr. Val Jones, a new radio program devoted to educating and improving the eye health of Americans.

 

“Americans spend surprisingly little time thinking about their eyes, even though they’re critical to their quality of life,” says program host Val Jones, M.D.,  CEO of Better Health, LLC, a network of popular health bloggers, and author of, “Dr. Val and the Voice of Reason,” which won The Best New Medical Blog ...

As the founder of StopAfib.org, I have heard from thousands of atrial fibrillation patients who have shared their afib experiences with me. For so many of us, the diagnosis and treatment of afib is confusing and scary.

To improve communication between patients and their health-care providers, and ultimately, provide better care, I recently shared with doctors at the Western Atrial Fibrillation Symposium some “dos” and “don’ts” that afib patients have shared with me. While these comments are from atrial fibrillation patients, they are likely to apply to all patients.

DO

Tips that medical professionals can incorporate when seeing afib patients:

• Think: What if it were me? When dealing with afib patients, keeping the physical, emotional and financial impact of the condition in mind can lead to more empathetic care.
• Adjust to patients. Especially when afib patients are initially diagnosed, they may not be up to speed with the risks posed by the condition. Health-care providers may need to ...

Two years ago was the last time my Mom told me,  “Good Night, and I love you!” I gave her a big hug before I left the hospital room and told her how well she had done through the surgery, and I was so proud of her.  I never thought in a million years that this would be the last time we would ever be able to talk to one another. That I would be able to hear her voice, share stories, laugh, get loving advice and words of comfort.

On April 14, 2009 my Mom went to have routine knee surgery. Her surgery was successful, but then after a series oversights and medication errors on the General Floor, my Mom went into respiratory depression and suffered anoxia to the brain. 11 days later she passed away. My brother and I lost the best Mom in the world. Our children lost ...

At the Sleep and Breathing Research Institute we are focused on trying to move themonitoring industry away from the utterly simplistic 30 year old "firealarm" concept of patient monitoring which has proven ineffective in manyRandomized Prospective Controlled (class A) trials.

Serious infections are becoming more prevalent and morevirulent both in our hospitals and in our communities. The numbers arestaggering:  1.7 million people will sufferfrom a hospital acquired infection each year and almost 100,000 will die as a result.

 

When our late daughter, Kate was diagnosed with anaggressive eye cancer in 1989 at five months of age our life became consumed bydoctor visits, MRI scans, radiation treatments, chemotherapy and fear. Myhusband and I assumed that our fight was against the ravages of cancer but almosteight years later we faced another life-threatening challenge we never countedon - hospital-acquired infection. In 1997, Kate was infected with Staph aureusin the operating room during a “routine” 30 minute biopsy procedure to confirmthe reoccurrence of her cancer.

 

Kate’s hospital infection led to seven weeks in thePediatric Intensive Care Unit on life support, the amputation of her right leg,kidney damage and the loss of 70% of ...

Last week Laura Townsend was visiting with one of the Medical Advisory Board Members. They were talking about an incident where a family member noticed that the nurse was about to give the wrong type of blood to the patient. She thought to herself that the family member was being a really informed and an active participant in his mother’s healthcare. Then she began thinking she didn't know her own blood type or her children’s and she should figure that out for just these types of situations. She made a chart at home that listed the entire (including the extended) families' blood types. You'll never know when a situation will occur that you will need to provide that information quickly to a doctor or nurse.

Blood types are based on the antigens you receive from your parents. You can either have A, B, both A and B or neither, which ...

I was inspired when I lost my best friend 15 years ago to a preventable medical error. Losing Mark altered my entire career in medicine and started me ona long journey trying to understand and fix how this particular problemhappens. The journey has been eye opening for many reasons, and probably mostimportant is learning to understand how the human brain can deceive itself intobelieving thoughtful, rational, goal directed tactics are always the solutionto finding the answers to highly complex enigmas.

2011 Areas of Funding

We are proud of our work this past year, however, there is still so much to be done. We continually ask ourselves, “What more can we do? How do we prevent more medical errors from happening and raise awareness of this terrible issue?” We plan to continue our involvement with the SASC and we will continually update the website with news and information. In addition, we are planning the following research and outreach activities for 2011:

The Batz Guide

The Batz Guide was published in October 2010. It was a collaborative effort with our medical advisory board, volunteers and community partners. Several copies have been distributed and the feedback has been extremely positive. Along with the research project in the facility, the Foundation is eager to get these guides in the hands of the patients and their advocates. We are interested in talking with medical professionals ...

2010 Accomplishments

This past year has been filled with new relationships, innovations, infrastructure and a very focused mission. Because of our generous donors, we were able to achieve many milestones for the Foundation. Below is a snapshot of our 2010 activities:

Development of the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation logo, identity mark and website in collaboration with Gray Web Technology and Design. 

Medical professionals and patients can find resources and join a community of individuals that care about preventing medical errors online at www.louisebatz.org. The logo design is based on one of my mom’s favorite traditional Oaxacan Mexican dresses. Our family has called San Antonio home since the 1800’s and she loved to celebrate the city’s history and passion for life. The dress always symbolized happiness and love and now we hope that our logo will provide that same feeling for others.

Creation of our Medical Advisory Board, ...

Great News!   Health 2.0 announced today that Ringful Health’s Pain Care application has won the “Project HealthDesign” developer challenge sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and California HealthCare Foundation. We are honored to win this national challenge! The winning application is a collaborative effort between Ringful Health, Dr. Vishal Kancherla of the North Austin Medical Center, and the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation. We are so excited about this news!

Please take a look at Rinful’s Video Submission on the Pain Care App- http://vimeo.com/15048551 and password is Health2

 

The following is Michael Yuan of Ringful’s press release:

 

 

Health 2.0 announced today that Ringful Health’s Pain Care application has won the “Project HealthDesign” developer challenge sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and California HealthCare Foundation. We are honored to win this national challenge!

The winning application is a collaborative effort between Ringful Health, Dr. Vishal Kancherla of the North Austin Medical ...

The Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation has collaborated with Ringful Health and, Dr. Vishal Kancherla of the North Austin Medical Center to develop a pain care mobile application that helps chronic pain patients to better manage their symptoms, medications, and better communicate with their physicians in hopes of properly treating patients and reducing the risk of medical errors.

 

The Foundation and Ringful Health are currently working to develop two mobile healthcare applications (apps) for the smart phone, particularly the iPhone and the iPad. The apps will allow you to electronically record medication information and access our information in the Batz Guide for bedside advocacy. By using these apps, everyone will be able to readily access the information needed to work with hospital staff to protect you or your family members against preventable medical errors. The availability of the apps on the iTunes store will give much greater access to our tools and resources.

 

 

Go to www.rinfgul.com or the ...

In April of last year, I was sitting with my Mom during a visit to my parents. We were in the family room watching TV. It was a Monday night, so we were watching Jack Bauer save the world on 24. We loved that show. It was a nightly ritual of ours when I came to San Antonio to visit. With my dad asleep and my two daughters tucked in, Mom and I had time to relax and just catch up. I always cherished those moments and even now they are some of my fondest memories. On this night in particular, while we were chatting and watching our shows, Mom was looking over all her paperwork for the hospital, getting ready for her knee replacement surgery the next day. She was so calm. Mom was so ready to have her surgery; she timed it just right so that she would ...