Princess Health and Princess Health andCEO of Somerset hospital, rated by Consumer Reports as clearly the least safe in Kentucky, is resigning.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Princess Health andCEO of Somerset hospital, rated by Consumer Reports as clearly the least safe in Kentucky, is resigning.Princessiccia

health rankings hospital safety hospitals patients rankings safety

Gusty 17:06 Add Comment

Mark Brenzel (Photo via Somerset Commonwealth Journal)

The CEO of the Kentucky hospital with by far the lowest safety rating from Consumer Reports magazine is resigning. Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital is one of 61 owned in 20 states by LifePoint Hospitals of Brentwood, Tenn.

In an April 14 message to the hospital staff, Mark Brenzel wrote, �A few weeks ago, I informed Scott Raplee, President of LifePoint�s Central Group, about my decision to step down  . . . I have struggled managing some health problems since last year that have required me to limit some activities including work hours. While these lifestyle changes have been helpful, they have made it difficult for me to keep up with the demands of this job.�

Brenzel concluded, �I have greatly enjoyed the last four years and am glad to be ending my hospital management career where it began in 1976 when I first visited LCRH [soon after it opened]. We have made great progress in improving patient care and implementing new strategies that will help LCRH be successful in the new healthcare reform environment. My wife and I are planning to stay in the community for the long term and look forward to supporting LCRH in any way that we can.�

Raplee told the Somerset Commonwealth Journal that LifePoint is doing national search to find a replacement for Brenzel, who will remain as CEO during the search. �We are discussing the possibility of Mark taking a new role with LCRH once the new CEO is hired,� Raplee said in a press release.

Princess Health and Tips to help avoid a preventable return trip to the hospital.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Tips to help avoid a preventable return trip to the hospital.Princessiccia

hospitals patients prevention

Gusty 12:50 Add Comment

Patients too often leave the hospital without knowing how to care for themselves, leading to a preventable return. Here are tips to improve your chances of a successful recovery at home:

Be sure you understand your illness, and the care you received in the hospital.

Ask if you will require help at home. Can you bathe yourself? Climb stairs? Will you need bandages changed or shots? If so, do you have a caregiver to help, or will you need to arrange a visiting nurse?

Repeat back your care instructions to those who give them, to be sure you understand them.

Ask for a written discharge plan that lists your medical conditions, your treatments, and the plan for your ongoing care.

Get a list of all medications, how to use them, and what to do if you experience side effects. Be sure to ask whether to continue medications you were taking before this hospitalization.

Ask what symptoms suggest you�re getting worse and what to do if that happens, especially at night or during the weekend.

What follow-up appointments will you need and when? Ask if your hospital will make the appointments for you, and send your records.

Do you have transportation home, to follow-up appointments, and to the drugstore?

If you have a regular physician, make sure the hospital sends a report of your hospital stay.

If you are uninsured or will have difficulty affording prescriptions, a hospital discharge planner or social worker may be able to link you to community resources that can help.

Get a name and number to call if questions about your hospitalization or discharge arise.

Sources: The Associated Press; Dr. Eric Coleman, University of Colorado; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Journal of the American Medical Association.

Princess Health and Prescription-painkiller epidemic is spurred by societal shift, experts say: People think every problem has a pill for an answer.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Prescription-painkiller epidemic is spurred by societal shift, experts say: People think every problem has a pill for an answer.Princessiccia

controlled substances drug abuse patients prescription drug abuse prescription drugs public health rural health substance abuse

Gusty 15:02 1 Comment

By Molly Burchett
Kentucky Health News

The prescription-painkiller epidemic stems partly from an evolution of society's views toward pain and how to deal with it, said experts at "The Different Faces of Substance Abuse" conference in Lexington Jan. 23-24.

"The entire society's viewpoint of pain and the management of pain has completed shifted," said Dr. Ryan Stanton, an emergency physician and conference panelist.

Pain is considered the fifth vital sign, after temperature, pulse, blood pressure and respiratory rate, but it is the only sign that is subjective, which complicates the problem, said Stanton, because patient satisfaction is associated with the amount of drugs the provider prescribes. If an emergency-room doctor suggests exercise to combat back pain, he said the patient's reaction might be, "You might as well ask a man to deliver a baby."

The substance-abuse problem shouldn't be laid at the feet of prescribers because patients think there is a pill out there for every problem when sometimes the answer is non-prescription ibubrofen and an ice pack, said Van Ingram, executive director of the state Office of Drug Control Policy.

"This is a complicated issue," Ingram said. "It's easy to be against heroin, and it's easy to be against cocaine. But prescription opioids are things that many people need to live and need to improve their quality of life at the end of life."

Patients need to understand how much a doctor can or should do, said Dr. Helen Davis, conference panelist and chair of the Gov. Steve Beshear's KASPER Advisory Council. "Patients come in to the doctor's office expecting a silver bullet . . . but when looking at pain, the goal isn't to make the patient pain-free," she said. "The goal is to reduce the pain enough that they can have systematic and functional relief to go about their daily living."

Davis said doctors and nurses must change their culture to become more collaborative with the patient to address the non-pharmacological management of pain. There are some things that are the responsibility of the provider and there are some things that are the patients', families' and communities' responsibility, she said, adding that all professionals must look at their interdisciplinary responsibility to the people of the state.

Kentucky Health News is an independent service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.

Princess Health and Revealing patient safety issues and medical errors are goals of Facebook page set up by ProPublica.Princessiccia

Princess Health and Revealing patient safety issues and medical errors are goals of Facebook page set up by ProPublica.Princessiccia

health care acquired infections hospital-acquired infections medical errors patients safety

Gusty 11:49 Add Comment

Photo by iStockphoto.com/selimaksan

Interested in creating a venue for those who have been harmed while undergoing medical treatments, ProPublica, the nonprofit, investigative news organization, has set up a Facebook page on the issue.

"Group members have already shared stories of personal disability or the death of a loved one due to surgical mistakes, becoming infected with deadly drug-resistant bacteria and dental mishaps � including cases they claim were not properly addressed by health care providers," Daniel Victor and Marshall Allen report. The page will be moderated by Victor and Olga Pierce.

The page is also open to doctors, nurses, regulators, health-care executives and others interested in discussing medical errors, their causes and solutions. Question-and-answer sessions with experts will be posted, along with links to the latest reports and policy proposals. (Read more)

Princess Health and 531 deficiencies found in 80 Kentucky nursing homes in first quarter of 2012; worst one had 29; five had none.Princessiccia

Princess Health and 531 deficiencies found in 80 Kentucky nursing homes in first quarter of 2012; worst one had 29; five had none.Princessiccia

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Gusty 14:38 Add Comment

State inspectors found 531 deficiencies in 80 Kentucky nursing homes in the first quarter of this year, with one facility accounting for 29 of them alone: Life Care Center of Morehead. In five nursing homes, no deficiencies were found.

The information was released by Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform, a nonprofit organization that advocates for nursing home residents and obtains the data regularly through open-records requests to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and distributes it statewide. The information is posted as part of Medicare's nursing-home comparison data.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the average number of deficiencies for a nursing home inspected in the U.S. is eight and the average in Kentucky is seven. Inspections assess a facility on the care of residents and how that care is administered; on how staff and residents interact; and on its environment. Certified nursing homes must meet more than 180 regulatory standards. The state Office of Inspector General website has more data, such as the results of inspections and the ownership of each facility.

Nursing homes with 10 or more deficiencies in the first quarter were:
� Life Care Center of Morehead (29 deficiencies)
� Kindred Transitional Care & Rehab-Fountain Circle in Winchester (24)
� Signature Health of Pikeville (19)
� Hearthstone Place in Elkton (15)
� Martin County Health Care Facility in Inez (14)
� Wesley Manor Nursing Center in Louisville (13)
� Pembroke Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Pembroke (13)
� Highlands Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Louisville (11)
� Mountain Manor of Paintsville (11)
� Cumberland Valley Manor in Burkesville (10)
� Klondike Care and Rehabilitation Center in Louisville (10)

The five nursing homes with no deficiencies were:
� Clark Regional Medical Center in Winchester
� Nazareth Home in Louisville
� Essex Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Louisville
� Barren County Health Care Center in Glasgow
� Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Center in Lexington (initial inspection; under new ownership)

For more information about Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform, click here.

Princess Health and 100 Kentucky hospitals join network to improve patient safety, fight hospital-acquired conditions such as infections.Princessiccia

Princess Health and 100 Kentucky hospitals join network to improve patient safety, fight hospital-acquired conditions such as infections.Princessiccia

healthcare-associated infections hospital-acquired infections hospitals Kentucky Hospital Association patients safety

Gusty 11:01 Add Comment

To help hospitals reduce preventable readmissions and hospital-acquired infections, 100 of Kentucky's 131 hospitals have joined the Kentucky Hospital Association's hospital engagement network. The group's goal is to help hospitals find ways to improve patient safety, reduce readmissions and hospital-acquired conditions such as infections, and share learning among hospitals.

The network hopes to reduce the incidence of adverse drug events; catheter-associated urinary tract infections; central-line-associated bloodstream infections; injuries from falls and immobility; obstetrical adverse events; pressure ulcers; surgical site infections; venous thromboembolisms or deep vein clots; ventilator-associated pneumonia; and preventable readmissions.

The two-year project is supported by a contract with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as part of the "Partnership for Patients" campaign, launched earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The goal for the project is to reduce preventable  readmissions that occur within 30 days of discharge by 20 percent and hospital-acquired infections by 40 percent (compared to 2010) by the end of 2013.

"The commitment to patient safety and quality by hospitals across Kentucky has resulted in lives saved, fewer complications and reduced costs," said Mark J. Neff, chair of the KHA board of trustees and president and CEO of St. Claire Regional Medical Center in Morehead. For a list of hospitals participating in the network, click here.