Education, training and tools for ensuring healthcare frontline food safety

Food technology has been growing at a quick pace, having come under the influence of the twin paradigms of the late 20^th century, technology and globalization. As populations keep moving from one part of the world to another in the millions; it is natural that they get influenced by the food behavior of the place to which they move, while also bringing their own influences into it.

It is not just with the itinerant population that food service and movement are paired and associated. They have become more pronounced as businesses in food products move their products to many parts of the world. Food produced in China may find its way to a plate in Chile, and Sri Lanka’s cuisine could be popular in Senegal.

While this kind of movement is inevitable and is part of globalization; it has brought with it the imperative for cleanliness and hygiene. These critical aspects of food should not become a casualty to business interests. It is to ensure hygiene at all stages and levels of the food that is consumed all over the world that global and domestic regulatory agencies have come up with many regulations.

A host of regulations

These regulations are meant for implementation at different sources, such as hotels, restaurants, hospitals, public transport which moves millions of people from one part of the globe to another, and in every conceivable locale in which food is produced or consumed.

These are just some of the standards that are in place to help bring about standardization in food production and distribution practices:

• Administrators 483.60 Food & Nutrition Services Standard, specific to F361, which requires the facility to employ sufficient staff with the appropriate competencies and skills set
• 60 Food & Nutrition Services Standard processes
• Hospital A-0620 Food and Dietetic Services
• HHA, CMS 3819-F Modernization, Continuous Quality Improvements
• CMS Quality Indicator Process for Assistant Living Homes.

Full clarity on the regulations for healthcare food safety

A proper and complete understanding of all these aspects of healthcare frontline food safety will be offered at a webinar that is being organized by MentorHealth, a leading provider of professional trainings for all the areas of regulatory compliance. The speaker at this session, Larry David Bowe is a Principle Consultant- Food Safety Certified Instructor with 36 plus years of experience in Hospitality, Food Safety Management, will offer food safety education, training and tools.

Please enroll for this webinar and gain thorough insights into food safety education and tools.

All aspects of food training

Larry will focus on developing documentation that organizations can deploy. He will explain the kind of vision, mission, and messaging that food departments need to have, as well as how to shape the training, corrective action of staff, and the behaviors of individual food handlers. He will explain the role of food and nutrition staff, and other individuals such as volunteers, in reducing the risk of foodborne outbreaks.

 

The webinar will also offer effective risk management strategies, and show how to adapt appropriate competencies and skills sets and tools to inculcate the right competencies and skills sets, as well as serving as the effective means of applying these. The training programs, methods and tools will help to correct improper food handling behaviors.

Larry will share tools, tips and resources to promote a cohesive food service and safety plan. He will cover the following areas at this valuable session:

• Slides Presentation for Training Manager to Implementing Staff Training, Tools within department, and across facility
• Online sources
• Actual Training Program, Forms(actual inspector notes/inspection)
• Tools-To-Used in Dining (Food) Service Audit/Survey Process “Readiness” to document, corrective actions, Performance improvement Action Plans, Healthcare Food Setting
• Clear Messaging/Communication/Training for Events.

The costs of medical malpractice are exorbitant

The costs of medical malpractice are exorbitant, to put it mildly. First, what is a medical malpractice? A straightforward definition of medical malpractice is that it is an act of wrongdoing, a sort of negligence by a medical practitioner in diagnosing or administering treatment that leads to harm in a number of ways to the patient. This negligence is usually the result of choosing a substandard drug or mode of therapy that leads to this situation for the patient.

The physician works in close contact with the patient, which brings them into a kind of sacred and intimate relationship. This goes beyond just the administration of the drug or conducting tests. Patients, even when they are highly educated and knowledgeable about disease, come to physicians seeking some kind of solace and reassurance. Ordinarily, in this kind of scenario, there should be no place for a medical malpractice.

Medical malpractice can still happen

Yet, although physicians and patients work on a kind of unwritten, implied trust; there are occasions when a medical malpractice can happen. A medical malpractice usually happens when this trust is broken. A medical malpractice can happen in a number of ways, misdiagnosing or administering the wrong drug being just some of these instances.

A medical malpractice can be said to have taken place when any of these scenarios happen:

• An untoward result of treatment or surgery
• An outstanding invoice being mailed to a patient who is not satisfied with the treatment methods or outcomes
• A physician’s wife or assistant working as the office manager filling up a medical leave authorization form and charging money for it
• Just a perceived lack of concern on the part of the doctor or personnel.

Since any of these can count as medical negligence, it is all the easier for patients to seek legal remedy when they feel they have been wronged in one way or another. America being the highly litigious country that it is; it is always good to devise the means to avoid being taken to court for medical negligence.

Learn the in-depth aspects of medical negligence

In what ways can medical practitioners avoid showing medical negligence and being taken to court? The diligence and care that they should take to avoid being in such a situation will be the basis of the learning a webinar that is being organized by MentorHealth, a leading provider of professional trainings for the healthcare industry, is organizing.

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The critical need for learning about medical negligence

Why is this learning important? It is because it is essential for medical practitioners to understand the elements and nuances of medical negligence, given that the field of medical negligence being a colossal one that involves huge amounts of money in damages. A book by the late Steve Jacob says the following startling facts and disclosures about medical negligence:

• Using a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report as the basis, PwC estimated that malpractice insurance and defensive medicine accounted for a tenth of the total healthcare costs. This is corroborated by a 2010 Health Affairs article, which puts these costs at about one-fortieth of all of healthcare spending;
• The depth and extent of fear of being taken to court for medical negligence is reflected in a 2010 survey, at which American orthopedic surgeons conceded that almost a third of the tests and referrals they order were medically unnecessary and was being done purely to reduce physician vulnerability to lawsuits;
• An analysis made by the AMA in 2011 found that the increase in the average amount to defend a lawsuit went up by around 60 percent in less than decade from 2010 to $47,158, from $28,981 in 2001. This was accompanied by a steep rise in the average cost to pay a medical liability claim-whether it was a settlement, jury award or some other disposition. This cost went up to $331,947 from $297,682 in 2001;
• A good portion of doctors’ professional careers are spent in fighting lawsuits, no matter what the final outcome is. The average span of a medical negligence litigation is over two years. If doctors spend around a year and eight months in defending cases that were eventually dismissed; medical negligence claims going to trial took three and a quarter years to settle. Another painful piece of statistics concerning medical negligence is that physicians who finally won the case spent as much as three years and eight months in litigation;
• A New England Journal of Medicine report estimated that by age 65 around three fourths of all low-risk specialist physicians have been subjected to at least one lawsuit for medical negligence, while it is an unbelievable 99% for high-risk specialties practitioners.
• Finally, Brian Atchinson, president of the Physician Insurers Association of America [PIAA], nearly three fourths of legal claims for medical negligence do not result in payments to patients, while physician defendants prevail four out of five times in claims resolved by verdict.

Being organized in the backdrop of these situations; this webinar on medical negligence by MentorHealth will cover the following areas:

• Understanding What’s at Stake in Litigation
• What every Doctor must Know
• Steps to Take after Summon and Service Receipt
• Trail Players Burden of Proof
• Types of Trials Discovery Process
• Depositions
• Motions In-Li mine
• Jury Selection
• Opening Statements
• Presentation of Evidence
• Summation and Final Instructions
• Jury Deliberations
• The Verdict and Relief.

Physician Leases need to be structured under the new 2016 Stark Rules

Stark Law, more formally referred to as The Physician Anti-Referral Law (known as Stark II), is a prominent law concerning physician referrals. Healthcare providers that file claims require compliance with the Stark rules. Failure to comply can invite an enforcement action. The fundamental aim of this law is the elimination of malpractices in the healthcare sector. Implemented in stages known as Stark II and Stark III; the Stark Laws consider particular actions on the part of the physician as unlawful.

Of late, Stark Law enforcement actions have led to substantial awards and settlements. Due to this, Stark Law compliance has moved from being just a compliance issue. It is now an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) issue. With more and more medical groups, hospitals, and health systems pursuing integration strategies and transitioning to more innovative hospital-physician arrangements; putting in place compensation arrangements that are defensible under the Stark Law is the way forward for them for managing their compliance and enterprise risk.

Get to understand all aspects of the Stark Law for 2016

More on the Stark Law can be understood from a webinar that MentorHealth, a leading provider of professional trainings for the areas of healthcare, will be organizing. Participants can enroll for this highly important and interesting webinar by logging on to http://bit.ly/Physician-Leases-need-to-be-structured-2016-StarkRules

Wolfe, an attorney with Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman, P.C., the largest health care focused law firm in the country; will offer a general Stark Law overview at this webinar. He will also explain best practices for auditing existing space lease arrangements and for implementing new time-share arrangements under the new 2016 Stark rules. This learning will be highly useful for In-House Counsel, Health Care Compliance Officers, Health Care Human Resources, Health Care CFO’s, and Health Care executives.

Wolfe will cover the following areas at this session:

• Provide a general overview of the Stark Law in its current form
• A general Stark Law overview
• Explain the regulatory requirements for compliance with key regulatory exceptions and safe harbors for leases
• Summarize the upcoming changes to the Stark Law for 2016
• Discuss best practices for auditing existing space lease arrangements and for implementing new time share arrangements

It is important to ensure food safety in hospitalsood

It is important to ensure food safety in hospitals

Hospitals being what they are – where patients of almost all kinds visit or stay – are very potent sources of infection. Infection can arise from any part of the hospital. They can spread from patients to patients, from caregivers to patients, from patients to caregivers, from patients to support or administrative staff and vice versa, and so on. An often overlooked source of infection and contamination is the food that comes into hospitals.

Food safety in hospitals is a very important element of hygiene

First, an understanding of food safety in the context of hospitals is necessary. Food safety in hospitals is described as the scientific way by which food is prepared, handled and stored in hospital settings. Any food that is prepared in hospital kitchens are, like food prepared in other places such as canteens, hotels and restaurants and even homes, sourced from outside. This food comes from suppliers whose hygiene has to be ensured. Food hazards can come in many forms, including, but not limited to:

• Biological
• Chemical
• Physical
• Allergenic Hazards an

Several other contributing factors

It is in the process of procuring materials for food and preparing it in hospital kitchens that a major part of food safety in hospitals is compromised. There has to be a thorough mechanism to ensure that all these producers and suppliers follow regulatory requirements in ensuring that the food they produce and supply to hospitals is clean and safe. Literally thousands of patients get infected from over 250 kinds of bacteria, parasites and viruses when they consume food prepared in hospitals.

Findings of a recent study

It is pertinent to recall the findings of study done in May 2014 in Geneva, Switzerland. It carried out an examination of chicken supplied to and prepared in a hospital in this city. An astounding four fifths of these chickens were known to have been infected with E.coli, leading to its possible transmission to patients. Timely preventive measures ensured that the risk of infection was minimized. If this is the state of hospitals in highly advanced nations, one can imagine the condition in developing countries around the world.

Steps to ensure food safety in hospitals

Hospitals need to take a number of important steps to ensure food safety in hospitals. Some of these include:

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