Health Scores for S.D. VA Drops!

 

 

To: Jeanette Steele                                                            December 31, 2016

      The San Diego Union Tribune

From: Michael Slavinski

            Vista, CA

 

Re: Health Scores for S.D. County VA Drops, 12/30/16

 

Dear Ms. Steele,

 

Thank you for your insightful article, Health Scores for S.D. County VA Drops, 12/30/16, I really appreciate it!

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/military/sd-me-va-scores-20161229-story.htmls

The comments from management were most worrisome, being that the evidence is based on a self-evaluation may be indicative of much larger problems concerning healthcare for our Veteran’s here in San Diego. The evidence is measured in needlessly maimed, injured and killed Veteran’s and please note the lack of fines that non-governmental health care facilities are subject to concerning preventable harm to patients.

 A couple of years ago, as a pro-bono advocate for the prevention of healthcare associated infections in our Veteran’s Hospitals, I openly supported the successful organization of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United(CNA) in our San Diego Veteran’s Hospital(SDVHS). The quality of care slide underway at our SDVHS is not what the CNA promised, Ventilator Associated Phenomena is indicative of a staff member not preforming their job, understaffing may also be in play but something is seriously wrong at the SDVHS.

 VA hospitals are run as independent , purposefully designed to compete with one another otherwise described as “silos” way before the affordable care act, your article will force the VA to flood the SDVHS with money and resources to exceed socially acceptable quality expectations, robbing other more efficient and safer silos of the resources to maintain their current performance, an endless cycle of poor morale and  performance.

 Ventilator Associated Pneumonia, we actually manufacture parts for those in our humble company, it was most disturbing to learn how many people lose their lives in this country because a staff member did not follow instructions and the root cause of my advocacy.

My days as a six foot tall pile of dirty laundry are pretty much over, between organized labor and VA staff, a tough crowed, on to more doable things, President of the “Friends of Presidio Park”, another train that has run off the tracks but good food is nearby, so far so good!

The cc is to Deborah Burger, Co-President of the CNA, they pretty much run the Great State of  California,  please ask her office for comment concerning the poor performance at SDVHS, your efforts will bring needed relief for our local Veterans, just watch the funds start flooding and thank you very much for that!

The VA needs to exit the healthcare industry, it is redundant and wasteful, the VA does some things well but delivering efficient, safe healthcare is not one of them in my humble opinion.

 

Best regards,

Michael Slavinski

 

http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/press/entry/nurses-urge-va-to-ensure-quality-care-for-veterans/

 

http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/pages/media-center

 

 

cc

Deborah Burger, R.N.                                            

Co-President

California Nurses Association

2000 Franklin Street

Oakland, CA 94612

The President, Veterans support & Zika preention funding!

Honorable President Barack Obama                                           July 28, 2016

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20500

 

 

 

Re: “Zika Response Appropriations Act” and “Zika Vector Control Act”

 

 

Dear President Obama,

 

Thank you for all that you do for the great country we live in and the support you provide to our Veterans, I really appreciate it!

 

 My communication today has its origins in tonight’s evening news which noted the arrival of the Zika virus in South Florida not related to human travel therefore freezing distribution of human blood inventories void of Zika virus testing in some areas.

 In combination with a letter from the Honorable Darrell Issa, Member of Congress, which I received last night requesting my support for encouraging you as The President to rescind your veto threat concerning the “Zika Response Appropriations Act” and the “Zika Vector Control Act” now held from the Senate due to veto threat, a $1.1 billion investment in education and strategies to control the spread of the Vika virus here in the U.S.A.   

 My advocacy for the prevention of Healthcare Associated Infections in our Veteran’s hospitals has given me personal insight as to power and responsibility of your office concerning public health as well as the responsibility of citizens to call for your attention to threats to public health. My request is void of partisans political considerations and any non-Zika virus issues contained in the proposed legislation should be removed immediately in my humble opinion. 

 Regardless of outcome thank you for all that you have done to help others and hopefully, with the information put forth today about the organic arrival of the Zika virus in the U.S.A. you will reconsider your current position and join in the fight to defeat the Zika virus.

 

Respectfully,

 

Michael Slavinski

 

                                                      Continued on page  2                

 

 

 

      Page 2

 

 

Honorable United Stated Senator Dianne Feinstein

 

Honorable Member of Congress Darrelle E. Issa

 

Honorable Governor Edmond G. Brown Jr.                    

 

Honorable California Senator Ed Hernandez

Chair, California Senate Health Committee

 

Honorable California State Senator Patricia Bates

 

Honorable California Assemblymember William W. Monning

Chair, Committee on Health Care

 

Honorable California Assemblymember Katcho Achadjian

 

Honorable California Assemblymember Rocky Chavez

 

California Department of Public Health

Karen Smith, MD, MPH, Director and Public Health Officer

 

California Federation of Republican Women, Escondido, CA

Connie Gunther, Legislative Chair

 

California Nurses Association

Deborah Burger, R.N. Co-President

 

SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West

Dave Regan, President

 

Sharon Schultz, MSN, RN, MPH, NE-BC

Chief Nurse Executive/Senior VP

Tri-City Medical Center

 

Pam Kehaly,

CEO Anthem West Region

Anthem Blue Cross

CLABSI eradication in plain english!

Over the years I have pointed to Sophie Harnage RN, BSN, VA-BC,Consultant, Vascular
 Access/Infusion, work concerning centerline associated bloodstream infections(CLABSI) prevention, a member of the family preventable diseases known as healthcare associated infections(HAI) as to what safe and efficient healthcare looks like.

 In my humble opinion the prevention of HAI will become the expectation as you visit your local healthcare facility rather than the high chance it may maim or kill you or a loved one in the near future.

 Fortunately you may choose a healthcare facility that understands the linkage of safety and efficiency our Veterans are not so lucky so my advocacy for the prevention of HAI in our Veteran's hospitals supports the efforts of Sophie, regardless of commercial consideration, is based on the belief that supporting those that help others will someday influence the treatment our Veteran's receive.

 So below is the "how to" pitch for our community hospital to eradicate CLABIS:  

7/2/16

Hi,

 

I would like to introduce myself. I am Sophie Harnage, retired from Sutter Health last year where I managed both the infusion Center and the Vascular Access team. We developed a Central line bundle in 2006 that eliminated CLABSIs in over 18,000 PICC lines over a period of 8 years. I currently am an independent consultant in Vascular Access/Infusion and have been assisting a company with this program named AllPoints. We work with facilities who are having struggles with high CLABSI rates. One CLABSI is one too many seeing that these infections are not only preventable, they have a mortality rate close to 24%! To make this even more REAL close to 1 in 4 of our patients will expire from a CLABSI that we could have prevented.

 

The Bard AllPoints training program utilizes Six Sigma principles in order to reduce variation and improve standardization across the entire continuum of care for all central line catheters.  From insertion to removal AllPoints addresses each processes required to care for central lines.

The process of implementing AllPoints starts with a gap analysis of your current polices against the governing standards.  These policies cover your dressing changes, blood draws, hub maintenance and medication administration.  Each of these areas impact the performance of a central line and the outcome for the patient. We then perform site rounding and a staged assessment and share the results of your practices with your team. From there we conduct unit champion training and the detail of each of these steps is included in the brochure specifically the flow chart at the end.

 

I am attaching a few items for your review. I am including the following:

 

1. AllPoints Brochure which includes the flow chart which lines out the entire program

 

2. Published articles written by myself on our journey to ZERO

 

This is one if not the most comprehensive program I have seen and developed that actually addresses the front line nurses doing this work. The care and maintenance of these lines is what continues to create high CLABSI rates. These infections are Preventable. These infections are NOT inevitable or a result of complex high acuity patients. I will be heading to MD Anderson in a couple of weeks as they will be starting this program. If you are interested in learning how to get to ZERO and more about this program named AllPoints as it addresses ALL points of care I would be happy to meet with you. I am currently doing HOAG hospital and St. Jude so I am down south quite often. 

 

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share this work. I am very passionate about getting to and sustaining to ZERO CLABSIs. 

 

Sincerely,

 

Sophie Harnage RN, BSN, VA-BC

Consultant Vascular Access/Infusion

sharnage@comcast.net

916-704-3795

Good news for our Veteran's?

Deborah Burger, R.N.                                           March 11, 2016

Co-President

California Nurses Association

2000 Franklin Street

Oakland, CA 94612

 

Re: Veterans Health, Healthcare Associated Infections  

 

Dear Ms. Burger,

 

 Once again thank you for all that you and the entire membership of the California Nurses Association (CNA) do to help others, as well as our Veterans.

 Due to the fact that the California Nurses Association’s members are in every Veteran’s hospital in California I just wanted to direct your and your members attention to the following article and statistics concerning the wonderful job being done in our Veteran’s hospitals concerning the prevention of Healthcare Associated Infections(HAI).  

 

 http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/for-v-a-hospitals-and-patients-a-major-health-victory/?_r=0

 

The headlines coming from the VA these days concerning management issues is disturbing but the caliber of professional s helping our Veterans can easily be missed, in my humble opinion, HAI can only be prevented by every professionals working in a healthcare facility assumes a leadership role in the delivery of safe and efficient healthcare.

 Most articles concerning success  in preventing HAI stories quickly trail off to so implementation of technology or other investments due to the information usually coming out of the “C” suite but the following link can help direct the CAN to continue to the support  the fundamentals:

http://www.flexmonitoring.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/HAI-Strategies.pdf

Once again, thank you and your membership for all that you do to support our Veterans, I really appreciate it!

Sincerely,

Michael Slavinski                                  

http://h-a-i-5.blogspot.com

Thank you California Nurses Association!

Deborah Burger, R.N.                                           December 16, 2015

Co-President

California Nurses Association

2000 Franklin Street

Oakland, CA 94612

 

Re: Another Leapfrog Group “A” for Tri-City Medical District

Dear Ms. Burger,

 Thank you and your entire staff and membership of the California Nurses Association(CNA) for all that you do for others, especially our Veteran’s, I really appreciate it!

 At this time I would also like to thank you and your members at Tri-City Medical District(TCMD) for their outstanding work measured in the quality of care given to their customers and recently recognized again by the Leapfrog Group as an “A” level performance, actually, for the fifth consecutive year.

 Recently it was noted that the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit has not had a Centerline  Associated Bloodstream Infection in over five years. One of the comments from a recent auditor from the Joint Commission, “should my family or I need a hospital, this would be the one”!

 http://www.tricitymed.org/news/2015/tri-city-medical-center-earns-fifth-consecutive-a-for-patient-sa/

 How do these accomplishments help our Veterans, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Healthcare Associated Infections(HAI) are preventable, the closer we get to prevention at any facility the higher the bar is raised for the industry-wide tolerance of occurrences.

 The unique aspect of the accomplishments at TCHD concerning healthcare safety, it is a community hospital, the demographics of its patients are not an attribute, although much improved and committed to delivering quality care its leadership has had its share of challenges, the facility is over fifty years old so the successful component to delivering safe and efficient healthcare, yes, it is a profitable facility, is the staff, your members.

 My advocacy for the prevention of HAI in our Veteran’s hospitals is actually pretty easy, all I have to do is encourage and support the staff at TCMD in the prevention of HAI, the inspiration for this letter of thanks to you, the CNA leadership and membership that populate TCHD and every Veteran’s hospital in our nation.

Sincerely,

Michael Slavinski                                             http://h-a-i-5.blogspot.com/

"If we can improve the quality of care, that will translate into lower cost," Anthem President Pam Kehaly said. "These are real dollars”

Honorable Senator, thank you for helping our Veteran's

This note to the Honorable Senator, my advocacy, well, the task is to move the argument to the other side of the room to allow those who help others to do just that.

Honorable United States Senator Dianne Feinstein,                                  Date 8/6/15

 

Dear Honorable Senator Feinstein,

 

 Thank you very much for everything you and you staff do for the great country we live in, I really appreciate it!

 Thank you very much for supporting our Veteran's in the Los Angeles area via restricting leases that would not benefit our Veteran's at the Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System(GLAS).

 Over the years as an advocate for the prevention of healthcare associated infections at our Veteran’s  hospitals I have been appalled by the conduct of the staff at the facility.

 The only U.S. employee to criticize my advocacy over the years was GLAS Director Donna Beiter, she had a subordinate call me and told me to stop writing to her and if I did not she would throw all of my communications in the trash, I reminded the subordinate that it was not a problem, the Honorable Senator Feinstein's office has a complete set.  Understandably, at the time, Director Beiter had a very busy schedule, for some reason she seemed to spend a great amount of time in court and I do not believe for recognition of outstanding delivery of service by her unit.   To here lately about the G.A.O.'s findings concerning her living conditions on the facility was of no surprise.

 It is time, in my humble opinion, to investigate the privatization of the VA system, I am quite sure it would benefit our Vets and benefit development of more efficient healthcare for us all. Perhaps there was a good reason to let the regional VA systems run as secretive kingdoms(silos) but everything I have read about the budgetary issues system wide and mismanagement of virtually every aspect of the delivery of service to our Veteran’s.

 A critic I am not but the current tune-up underway at the VA can only be described as a total failure, one man has had little impact on a very challenging situation, the latest, “meetings with union VA staff members in a basement somewhere in the Washington DC area” helped me come to my conclusion.

 Once again, thank you for helping our Veteran's.

 

Respectfully,

 

 

February 13, 2012

 

Donna M. Beiter, R.N., M.S.N.

Director

Department Of Veterans Affairs

Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System (GLAHS)

11301 Wilshire Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90073

 

Dear Ms. Beiter,

 

 Please allow me to offer you a very warm “thank you” for your letter in response to my advocacy for patient safety (691/90), your efforts are very much appreciated. Although there are certainly no shortage of vendors in the field of HAI, my advocacy is “pro-bono” with the inspiration deeply rooted in the article in the L.A. Times and the profound statements from Ms. Pam Kehaly, President, Anthem Blue Cross, contained within.

 My advocacy has led me to the top to see where I could help to assure our veterans are receiving the benefits of the efforts underway in the private healthcare system only to find out that the “top” is watching for “best practices” being employed by the 50 states.

 The unlikeliest of advocates I am but as a veteran, ratepayer, business owner and taxpayer, HAI seems to be a small part of healthcare, for me, my top priority!

 My advocacy will depend on input and support from professionals like yourself, Ms. Kehaly and her staff set our efforts ahead a few months in a short meeting, five professionals with 116 years in the healthcare field, “HAI-Five”!

 Other than manufacturing components for ventilators for the past decade in our humble machine shop I have no financial relationships with any entity that would benefit from my advocacy, just trying to give a little back and help out a few vets.

 One thing I have learned is that a V.A.P. free facility should now be the “norm” not the exception, I have recently solicited both the California Senate and Assembly Healthcare subcommittees and T.J.C. of my intentions, Kimberly-Clark has provided a web-based site where I have posted my interests. http://hai.soundenterprises.com/pg/profile/Michael

 President Barack Obama, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Barbara Boxer, all of my state representatives, GLAHS,  Anthem Blue Cross, Kimberly Clark, in my opinion, we are all looking for the same thing, safer, more efficient healthcare.

 Once again, thank you so much for all that you and your organization do for the people who gave the most for the great country we live in! If you do not mind I will send you updates from time to time as my advocacy begins to find more focus.

 

Sincerely,

 

Michael H. Slavinski                                                  Continued on page 2

 

  page 2

 

cc:

 

Honorable President of the United States Barack Obama

 

Honorable United Stated Senator Dianne Feinstein

 

Honorable United States Senator Barbara Boxer

 

Honorable Governor Edmond G. Brown Jr.

The Great State of California

 

Honorable California Senator Ed Hernandez

Chair, Senate Health Committee

 

Honorable California Senator Sam Blakeslee

 

Honorable California Assemblymember William W. Monning

Chair, Committee on Health Care

 

Honorable California Assemblymember Katcho Achadjian

 

Honorable Supervisor Frank Mecham

San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors

 

Ms. Pam Kehaly

President, Anthem Blue Cross

 

Mr. Eddy W. Hartenstrin

Publisher and Chief Executive Officer, Los Angeles Times

President and Chief Executive Officer, Tribune Company

 

Veteran's Service Officer Dana Cummings,

San Luis Obispo County

 

Staff, Anthem Blue Cross

 

"If we can improve the quality of care, that will translate into lower cost," Anthem President Pam Kehaly said. "These are real dollars."

  

Veteran's, Efficient and safe healthcare

Deborah Burger, R.N.                                           July 26, 2015

Co-President

California Nurses Association

2000 Franklin Street

Oakland, CA 94612

 

Re: Efficient and safe Healthcare,

 

Dear Ms. Burger,

 

 Once again thank you for all that you and the entire membership of the California Nurses Association (CNA) does to help others, as well as our Veterans.

 In my humble opinion the California Nurses Association has recognized the correlation between staffing levels and safe and efficient healthcare.  Educating your members and supporting proper staffing levels has helped improve safety and reductions in healthcare associated infections(HAI), a set of preventable and often lethal diseases impacting not only patients but your membership as  well.

 

http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/pages/nursing-practice

 

Large scale budget cuts are on the table and the historic tactics of the U.S. Veteran’s Affairs(VA) leaves little room for innovative solution to large scale improvements:   

 

http://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/19356/how-1-4-billion-in-budget-cuts-will-impact-veterans/

 

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/benefits/veterans/2015/06/25/va-budget-shortfall-raises-more-criticism-anger/29275741/

 

 Scientific methodology does not seem to be part of the equation, I have little confidence the VA will be investing in improvements that are underway in other healthcare facilities here in California, and I am advocating for the CNA to do your best to highlight what is possible rather the just accepting the inevitable for our Veteran’s.

Apparently the VA has been listening to grievances from organized labor in a basement somewhere in the D.C. area, hopefully the CNA is addressing the issue, a critic I am not and I will say no more.

 However uncomfortable my advocating for the prevention of HAI in our Veteran’s hospitals may be, The CNA has the ability to influence change on many levels in my humble opinion and should do so as your profession mandates, I do not.

 Once again, thank you and your entire staff for all that you do for others, I really appreciate it!

 

 

Sincerely,

Michael Slavinski     

 

 

 

http://h-a-i-5.blogspot.com