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