AMSURG, a division of Envision Healthcare and national leader in the management of ambulatory surgery centers (ASC), has developed guidelines to support the delivery of safe, quality outpatient care as communities begin resuming elective procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Quality patient care is always our top priority, and following clinical best practices, along with federal and local guidance, will help ensure the safety of our patients and clinicians as we resume elective procedures during this public health crisis,” said Dr. Chan Chuang, Chief Medical Officer of Envision and Co-President of AMSURG. “Ambulatory surgery centers are an integral part of the healthcare delivery system, providing quality care at a significantly lower cost and in a more convenient setting than many alternative care sites. The services we provide are essential in helping patients maintain their health and quality of life, and these procedures can be resumed safely in some communities.”

The guidelines developed by AMSURG clinical and quality leaders provide the organization’s network of more than 3,700 physicians and more than 250 ASCs with recommended processes to ensure clinician and patient safety.

The best practices include:

• Screening patients diligently. In addition to conducting a thorough patient screening for the appropriate elective procedure, ASCs are screening patients for COVID-19. All clinical staff members are also screened daily.
• Educating patients. In addition to traditional pre-procedure education, AMSURG ASCs are educating patients on precautions the center is taking to protect patients and staff. Education also includes information about patients’ role in their health and well-being.
• Implementing social distancing precautions. ASCs are scheduling more time between procedures to enable appropriate social distancing during patients’ care journeys and thoroughly clean treatment rooms and equipment.
• Continuing to adhere to high clinical quality and safety measures. Clinicians and clinical staff are following strict clinical guidelines, including screening for COVID-19, using appropriate personal protective equipment and following stringent cleaning protocols.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the U.S., AMSURG ASCs have complied with all local and federal guidelines and been a part of efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus and support patient care. Some centers have aligned with hospitals and state agencies to distribute critical resources like personal protective equipment and ventilators to areas of greatest need. Other centers have continued to provide essential care to patients – when it was medically necessary not to delay a procedure – including a colonoscopy to detect and remove cancerous polyps and urgent orthopaedic and retina procedures to improve patients’ quality of life.

Envision, along with AMSURG, has taken a leading position in responding to America’s call for COVID-19 care. The medical group’s actions to support clinicians, healthcare partners and patients include:

Mobilizing to meet the need for more physicians and advanced practice providers across the nation. Envision is providing support to 55 medical sites by deploying more than 500 clinicians to care for COVID-19 patients. Anesthesiologists and certified registered nurse anesthetists from the anesthesiology provider team are already on the ground to meet unprecedented demand for care. Clinicians will continue to be deployed to address surging hot spots across the country.

Securing more than 5 million items of PPE, including masks, face shields, gowns, and goggles to support Envision’s clinicians and hospital partners. This PPE is being delivered to areas of greatest need. Treating every patient regardless of their ability to pay. Envision has committed to working with all parties to ensure no COVID-19 patient is burdened with unexpected costs. We will not send patients surprise medical bills and will work to ensure patients are only responsible for in-network cost-sharing.

About AMSURG

AMSURG acquires, develops and operates ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) in partnership with physicians throughout the United States. As of January 1, 2020, AMSURG owned and operated 257 ASCs and one surgical hospital in 34 states and the District of Columbia with medical specialties ranging from gastroenterology to ophthalmology and orthopaedics.

About Envision Healthcare Corporation

Envision Healthcare Corporation is a leading provider of physician-led services and post-acute care, and ambulatory surgery services. The Company delivers physician services, primarily in the areas of emergency department and hospitalist services, anesthesiology services, radiology/tele-radiology services, and children’s services to more than 1,800 clinical departments in healthcare facilities in 45 states and the District of Columbia. Post-acute care is delivered through an array of clinical professionals and integrated technologies which, when combined, contribute to efficient and effective population health management strategies. As a market leader in ambulatory surgical care, the Company owns and operates 257 surgery centers and one surgical hospital in 35 states and the District of Columbia, with medical specialties ranging from gastroenterology to ophthalmology and orthopedics. In total, the Company offers a differentiated suite of clinical solutions on a national scale, creating value for health systems, payers, providers and patients.

Aesculap Inc., in partnership with The Christoph Miethke GmbH & Co. KG, is pleased to announce the launch of the M.blue valve, the latest generation of Hydrocephalus valve technology. Its unique gravitational technology is integrated with a fixed differential pressure unit in one valve, allowing for a simple, position-dependent solution.

The M.blue valve is the only adjustable gravitational valve in the market with an integrated fixed pressure differential valve. It provides customization of the opening pressure during the most active time of the day, i.e., the upright body position. The integration of the fixed pressure differential valve addresses the posture changes.

“We are very pleased to be able to continue to provide healthcare teams with new and innovative solutions,” said Chuck DiNardo, President of Aesculap Inc. “With our strong partnership with MIETHKE comes an impactful collaborative effort to bring better Hydrocephalus solutions to patients, such as the new M.blue valve.”

“The patient is our priority and we will continue to invest in research and development to create better solutions. Our focus on Hydrocephalus valves creates an expertise and openness to future developments that allows us to serve in a way that will improve the lives that we touch,” said Christoph Miethke, CEO and Founder of MIETHKE, the manufacturer of Hydrocephalus valves for Aesculap Inc. is located in Potsdam, Germany.

According to the Hydrocephalus Association, it is estimated that over 1,000,000 people in the United States currently live with Hydrocephalus.1 Shunt therapy is the most common way to treat Hydrocephalus, which is caused by excessive cerebrospinal fluid in the brain, causing build up and pressure that can lead to symptoms such as chronic headaches, vomiting, abnormal head enlargement and could lead to death. However, despite the shunts’ life-saving purpose, implantation has been riddled with high failure rates, causing multiple revisions and surgeries for an individual with the condition.

Using gravitational systems have demonstrated good clinical outcomes in patients and reduced revisions compared to other valves. “This newest addition to the valve portfolio continues our tradition of offering uncompromised pressure adaptation through our gravitational systems,” said Odra Anderson, Product Manager for Aesculap, Inc. The M.blue valve is the smallest adjustable gravitational valve in the U.S. market. Its soft touch mechanism allows for comfortable adjustment. The design features an “active-lock mechanism” that protects from unintentional reprogramming7, not only after an MRI but also from everyday magnets such as smartphones8, toys9,10, tablets11, headphones12, nurse badges and hearing devices. Its design is robust and durable, made with highly bio-compatible titanium,16,17 oxidized to display a shade of blue.

Zebra-Med is the first AI startup securing FDA clearance for a population-health product helping health providers close the COVID-19-induced care gaps by identifying more patients at risk of osteoporosis, which costs $52B in the U.S. alone. Zebra-Med has also received its fourth U.S. patent in its bone health series, measuring potential risk for vertebral fractures

Zebra Medical Vision, the deep-learning medical imaging analytics company, announces today its fifth FDA 510(k) clearance for its Vertebral Compression Fractures (VCF) product. The company’s latest AI solution automatically identifies findings suggestive of compression fractures, enabling clinicians to place patients that are at risk of osteoporosis in treatment pathways to prevent potentially life-changing fractures.

The VCF product expands the company’s growing AI1™ (all-in-one) bundle of FDA cleared AI solutions, which has now received a fourth US patent in its bone health series. Nearly half of all women and a quarter of men over the age of 50 will suffer an osteoporotic fracture in their lifetime. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF), the cost of osteoporosis-related fragility fractures to the U.S. is estimated to be $52 billion annually. Osteoporosis, also referred to as “The Silent Killer,” is the most common preventable cause of fractures, causing more than 2 million cases of broken bones in the U.S. alone every year.

Zebra-Med is the first AI start-up in medical imaging to receive FDA clearance for a population health solution, which leverages AI to stratify risk, improve patient’s quality of life, and reduce cost of care. The software substantially increases detection rates, raising the number of patients eligible for treatment, without the need for additional staff, imaging or radiation. Sites that run fracture-prevention programs or population-management programs use Zebra Medical Vision to systematically onboard people to these programs and initiate further examinations and treatment.

“Identifying patients at risk for osteoporosis has a significant impact on patients’ well-being, as 70 percent of vertebral compression fractures are underdetected globally” says Ohad Arazi, CEO of Zebra Medical Vision. “These missed care opportunities are especially vital during this era of COVID-19, when many patient procedures have been postponed, and providers are dealing with substantial backlogs. The VCF product—our fifth FDA-cleared solution on the market—will allow us to expand our reach in the U.S. and help more clinicians and caregivers identify a large number of these fractures.

“Zebra-Med’s latest AI solution will be advantageous to value-based healthcare systems. With appropriate intervention, it has potential to reduce secondary fractures in high risk patients and reduce additional related costs, while enabling providers to benefit from higher Medicare star ratings and increased revenue from RAF score adjustments, ” says Dr. Keith White, Medical Director of Imaging Services, Intermountain Health.

The company’s vertebral compression fractures solution has been deployed globally in luminary sites such as Oxford University Hospital (UK) and St. Vincent’s hospital (Australia). The solution can be applied to abdominal or chest CT scan performed for any clinical indication.

ResMed announced an accelerated launch of cloud-based remote monitoring software for ventilators and Lumis bilevel devices across Europe. The San Diego–based maker of respiratory support devices has been among a host of ventilator makers rushing to meet demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But the company noted that there are also many other people who rely on ResMed ventilators for daily breathing support — people who require regular checkups and support from health and homecare providers. Teleheath and telemonitoring could provide an alternative means on checking up on home ventilator users, according to ResMed.

“As a result of the current crisis, we accelerated the development and release of these new features by several months,” said Odile Bigaignon, ResMed’s European VP of respiratory care marketing.

“Through remote telemonitoring, we want to help clinicians and care providers maintain their quality of care for patients that they cannot physically see during this crisis, as well as to provide an additional layer of safety for both provider and patient by helping them to maintain social distancing,” Bigaignon said in a news release.

The remote monitoring runs through ResMed’s AirView platform. Through AirView, clinicians and care providers can remotely monitor respiratory rate and SpO21, or blood oxygen saturation. The digital health platform is able to work via a connectivity module with any Stellar or Astral ventilator in Europe, and Lumis bilevel devices have a built-in cellular connection to AirView.

ResMed launched the same AirView capabilities for Astral and Stellar in the U.S. last year. The AirCurve 10 Series — the bilevel devices primarily used in the U.S. — have built-in cellular connectivity to support remote monitoring and reporting to AirView.

Being a therapist can be hard. Your main job is to listen to people talk and the topics will vary. You could have clients complaining and bemoaning their life. Or, you could have clients confiding their deepest secrets and fears in you. For some, this can be a heavy burden to carry. However, for many therapists, this is not a deterrent. After all, being a therapist is more than that. Being a therapist is being able to help their clients with all the challenges that they face. And for them, this is very rewarding.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably considering the idea of being a therapist. You might have a vague or detailed idea of what being a therapist is like. Or, you might simply be wondering, “Do I even have it in me to be a therapist?” Well, if these are things you’re wondering about, we will be covering it all in this article! If you’ve already made up your mind, counselling courses singapore are available at MDIS.

What Qualities Should A Therapist Have?

1.   Enjoy Being Around People

Being a therapist requires you to be constantly around people. That’s basically your job – an entire day spent listening and talking to various people. Therefore, you should be someone that enjoys human company. You enjoy talking and listening to people. You revel in the intimacy of human connection. This is very important because it helps you actively love your job of talking and understanding people. If you’re an introvert, you may feel tired out at the end of a day. But, that’s completely okay! All that matters is that you still do enjoy spending time with others as well. It’s okay to need to rest. However, you should ultimately be someone who loves and wants to spend time with people too.

2.   Good Listening Skills

This is another crucial quality for therapists to have. Not every therapist has good listening skills and this can greatly affect the quality of help that your client will receive. This is the basic foundation in therapy – people want to be listened to. And as a therapist, you will have to listen and understand. That’s what good listening skills are. Without understanding, you would not be able to adequately help your client.

If you have good listening skills, you will find that your friends often confide in you and ask for advice. This shows that your friends all trust that you will empathetically listen to them. They also trust in your advice and feel that you are someone that they can turn too. This is an exceedingly good sign for you if you are interested in being a therapist as it suggests that your demeanor is trustable and comforting. You would then be able to build great rapport and trust with clients. A great therapeutic alliance between the therapist and client is needed for the client to have a positive and beneficial experience.

3.   Analytical Skills

Another part of therapy is psychology and understanding people. As such, it would be a great benefit if you enjoy being analytical and have great analytical skills. This could manifest in you being interested in human behavior and why your friends may act in certain ways. You enjoy learning and understanding such things. This is great because it means that you will enjoy the analytical part of therapy work. Part of being a therapist is also to help clients uncover unconscious feelings or thought that they might have. With analytical skills, you would be great at doing so as you could analyze their behavior and sharings for better insight.

4.   Enjoy Helping Others

Lastly, you should be someone that enjoys and thrives on being able to help people. Whenever you help someone, you feel happy, even if there is no gratitude or appreciation given to you. You feel boosted after helping someone and you desire to help others in the future too. The goal of being a therapist is often to be able to help their clients. Often, clients are seeking to live a better quality of life, without their struggles. And as their therapist, that is your goal. Therefore, you should enjoy and love helping others. This would mean that you have an altruistic heart and that is most important because therapy work can be frustrating at times. If you aren’t coming at it with pure intentions, work would end up becoming a burden and tiring you out. Or, you might not give your all and this would be unfair to clients.

Types of Therapists

There are many different types of therapists. Mental health understanding is increasing as time goes by and hence, there is more understanding of how mental health issues can be treated. As such, there is a great variety of therapy options available, such as art therapy, dance therapy, or play therapy.

It’s great to know what kind of therapists you want to be as there could be different education paths for specific therapist types. However, as a beginner, you should simply ask yourself who you desire to work with? Would you prefer to work with children? Or do you prefer adults?

But as a simple guideline, here are the more common and general types of therapists:

1.   Clinical Social Workers

Clinical Social Workers usually work directly with their country’s government to help families or people in need. They usually have degrees in social work and are usually trained to use empowerment or advocacy within therapy. In other words, they seek to empower their clients and also advocate for better situations for them. Social workers are usually involved in situation-specific cases, such as domestic abuse, divorce, or poverty. Apart from providing or finding better resources for people, they also provide therapy such as talk therapy, individual counseling, and group counseling.

2.   Clinical Psychologists

Clinical Psychologists are educated in Psychology and usually have a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology. Clinical Psychologists usually have two main functions – they can provide therapy for their clients or they can provide evaluations for mental health conditions. For example, they could help evaluate children suspected of having learning disabilities, such as Attention Deficit Disorder. They can also evaluate and diagnose clients with mental health conditions, such as Depression. In such cases, they would also go on to treat the condition. They can use a variety of therapies, such as Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.

3.   Psychiatrists

A Psychiatrist is someone with both a Psychological and Medical education. They are certified as doctors and hence, are able to prescribe medication for conditions too. They are, however, less involved with actual therapeutic solutions.

Aside from these few, there are other, more specific types of therapists. However, at the end of the day, they all have the same motive – that is, to treat and help people. If what you’ve just read appeals to you, then being a therapist might be a great option for you. It could be something that you could excel and greatly enjoy. If so, you should definitely do some deeper reading before making a decision.