EMR Makes Way for Improved Patient Care Areas

In 2008, as OSU Rardin Family Practice Center was poised to initiate an electronic medical record system, Becky Wilkins and Scott Merryman, MD, posed among OSU Rardin’s racks of paper files.

Staff of OSU Rardin Family Practice Center celebrated on May 16 the completion of renovations that will provide patients with an added measure of comfort and convenience. The upgrade included better floor and wall surfaces, more open spaces and brighter lighting, a modern decor and better patient care areas.

Today, Wilkins stands in the same area to show how the move to electronic recordkeeping opened the way for improvements in the patient care environment.

These renovations follow, and are made possible by, the switch to the electronic medical record (EMR) that has also helped staff provide safer, more efficient care.

“With the change to EMR, we had a lot of unused space that formerly held paper charts. In addition, our lobby was too small and not optimal for patient flow or privacy,” explains Becky Wilkins, associate director for Ambulatory Services.

“We completely gutted both areas to create a new space. Not only is the new space beautiful, it was designed with patient flow in mind and gives a great first impression of our Medical Center,” she adds.

Pharmacy is ‘Green Buckeye’ Certified

Representing the Department of Pharmacy’s “Green Buckeye” team are (from left): Lauren Kleinman, MA, administrative manager; Marva Tschampel, RPh; Kim Howell, RPh; Liz Trolli, BA, BS, Residency program coordinator; Leslie Hood, CPhT; Jason Lovero, PharmD, MS, MHA; and Lisa Maccombs, CPhT (center).

The Department of Pharmacy has become the first unit of Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center to receive the Green Buckeye honor.

Green Buckeye certification is a University-wide initiative to recognize Ohio State areas that are doing their part and more to protect the environment. The certification process asks employees about their practices related to communication of environmental goals, energy efficiency, recycling and waste reduction, water conservation and purchasing.

Like many successful initiatives, Pharmacy’s program started small and grew.

“Liz Trolli and I have been consciously trying to integrate more environmentally focused initiatives into our everyday work life. All of us have an opportunity to make a significant difference. As a department of 350 employees, we can have a considerable impact when small changes are made,” says Lauren Kleinman, administrative manager in Pharmacy, who has helped spearhead the department’s green movement.

Here’s a sampling of practices Pharmacy staff are working on: more recycling bins; a copier with an added scanner-email functionality to cut back on paper usage; conveniently located coffee pots to encourage multiple-use instead of single-use cups; dishes and silverware to encourage re-use instead of single-use plastic ware; caterers with environmentally friendly practices; and electronic rather than print communications. The Department of Pharmacy will also pioneer the way by holding the first zero-waste event for the Wexner Medical Center. When the Pharmacy Residents graduate this June, their celebration will be missing only one thing: a trash can.

“This is something to truly be proud about as this demonstrates yet again our Department’s leadership and innovation,” Kleinman adds.

Ohio State Provides Leadership for MCAT Revision

Dr. Steven Gabbe, MD, chief executive officer of Wexner Medical Center

Changes are coming to the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) that will play a pivotal role in the selection process of our nation’s future medical students.

Steven G. Gabbe, MD, chief executive officer of Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center, chaired the 22-member advisory committee charged in 2008 to review and recommend changes to the test to the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Board of Directors.

That study was prompted by the AAMC’s recognition of the changing and expanding responsibilities of physicians. According to the AAMC: “The changes to the MCAT exam, the first since 1991, are designed to help students prepare for a rapidly changing healthcare system and an evolving body of medical knowledge while addressing the needs of a growing, aging and increasingly diverse population.”

The final recommendations of the committee, led by Gabbe, were gathered from more than 90 outreach events, input from experts and advisory groups, and more than 2,700 surveys of undergraduate and medical school faculty, administrators, residents and medical students.

The new MCAT will be used for students applying to medical schools in 2015. The test will no longer require students provide a writing sample, but it will take more time – 6.5 hours instead of the 4.5 hours. The revised exam will evaluate students in three areas:

• Understanding of human behavior

• Critical analyses and reasoning skills

• Scientific knowledge.

The new MCAT reflects broader expectations of future physicians and will hopefully attract a wider range of medical school applicants. Gabbe said the committee worked to make the test a better tool for identifying applicants with an extensive understanding of behavioral and social factors that contribute to health problems.

“We want to broaden the knowledge base that students have about those factors that influence health,” Gabbe said.

Darrell G. Kirch, MD, AAMC president and chief executive agrees. “Being a good doctor is about more than scientific knowledge,” he said. “It also requires an understanding of people. By balancing the MCAT exam’s focus on the natural sciences with a new section on the psychological, social and biological foundations of behavior, the new exam will better prepare students to build strong knowledge of the socio-cultural and behavioral determinants of health.”

The revised MCAT includes:

A new section called “Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior” based on concepts about how behavioral, socioeconomic and cultural factors affect health. This change recognizes that integrating cultural and behavioral sciences into medical education curriculum and clinical practice can improve the health of all patients.

In the new section of “Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills,” students will read passages that present scenarios about how different lifestyles, behaviors, cultures and ethics can affect patients’ health. For example, one passage could discuss the connection between poverty and poor health, while another could examine the ethical dilemma of a prison physician who finds drugs and paraphernalia on an inmate/patient. Students will be asked to analyze the information and apply it using a broad range of social sciences and humanities.

Two natural sciences sections will test concepts typically taught in introductory biology, general and organic chemistry, biochemistry and physics that faculty, residents and students considered important to succeeding in medical school. In these sections, students will combine their knowledge of natural science concepts with scientific inquiry and reasoning skills to solve problems.

Books inspire family fun, learning

Denise Mucci, RNC (left), and Paula Lynch, RNC, display some of the books children can choose from when they visit the Ob/Gyn Clinic with their expectant mothers.

This article was published in the March 15 issue of onCampus.

While children may look forward to a new brother or sister, they can tire of accompanying their mothers on numerous prenatal care visits.

A free book provided by staff of Ohio State’s Ob/Gyn Clinic not only encourages children to look forward to Mom’s next Clinic visit, but to make reading and learning a fun family goal.

“Books Encourage…Gift of Learning” is a free-book program begun a few years ago as a way to entertain fidgety children in waiting rooms. Ob/Gyn Clinic staff quickly realized that giving a book to a child whose family has limited resources provides ongoing positive effects for the family and demonstrates that the personalized caring of Ohio State’s faculty and staff extends well beyond the clinic doors.

“Many times, patients have limited access to quality reading material for their children, as they don’t have resources to purchase books. Through the gift of these books, Clinic staff hope to instill a love for reading and learning. Information for parents on age-appropriate reading material is included in every book. These books provide parents with an opportunity for positive interactions with their children on both a personal and educational level,” says Denise Mucci, RNC.

Mucci, Paula Lynch, RNC, and Clinic staff are grateful to all who have donated books and funds to purchase books, including Campus Campaign, Wexner Medical Center Service Board, Girl Scouts and numerous nurses, doctors, staff members and administrators.

Children have delighted in reading Boomer the Bengal Cat, a rhyming story about Boomer, who gets lost in a room of orange and black spotted wallpaper and relies on his friend for help. The books are a recent donation from Karen Pitchford, a central Ohio author.

Faculty and staff can support this program through a donation of books or to Campus Campaign Fund #313172. For more information, contact Denise.mucci@osumc.edu.

OSU Sports Medicine Celebrates World Week for Physical Activity

April 1st to April 8th is World Week for physical Activity. The theme for this year’s week-long celebration is “Together for a Happy and Active Life.”

People of all ages can improve the quality of their lives and reduce the risks of developing diseases like coronary artery disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, depression and anxiety, arthritis and osteoporosis with ongoing participation in moderate physical activity and exercise.

Dr. Thomas Best, Co-Director of OSU Sports Medicine says, “Exercise is a powerful way to complement traditional medicine. I urge patients to ask for exercise advice at every health consultation. Prevention really is the best medicine, and exercise is the ultimate form of prevention.”

This week, we encourage you to make a pledge to enjoy, regular moderate exercise, especially walking, for 30 minutes, at least 5 days a week. Try strength, stretching, flexibility and balance exercise twice a week. Exercise is fun and social, so choose activities that you enjoy and make you feel good – together for a happy and active life!

OSU Sports Medicine offers a wide range of activities that can help enhance your exercise routine, as well, often at the cost of your insurance co-pay. For example, a Functional Movement Screening can help to identify and resolve weak links that may be jeopardizing your body and its healthy motion. We also offer an endurance medicine program, where we can test your running gait to improve your performance or help analyze your bicycle to ensure it is properly fit to your body.   For more information on programs through OSU Sports Medicine, visit sportmedicine.osu.edu.

Restaurant Rehab: Using the Menu to Make Heart Healthy Choices

Thanks to patient education at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center  for providing this helpful information for our patients.

It can be hard to find heart healthy restaurant foods. Restaurant foods are often high in calories, fat, cholesterol and sodium. For this reason, limit eating restaurant foods to 1 or 2 times a week. This includes fast food, sit down restaurants and carry out. Here are some other tips to help you make heart healthy choices.

Tips to Reduce Calories, Fat and Cholesterol

• Restaurant meal portions are enough to feed at least 2 people.
• Split a meal with another person or take at half of the meal home for leftovers.
• Ask your server about ways to make a healthier meal. Avoid deep fried foods, remove skin from poultry, and cut off visible fat. Try grilled chicken instead of fried chicken to reduce fat and calories.
• Choose leaner cuts of meat, fish or poultry prepared with no added fat.
• Broiling, grilled, baked and roasted are usually good choices.
• Get sauces, gravies, margarine, butter, salad dressing and sour cream on the side. Use small amounts of these for flavor.
• Ask for other high fat ingredients on the side like cheese and nuts.
• Many salads are loaded with high fat ingredients like these. You can still eat some of them, but if you get them on the side, you can control the amount.

Tips to Reduce Sodium

• Salt is the main source of sodium in the diet. When eating out, talk to your server to find out how foods are prepared. Ask that foods be prepared without salt when possible.
• Avoid soy sauce and teriyaki sauce which contain very large amounts of sodium or ask them to prepare your meal without these ingredients.
• Make careful selections in fast food restaurants. Try to order foods plain or ask for condiments and sauces on the side. Ask that salt not be added to French fries and hamburgers. Plain hamburgers are usually not too high in sodium.
• Cheeseburgers, specialty burgers, sauces, Southern-style chicken and condiments (ketchup or catsup, barbeque sauce and prepared mustard) contain large amounts of sodium. Try lettuce, tomato and onion instead.
• Avoid sausage, hot dogs, bacon, ham and all cured meats. They contain too much sodium. Plain grilled chicken may have less.
• Select a fresh fruit cup or vegetable salad to start your meal as an  appetizer instead of soup or other appetizers. Choose fresh meats (broiled or baked), fish or poultry prepared without sauces and gravies.
• Choose plain rolls instead of salted bread sticks or salted crackers. Ask  that salad dressing, sauces and gravies not be added to foods or that they  be served on the side and only use small amounts.
• Baked potatoes are good side choices, so are steamed vegetables. Avoid potato chips, potato sticks, onion rings and hash brown or au gratin potatoes.
• Select a restaurant that has a salad bar. Assemble your salad with fresh,  raw vegetables. Use only small amounts of these high sodium foods: olives, pickled beets, bacon bits, ham regular salad dressing and cheese.
• Consider oil and vinegar for salad dressing.

For a complete list of Resaturant Foods to Choose, visit: patienteducation.osumc.edu/Documents/rest-fat.pdf

Talk to your doctor or others on your health care team if you have
any questions. You may request more written information from the
Library for Health Information at (614) 293-3707 or email:
health-info@osu.edu.

Copyright 2003 – March 22, 2012. The Ohio State  University Wexner Medical Center – Upon request all patient education handouts are available in other formats for people with special hearing, vision and language needs, call (614) 293-3191.

Ohio State’s Emergency Departments Win HealthGrades Excellence Award for the Third Year

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Emergency Departments have been named recipients of the HealthGrades Emergency Medicine Excellence Award™ for the third year in a row.

Ohio State’s Medical Center Emergency Departments at University Hospital and University Hospital East are the only ones in central Ohio to earn this distinction for 2012.

Recipients of the award represent the top five percent of hospitals in emergency medicine in the nation. This study found that a typical patient is much more likely to survive an emergency hospitalization at a top-performing hospital than at all other hospitals. Ohio State’s Medical Center is one of 263 nationally to receive this award.

For the group of patients reviewed in this study, Emergency Medicine Excellence Hospitals had, on average, 41.52% lower risk‐adjusted mortality than all other hospitals. If all hospitals performed at the level of the Emergency Medicine Excellence Hospitals from 2008 through 2010, an additional 170,856 people could have potentially survived their emergency hospitalization.