Tag Archives | hospitals

Best Way To Reduce Infection Risk In Hospitals? Open The Windows!

By on April 26, 2013 in News 0

University College Hospital, 235 Euston Road, NW1 - geograph.org.uk - 671049How often do you see open windows in hospitals? Hardly ever, right? As reported by BBC News, opening those grimy windows could decrease risk of infection fourfold:

Keeping the windows open on traditional NHS wards can dramatically reduce the risk of infection, say researchers.

The University of Leeds study suggests closing windows, for example to cut heating bills, increases the risk of infection fourfold.

The researchers used experiments and computer modelling to map the passage of air and germs through wards.

They say fitting household extractor fans to windows could maintain sufficient air flow in winter.

The study looked at air flow in traditional “Nightingale wards”, built as open wards of around 30 beds with opening windows and named after Florence Nightingale, who set out the principles of ward design in the 19th Century.

Balloons filled with carbon dioxide – to represent an airborne pathogen – were popped and the gas followed throughout the ward using tracer devices.

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Hospital Debuts Sound Therapy Room Designed By Brian Eno

By on April 22, 2013 in News 0

brian enoWill the worlds of medicine and ambient music be more closely joined in the future? Via SPIN:

English doctors are instructing patients to heal themselves with Brian Eno’s restorative music.

Orthopedic surgeon Robin Turner has teamed with the hugely influential producer/sound wizard to create a “quiet room” where people can “think, take stock, or simply relax.” The £34 million private Montefiore hospital (in Hove, England) also features an Eno light and music piece in its reception area. Turner says he came up with the idea in 2010 after seeing how peaceful his normally “fidgety” mother-in-law became after visiting Eno’s audio-visual 77 Million Paintings installation.

“It seemed a natural step as I’ve been dealing with this idea of functional music for quite a few years,” said Eno, a firm believer in the idea that music can alter moods. “In the last couple of days I’ve met patients and staff who have said, ‘I really like that room, it makes a big difference.’”

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Hospital Medical Devices Increasingly Riddled With Computer Viruses

By on October 31, 2012 in News 11

Technology Review on the looming hazard of malware causing deadly misfunction in the era of digitalized medical care:

Computerized hospital equipment is increasingly vulnerable to malware infections, according to participants in a recent government panel. These infections can clog patient-monitoring equipment and other software systems, at times rendering the devices temporarily inoperable.

Olson told the panel that infections have stricken many kinds of equipment, raising fears that someday a patient could be harmed. “We also worry about situations where blood gas analyzers, compounders, radiology equipment, nuclear-medical delivery systems, could become compromised to where they can’t be used, or they become compromised to the point where their values are adjusted without the software knowing,” he said. He explained that when a machine becomes clogged with malware, it could in theory “miss a couple of readings off of a sensor [and] erroneously report a value, which now can cause harm.”

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Notorious Haunted Los Angeles Hospital To Be Turned Into Senior Homes

By on May 22, 2012 in News 6

5500298875_753b7616aaThe Los Angeles Times reports on a recipe for trouble, with ambitious developers packing the elderly into one of Los Angeles’ most haunted grounds:

Historic — and some say haunted — Linda Vista Community Hospital that has been closed for two decades is set to be converted into apartments for low-income seniors in a $40-million makeover. The original hospital opened in 1905. It was razed and rebuilt on the same site in the mid-1920s.

Visitors come across stray medical equipment such as dusty baby incubators and gleaming stainless steel autopsy tables. A corner of the basement holds what appears to be a cluster of jail cells. “People tell me it’s the most haunted place in L.A.,” said Maurice Ramirez, executive vice president of Amcal.

Caretaker Francis Kortekaas acknowledged a couple of incidents he can’t explain. In the dimly lighted underground level housing the operating rooms, Kortekaas said he once saw the water turn on when he approached a sink where doctors scrubbed before surgery.

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