Author: Willem

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]The European Health Consumer Index

The EHCI 2014 total ranking shows The Netherlands again widening the gap to country #2 from 19 points in 2013 to 43 points in 2014, (in 2012, the margin was 50 points), scoring 898 2 points out of 1000, an EHCI all time high. Beginning from Switzerland (855 points) down, the EHCI 2014 shows competition at the top getting much harder. Bronze medallists are Norway at 851 points; the very high per capita spend on healthcare services finally paying off! Finland (4th, 846 points) has made a remarkable advance, and seems to have rectified its traditional waiting time problems! Denmark (5th, 836 points) has shown a continuous rise since the start of the comparisons. Some eastern European EU member systems are doing surprisingly well, particularly the Czech Republic and Estonia, considering their much smaller healthcare spend in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) adjusted dollars per capita. The FYR Macedonia is making the most remarkable advance in the EHCI scoring of any country in the history of the Index, from 27th to 16th place, largely due to more or less eliminating waiting lists by implementing their real time e-Booking system! Some key conclusions Consumer and patient rights are improving. In a growing number of European countries there is healthcare legislation explicitly based on patient rights and a functional access to your own medical record is becoming standard. Hospital/clinic catalogues with quality ranking used to be confined to two – three countries for years; the 2014 number of nine countries hopefully is a sign that something is happening in this area, supporting active consumer choice.

About the EHCI
The Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI), the independent monitoring of healthcare in 36 countries, published its 8th edition January 27, 2015. Since 2006 this comparison of key values in healthcare, taking the patient and consumer point of view, has improved the understanding of European healthcare, empowered patients and helped addressing weaknesses. EHCI, and a wide range of disease-specific studies produced by the Health Consumer Powerhouse Ltd. (HCP) set standards for what could and should be achieved by modern, well-serving healthcare. The 50 Index productions are freely available at www.healthpowerhouse.com. The EHCI 2014 has been supported by unrestricted grants from Medicover S.A., Belgium, and New Direction Foundation, Belgium[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

From 9 – 13 November 2014 Mrs. Marja Versantvoort delivered the first module of 2 on OT nursing training for general nurses in Alexandria. The main topics were hygiene and basic principles of the OT room. The group of general nurses are trained to become a circulating nurse in the OT.  In several workshops the participants could experience how devices work. They learned how to anticipate when something unusually happens with the devices. For example; how to prevent burning wounds by using electro surgery.

Through an interactive exercise the students were able to list 40 instruments by name, purpose and applicability. Lifetime learning is very important because surgery innovates very fast.  Students were trained how to use the Internet to continue learning and exploring after this course. Each student can now find the latest guidelines and operation videos.

In the second module of the training program for these nurses, they will be trained as scrub nurses. In this week we already made a start with the hand wash en hand scrub procedure.

The third week of the A&E course was delivered in Borg el Arab Egypt. Eleven (11) dedicated nurses were present to follow this third week of the training program. During this week we continued the program with the leading topic: the ABCDE method.

Topics: cardiac rhythms, disability and exposure.

Most important aspect in this training program is to teach the participants how to work with the ABCDE method. To achieve this goal we trained scenario cases related to the topics: cardiac rhythms, disability and exposure. A theoretical test (20 questions) was done on the third- and discussed on the fourth day. This time we were able to train practical skills at the ICU ward with the (adult) manikin. In course week 4 (the final week of this training program) the focus will be mainly at skills training. Case scenarios will be trained every day in relation to diseases and disorders, vital signs and therapy. A theoretical tests is taken at the second day and a practical test at the 2 final days. In the practical test all the participants must show their skills in: CPR-, bag valve mask ventilation- and a case scenario. At the end of the training program the participants will be rewarded with a certificate!

Op 13 oktober jl. vond al weer de tweede Meet&Greet plaats, waarop MeduProf-S haar experts uitnodigt om een update te krijgen van de laatste ontwikkelingen en om te netwerken. Stond vorig jaar feedback op onze activiteiten centraal, dit jaar werd een  verandermodel gepresenteerd, dat werd toegepast op de kwaliteit van onze trainingen.

Na ontvangst door Erik van Roon, domein manager nursing en een inleiding door Willem van Prooijen, managing director, werd eerst een broodmaaltijd genuttigd. Vervolgens hield Everard van Kemenade, domein manager Quality, Management and Change een lezing over het ACCRA © model[1]. Het ACCRA © model bestaat uit vijf stappen:

Attention, Context, Commitment, Reflection and Action.

De naam ACCRA is ontleend aan de hoofdstad van Ghana, waar de eerste ideeën voor deze principes van verandering werden geboren. Het gaat daarbij inderdaad om vijf principes die niet na elkaar maar voortdurend in de gaten moeten worden gehouden. Tussen de lezing door werden de vijfentwintig aanwezige experts uitgenodigd om tops en tips te geven met betrekking tot de toepasbaarheid van het model in trainingssituaties. Immers ook daar moet je aandacht geven (aan het individu, aan de groep, aan het onderwerp). Ook daar moet je de context in aanmerking nemen. Ook daar gaat het om het creëren van commitment bij de deelnemers. Ook daar spelen reflectie en actie uiteindelijke een cruciale rol.

De deelnemers gaven aan dat ze het een interessante avond hadden gevonden. Op naar de Meet & Greet van 2015, in Geldermalsen uiteraard. Want en-passant werd ook onze verhuizing aan de aanwezigen gemeld.