week 6....

week 6....almost half way there. I am in the midst of getting ready for my practicum. I am trying to get it done at my local hospital. I had thought about doing it in a virtual manner through the virtual lab, but as I was reading my medical professionalism book I read about how your practicum would look great on a resume. Well, that got me thinking and I really want to go into a facility and see the day to day operations to know what I am really getting into once I do get a job. I am really hoping to get a job at my local hospital so I hope all of this EHR happenings makes some additional spots there....and that one of them is mine...lol

We have been learning all kinds of stuff in our classes. One of the topics we discussed was the tracking of prescription medication. This is very important in so many ways. If there were certain medications given for specific diseases/disorders,  tracking the prescriptions could tell researchers if the disease is spreading or how far it has spread, if it is getting worse (by more prescriptions being filled), or is on the downside (if it is not prescribed as often). It could also tell if narcotics are being given more often and then to whom. this could tell if someone is abusing or addicted to prescription narcotics and if the doctors just freely hand them out to anyone with a little pain when they come into the office.

We are currently have an outbreak of meningitis in the U.S. To date, 91 people have been affected and 7 deaths have occurred. This fungal meningitis is being contracted by the injection of steroids that are being used for back pain sufferers. The name of the steroid is methylprednisolone acetate. The bulk of this medication was shipped to a facility in Nashville, Tennessee, but there are cases in Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, and Virginia. The manufacturer has shut down their facility to figure out where this is coming form and has recalled all of the product they have shipped. they are also contacting everyone who has had this steroid in the past 3 months. They are doing this by tracking this steroid. Tracking this tells them who has received it and they are all getting checked out. I contacted my daughter because our son in law gets steroid injections in his back quite often...and guess what....he goes Wednesday to get checked out to make sure he is ok. This is very scary, but it is great that they can trace this medication and find out who has it before they may get sick to get them help.