2007 Year End Report

What is a physician's responsibility when a piece of patient-care equipment is defective or malfunctions?

First, do not return the equipment to the vendor's rep. The equipment should be held by the hospital's administrative staff to allow them to do the appropriate investigations and reports. The administrative staff will then release the equipment to the vendor.

Second, while a physician may (and should) ask the staff to complete a QVR, the physician SHOULD NOT document that he or she requested the staff to complete a QVR in the patient's medical record.

The nursing leaders at SGH have been aggressive in their research projects and they recently presented several interesting projects at a Nursing Research Expo.

Since many MDs were unable to attend the event, the E-Bulletin will present the powerpoint presentations as an ongoing series. The first presentation is part of the Surgical Care Improvement Project and focuses specifically on appropriate timing of perioperative prophylactic antibiotics.

Here's one more thing to remember when completing your reappointment application. Members of the SGH Medical Staff are reminded that they must submit a current PPD with their reappointment application in order for the application to be considered complete.

Physicians may have the skin test placed at the Employee Occupational Health office on the Brier Patch campus. The office is open from 8 am to noon and from 1 pm to 4 pm. As a reminder, skin tests must be read no sooner than 48 hours and no later than 72 hours from the time they are placed. As a convenience, a list of approved "readers" on the main campus can be provided so that physicians can have their test read when they come to the hospital to do rounds.