Summertime
by Dr. Art Gendelman

It’s summer time and the living is easy and HOT!!!
Heat stroke and sun burn are major reasons people make emergency visits. They are easy to prevent by drinking lots of fluids and wearing water resistant SPF sunscreen of at least 30. If you play tennis, golf, exercise outdoors or just go to the pool or beach, make sure you are prepared for the heat and humidity.
Some of the warning signs of overheat problems are weakness, headache and confusion. If you are not sweating while you are out in the hot weather, that is a warning that you do not have enough fluids.
If you or your family develops any of these signs, try to get to a cool place and start ingesting fluids. Even getting into water will decrease your core temperature.
Have fun this summer and prevent skin cancer 20 years from now with a good sunscreen.

Picnic Safety Tip
by Beth Lind

There is nothing that says summer better than a summer picnic or grill out.  It is important to serve safe and healthy food.  If foods are not handled safely, they can cause foodborne illness.  Keep these tips in mind when preparing for your family get-togethers.

• Keep cold food cold.  Place cold food in a cooler with ice or frozen gel packs.  Cold food should be held at or below 40ºF.
• Consider packing beverages in one cooler and perishable foods in another.
• Wait until just before leaving home to pack chilled foods in an insulted cooler, and make sure you have plenty of ice or ice packs to surround them.
• Keep the cooler in the air-conditioned passenger compartment of your car, rather than in a hot trunk.  Place cooler in the shade if possible.  Limit the number of times the cooler is opened.
• Foods like chicken salad, potato salad and desserts in individual serving dishes can be placed directly on ice, or in a shallow container set in a deep pan filled with ice.  Drain off water as ice melts and replace ice frequently.
• Cut melons need to be kept cold.  Bacteria are often present on the rinds of melon.  Be sure to wash melons thoroughly before cutting and promptly refrigerate cut pieces.
• Don’t let perishable food sit out longer than 2 hours.
• Food should not sit out for more than 1 hour in temperatures above 90ºF.
• If you plan on getting takeout foods such as fried chicken, eat them within an hour of pick up.
• Never use the utensils and dishware that have touched raw foods, such as meat, fish, and poultry.  Pack plenty of extra utensils and dishware.
• Make sure your hands are clean before handling the food.  Considering using moist disposable towelettes if there are no other means to wash your hands.
• At the end of your picnic, if the ice has melted in your cooler, throw out the food.  Cold water cannot keep foods cold enough to be safe.

QIS, WHAT IS IT?
WHAT ARE YOUR SUPERVISORS TALKING ABOUT?
By Debbie Berling

What is QIS and how does it affect our company?  You will hear a lot about this in the up-coming months.
Your supervisor may say it in the context of preparing for survey.  QIS stands for Quality Indicator Survey. 

All nursing facilities are surveyed each year and there has always been a standard way to survey.  Usually 3-6 surveyors show up and ask to see many reports and information along with interviewing a few residents and a few families. 

The QIS survey is now computerized and still has 3-5 surveyors.  The first phase includes 40 resident interviews, and 30 discharge resident reviews.  They will interview staff also.   The first round with  the surveyors is a short 15-20 minute walk through and they start phase one of picking 40/30 from our census.  It will still take 4-5 days.

They must stay with their initial picks and input all the information in the laptop that they carry.  It then will tell them how to proceed for phase 2.   The team leader will take the information the computer generated and the team will decide what to follow.  The surveyors cannot go back and change their initial 40/30 choices. 

The basic idea is that if they look at 40/30 and there are little or no citations then the facility is doing well.
This is just a snap shot of the new process.  Some facilities have received MANY more cites and some do not.  The questions you need to ask yourself for either survey is: Are you following up with the residents needs whether it is with the direct care or documentation?

We may still get a standard survey this year or a QIS since the Ohio surveyors are not all trained in QIS until 2009 and Kentucky does not have a date set yet.  BUT if you follow the Standards and Policies and LISTEN FOR WORDS THAT CANNOT BE SPOKEN AND THOUGHTS THAT CANNOT BE HEARD, we will do great!

For more information, see your supervisor.  We are all learning.

Anti-Virus Programs
by Craig Ray

With today’s Internet society, there are many forms of malicious programs called viruses, Trojan horses, and worms. 

All of these programs can cause data loss and unpredictable behavior to computer – and some even have the potential to give access to thieves to your personal information.  It is extremely recommended that you always have some sort of Anti-Virus program installed and operating on your computer, and possibly even some sort of “software firewall”.  These programs cost anywhere from $35 to $80 but are more than worth the price.  Many times a new computer will come with one, but if not, there are several good brands:  Norton Anti-Virus, Norton Internet Security, McAfee Anti-Virus, and Trend-Micro Personal Anti-Virus. 

If for whatever reason you find yourself without any sort of anti-virus program, you can at least have your computer scanned for free by going to http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ and using their tools to scan your computer.  This will not prevent your computer from getting a virus – it is only designed to remove viruses.