MedStaff Update: April 2015

Endovascular Treatment Improves Outcomes for Ischemic Stroke

For years, the guiding principle surrounding stroke survival and recovery has been "time is brain." Standard therapy was limited to administering clot-busting medicine with varying degrees of success. But advanced imaging and improved endovascular clot removal techniques are extending the treatment window to six hours and beyond.

Home Monitoring Pilot Study Helps Heart Failure Patients Learn Self-Management

Heart failure doesn't end when a patient leaves the hospital. It's a complex syndrome requiring lifelong adherence to medications and diet, as well as daily self-assessment of symptoms. A new pilot study at Stanford is providing patients with home monitoring equipment, at home visits and daily remote tracking of vital signs to improve patient outcomes and reduce hospital re-admissions.

Microvascular Reconstruction Improves Results for Head and Neck Cancers

For patients with head and neck cancers, treatment once meant facial disfigurement and the inability to talk or eat. But microvascular reconstruction has improved patient outcomes tremendously. Today, surgeons can transplant skin, muscle, fat and bone from one part of a patient's body to repair the void left by cancer, giving patients not just survival, but a functioning tongue and jaw.

Patient Safety: Lessons Learned

Alexis Reeves, RN, CPHRM, CLNC, Interim Director of Patient Safety Operations, discusses unintentionally retained foreign objects (URFO). "What comes to mind are the surgical sponges and instruments inadvertently left in a body cavity after surgery," she says. "Today, guidewires left behind from starting central lines are a more likely scenario." 

Express Care Can Help Offset Overcrowding at Stanford ED
Featured Guest Contributor Kirsti Weng, MD, MPH, Medical Director, Stanford Express Care at Hoover Pavilion

Kirsti Weng, MD, MPH, Medical Director, Stanford Express Care at Hoover Pavilion, discusses how the clinic acts as a gateway for individuals with medical questions or acute symptoms.