BLOG

Chronic Care Networks

‘Follow your heart and you can’t go wrong’

It’s not every day a group of doctors sits quietly in a room and listens to patients, parents and peers tell them what they think is wrong about the way the care is provided. But that’s how a group of doctors that met at Cincinnati Children’s sat during a kickoff design meeting last month. They did it so they could

Chronic Care Networks

‘Disruptive work’ could improve health care through sharing

Usually when we talk about something being disruptive, it’s a bad thing. The wreck on the highway “disrupts” the morning commute. The snowstorm “disrupts” air travel. People on laptops and cell phones “disrupt” meetings. But how about if we could disrupt something that’s just not working and make it better? Then, the disruption would be

Childhood Obesity

Children Spend Too Much Time With Electronics

A recent Denver Post article, about a Kaiser Family Foundation study, reveals that children ages eight to 18 spend about 7½ hours a day using electronic devices. We find that disburbing, even before you toss in the hour and a half they spend texting or the half-hour they talk on their cell phones. Long gone

Lancet officially retracts study linking autism and MMR vaccine

The British medical journal Lancet yesterday announced its decision to officially retract Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 study linking autism and the MMR vaccine. The decision was the result of long standing scientific concerns about the article – more than a dozen studies have proven there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism spectrum disorders –

Childhood Obesity

Healthy Choices for Healthy Children (Part II)

A few days ago, we posted a synopsis of the first part of the Healthy Choices for Healthy Children Act that is working its way through both the Senate and House of Representatives in Ohio. The bill proposes 3 key areas of action, the following is Dr. Lisa Simpson’s testimony on behalf of the bill,

Health Care Public Policy

Global health efforts could use the boost from DC

We obviously haven’t read the fine print of the proposed federal budget released by the Obama Administration in Washington, D.C., yesterday, but we were encouraged to read about the prospect for new funding to broaden our approach to global health. According to a story in Monday’s Wall Street Journal, the new policy will retain HIV/AIDS

Childhood Obesity

Healthy Choices for Healthy Children (Part I)

As we mentioned back in November, Dr. Lisa Simpson, director of the Child Policy Research Center at Cincinnati Children’s, recently testified on behalf of the Healthy Choices for Healthy Children Act that is making its way through the Ohio State House as we speak. The CPRC and Cincinnati Children’s are members of the coalition that worked

Health Care Reform

Ten reasons health reform stalled

This caught our eye this afternoon and wanted to pass it along. From The Hill, the article begins: “President Barack Obama’s hope for healthcare reform is in peril, and it’s not all because of Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts.” Read on…

Research and Discoveries

Data is key to understanding prematurity

In November, I introduced the issue of prematurity as one that we care deeply about at Cincinnati Children’s. Since that time, the March of Dimes has issued their annual report card, and the news for Ohio isn’t good. In the state-by-state assessment of infant mortality, a statistic that is largely based on preterm births, Ohio

Health Care Reform

Another benefit from health reform

While there has been a lot of attention about the “cost” of health care reform, one of the possible benefits that’s been overlooked in much of the debate is the loosening of something called “job lock.” That’s what happens when people stay in jobs, even jobs they don’t like or want, because they have health insurance benefits.

The shockingly surreal images coming out of earthquake-stricken Haiti, and the almost unfathomable extent of human suffering, have triggered a massive outreach from people wanting to help the victims of this tragedy. Never underestimate the depth of human kindness and the desire people have to help those in need – especially during a disaster. Many

Research and Discoveries

Consistent funding the right prescription for biomedical research

The effectiveness of biomedical research in the United States is undermined by an inconsistent “bust-boom-bust” funding cycle, according to an editorial written by Thomas F. Boat, M.D., a physician in the Department of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Appearing Jan. 13 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the editorial offers commentary on an

Health Care Quality

It’s Epic: Health Care IT and quality improvement

Something very significant happened early Sunday morning at Cincinnati Children’s. Something the patients and their families didn’t even notice. But something that was a major step toward making their care safer and more effective. The techies among us call it a giant “go live.” You may think of it as “flipping the switch.” The bottom

Health Care Quality

A Quality New Year

The Ohio Department of Health started off the New Year on the right foot by launching a consumer-friendly website allowing people to compare quality (and eventually pricing) data of Ohio hospitals. The ODH’s new Ohio Hospital Compare website went live January 1. While only four pediatric measures are included in this first go-round, significantly more

Leaving a legacy

As our CEO, Jim Anderson, completes his final week at the helm of this institution, The Cincinnati Enquirer yesterday featured a front-page article that looked at the medical center’s achievements over his 13 years here. It’s a great piece; I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read it. Children’s CEO leaves legacy of growth by Cliff Peale

‘Precious’ reminds us to reach out

What follows is an opinion piece written for the Cincinnati Enquirer published Dec. 21 by Judith Van Ginkel, professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and president of Every Child Succeeds, an $8M home visitation program she spearheaded with three founding partners: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, United Way of Greater Cincinnati, and the

Health Care Reform

Some thoughts on health care reform

According to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, President Obama’s approval rating is less than 50% for the first time in his presidency. A political debate is not something we wish to begin here, but speculation is that this drop in his approval is based, in part, on opinions that he is spending too

Health Care Quality

Who’s in charge? Family-centered care and reform

Are our politicians ignoring moms in the health care debate? According to a new survey from the blog “Why Moms Rule,” women at least feel that way. Women are responsible for most health care decisions (92 percent of their own; 65 percent of their children’s decisions and 59 percent of their spouse’s or partner’s) and

Listen up! Patient flow radio program on line

In case you missed the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Web-based radio program on Dec. 2, “All Hospitals in favor of saving money say ‘Patient Flow’,” it’s now on line at www.ihi.org. (There’s a link on the right-hand side of the page.) The program, which documents improvements to make sure the right patients are in the

Health Care Quality

Safety and quality in a high reliability organization

In this space recently, Dr. Steve (our safety officer, Steve Muething, MD) wrote about our patient safety journey. He did so by reminding us at the Tuesday morning Grand Rounds that we are not perfect, but that we’re making progress and we’re always trying to improve. That’s something he and others try to engrain in

Health Care Reform

A history lesson: agriculture and health care reform

Want to have a little faith in the health reform efforts? History could teach us a thing or two about how to navigate health care reform and how to be patient with the process. “The history of American agriculture suggests that you can have transformation without a master plan, without knowing all the answers up front. Government

Patient flow key to managing H1N1 influx

At Cincinnati Children’s, the month of October is being affectionately referred to as “baptism of fire.” H1N1 hit our emergency departments hard — nearly 800 patients in one day at the two EDs combined (normal numbers are 350-400). But the experience has proven what’s possible with organization and preparation. We started planning for the onslaught

Health Care Quality

Leaping to the top

The results of the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey are in and Cincinnati Children’s is tops! Only eight pediatric institutions and 45 hospitals of any kind were named one of this year’s Top Hospitals. Our rigorous quality and safety work continues to be recognized. Top pediatric hospitals make the list by having a quality score of

Health Care Public Policy

Plan for improvement: ‘Just do it’

Somewhere I read that excuses are like noses. Everybody’s got one, so go ahead and pick one. Efforts to improve health care are kind of like that: seems everyone has a reason not to tackle this tough issue. Some of the excuses are legitimate enough. Some are just excuses. As the nation’s leaders in health

Health Care Quality

Today’s a special day in Cincinnati, even though most people in our fair city don’t know it. Today is James M. Anderson Day, as proclaimed by our mayor, Mark Mallory. It is so named to mark the accomplishments, and to say thank you, as we near the day, the first one of 2010, when Jim

Topics

Cincinnati Walks for Kids

Fetal Conditions

Fitness and Nutrition

Health Care Public Policy

Health Care Quality

Health Care Reform

Heart Conditions

Hospital Operations

Learning and Growing

Nurses Week 2012

Patient Family Experience

Pin of the Week

Rare and Complex Conditions

Research and Discoveries

Safety and Prevention

Share Your Story

The Young & Healthy Podcast

See All Topics

See Less Topics

Popular Posts

Holiday Travel With Kids: Tips To Be Prepared

Safety and Prevention

What Parents Need to Know About Walking Pneumonia

Family Health History: How to Begin Tracking

Family Health History: Why Track It?