Physician Office Services | Helping You Improve the Health of Your Practice™
See What’s Inside... To Vaccinate or Not to vaccinate Your best shot for a healthy flu season preventing sharps injuries share the (G)love
HELPING YOU IMPROVE THE HEALTH OF YOUR PRACTICE.
™
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Physician Office Services | Helping You Improve the Health of Your Practice™
Contents
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The Question heard around the world
6-7
Your Best Shot for a Healthy Flu Season
8-9
Take the ouch out of needles
10-11
At last there is a remedy
12-13
Share the (G)love
14-15
take the hurt out of hand hygiene
16
protect against the flu 1.855.294.9618 | medline.com
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Vaccine NEWS
The Question Heard Around the World:
To vaccinate or not To vaccinate? As a healthcare professional, you are trained to offer vaccinations, especially to children, the sick, the elderly and caregivers. However, in recent years, whether these at-risk populations choose to vaccinate has been publically debated. Here are some of the misconceptions and facts surrounding this issue. We hope you share these facts with your patients so they can make informed decisions. MISCONCEPTION. It is better to be immunized through disease than through vaccines. Vaccines have been so effective that consumers have lost visibility to the suffering, long term disability and deaths that diseases such as influenza, polio, measles, diphtheria, mumps and tetanus caused in generations past1. It is always better to prevent a disease than to treat it and over the years vaccines have prevented countless cases of disease and saved literally millions of lives. Vaccines contain the same antigens or parts of antigens that cause diseases, but in a killed or greatly weakened form. Vaccine antigens are only strong enough to make the immune system produce antibodies, not cause the disease. Through vaccination, patients develop immunity without suffering from the actual diseases that vaccines prevent.
1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/6mishome.htm. Accessed September 10, 2013.
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Physician Office Services | Helping You Improve the Health of Your Practice™
Vaccine NEWS MISCONCEPTION. Diseases had already begun to disappear before vaccines were introduced because of better hygiene and sanitation. Improved understanding about the impact of good hygiene, nutrition and the development of antibiotics have undoubtedly had an indirect impact on disease. However, before the measles immunization was available, nearly everyone in the U.S. got measles. An average of 450 measles-associated deaths were reported each year between 1953 and 1963. Between the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1965 and today the incidence of measles has dropped from 300,000 annually to less than 300 annually.
MISCONCEPTION. Vaccine-preventable diseases have been virtually eliminated from the United States, so there is no need to be vaccinated. Vaccination has enabled us to reduce most vaccine-preventable diseases to very low levels in the United States. However, some of them are still quite prevalent - even epidemic - in other parts of the world. Travelers can unknowingly bring these diseases into the United States, and if we were not protected by vaccinations these diseases could quickly spread throughout the population, causing epidemics here. At the same time, the relatively few cases we currently have in the U.S. could very quickly become tens or hundreds of thousands of cases without the protection we get from vaccines. We should still be vaccinated, then, for two reasons. The first is to protect ourselves. In 2005 and 2006, outbreaks of measles and mumps occurred in several states within the U.S. The measles outbreak began in a group of travelers (who had not been vaccinated) upon their return from a trip to Romania where they had been exposed to measles. The second reason to get vaccinated is to protect those around us. A small number of persons cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons and a small percentage simply do not respond to vaccines. These persons are susceptible to disease, and their only hope of protection is that people around them have been successfully vaccinated and cannot pass disease along to them.
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Vaccine NEWs
Your Best Shot for a Healthy Flu Season Every year, 5 to 20% of Americans will get the flu, resulting in lost days of school, work, and overall, disrupted productivity. The flu is a serious, contagious disease that can lead to hospitalization and more serious consequences. Vaccination, especially for children, the sick, the elderly, healthcare professionals and care givers, is the first step in protecting against the spread of the flu virus.
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Physician Office Services | Helping You Improve the Health of Your Practice™
Each flu season, nearly 111 million workdays are lost due to the flu. That equals approximately $7 billion per year in sick days and lost productivity.1
Vaccine NEWs Setting up a flu immunization clinic in your physician office is straightforward if you follow these simple steps: 1. Designate a clinic manager to handle supplies, internal logistics, patient pre-scheduling logistics, medical personnel, support functions and their respective backups.
5. Advertise. Let patients know that you now offer a safe, effective and efficient immunization clinic. Points to emphasize in your communication: • Healthy patients seeking the flu vaccine do not have to be seen by their physician. It only requires a 10-15 minute appointment with a healthcare professional to first screen the patient about their medical history and then administer the vaccine.
2. Determine which flu vaccine will be available to patients: • Regular Intramuscular Injection — For various ages from 6 months and older depending on the product • High-dose Intramuscular Injection — For ages 65 years and older
6. In specific instances, some people should not get the flu vaccine, including:
• Intradermal Injection — For ages 18-64 years • Flu vaccine nasal spray — For healthy people ages 2-49 years that are not pregnant 3. Establish clinic hours and clinic location within your physician office. 4. Stock all incidental items including gloves, alcohol swabs, bandages, needles and syringes, etc.
• If they have a severe allergic reaction to eggs. • If they had a previous serious reaction to the flu shot. • If they ever had Guillain-Barre Syndrome after receiving the flu shot. It is important that patients tell you if any of these situations have occurred.
Contact your Medline representative for information on the flu vaccines available from Medline.
Additional Vaccines 49281-545-05
ActHIB w/ Diluent SDV (Haemophilus B Conjugate)
49281-400-10
Adacel DSV 10 x 0.5mL (TDaP Booster)
58160-842-52
Boostrix PFS 10 x 0.5mL (TDaP Booster)
58160-820-52
Engerix-B 10MCG PFS 10 x 0.5mL (Hepatitis B)
0006-4045-00
Gardasil SDV 0.5mL (Human Papillomavirus)
58160-826-11
Havrix 1440 ELU/mL SDV 10 x 1mL (Hepatitis A)
49281-589-05
Menactra SDV 5 x 0.5mL (Meningococcal)
0006-4681-00
MMR SDV 10 x 0.5mL (Measles, Mumps, Rubella)
0006-4943-00
Pneumovax SDV 10 x 0.5mL (Pneumococcal)
0006-4739-00
Pneumovax 2.5mL 5-Dose Vial (Pneumococcal)
0006-4981-00
Recombivax 5MCG/0.5mL SDV 10 x 0.5mL (Hepatitis B)
0006-4133-41
Tetanus & Diphtheria Toxoids Adsorbed SDV 10 x 0.5mL (Td)
1. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17544181 Molinari NA, Ortega-Sanchez IR, Messonnier ML, Thompson WW, Wortley PM, Weintraub E, Bridges CB. The annual impact of seasonal influenza in the US: measuring disease burden and costs. Vaccine 2007;25(27):5086–5096.
1.855.294.9618 | medline.com
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Preventing Sharps Injuries
Take the Ouch out of needles
Embracing Education to Improve Healthcare NEW! Medline University Patient Safety: Increasing Awareness Course Description: The objective for this course is to provide an overview of patient safety in terms appropriate for the healthcare professional. At the conclusion of this course participants will be able to define patient safety, recognize national patient safety goals, discuss patient safety challenges, and list methods to prevent medical errors, and describe methods to assist the patient. Find it under the Safety courses at medlineuniversity.com
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Physician Office Services | Helping You Improve the Health of Your Practice™
Preventing Sharps injuries Every day, healthcare professionals are exposed to bloodborne pathogens through contaminated needlesticks or sharps. It is one of the greatest risks faced by the frontline healthcare worker1. Yet, these exposures have often been considered “part of the job.” In 2000, through the ardent support of the nursing industry, the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act was signed into law and became effective in April 2001. In short, this landmark legislation simply provides healthcare workers protection against needlestick and sharps injuries. Preventing needlestick and sharps injuries in the physician office setting are especially critical because these healthcare professionals use more needles than any other medical sector. Hospitals and long-term care facilities usually administer medications through IVs, not through needles and syringe combinations.
Don’t get stuck without these rules! The Centers for Disease Control has identified steps healthcare professionals can take to reduce preventable exposures and implement the most effective control measures. Be Prepared • Organize your work area with appropriate sharps disposal containers within reach • Work in well-lit areas
Sharps Containers Wall Mount: MDS705153H (5 qt, 1/ea) Wall Free: MDS705202H (2 gal, 1/ea), MDS705201H (1 gal, 1/ea) Phlebotomy: MDS705110H (1 qt, 1/ea)
Tuberculin Safety Syringes 25G x 5/8": ULT101253 (500/cs), ULT101253Z (100/bx), ULT101253H (1/ea) 25G x 1": ULT101255 (500/cs), ULT101255Z (100/bx), ULT101255H (1/ea)
• Receive training on how to use sharps safety devices • Before handling sharps, assess any hazards–get help if needed Be Aware • Keep the exposed sharp in view • Be aware of people around you • Stop if you feel rushed or distracted • Focus on your task • Avoid hand-passing sharps and use verbal alerts when moving sharps Dispose of Sharps with Care • Be responsible for the device you use • Activate safety features after use • Dispose of devices in rigid sharps containers; do not overfill containers
1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/sharpssafety/pdf/brochure.pdf. Accessed September 10, 2013.
• Keep fingers away from the opening of sharps containers
1.855.294.9618 | medline.com
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Medline Remedy® Advanced Skin Care
At Last there is a remedy 10 Physician Office Services | Helping You Improve the Health of Your Practice™
Medline Remedy® Advanced Skin Care
Formulated with antioxidants, vitamins, and amino acids to nourish the skin. Originally developed for fragile skin, Medline Remedy is now widely used by doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who are recommending Remedy as a home skin care regimen.
Medline Remedy® with Olivamine® Skin Repair Cream Remedy Skin Repair Cream uses water molecules to moisturize the skin and provide nutrients (amino acids, antioxidants and vitamins).
Remedy Olivamine Skin Repair Cream, 32 oz. pump MSC094420H (1/ea)
BEST SELLER!
Remedy Olivamine Skin Repair Cream, unscented, 32 oz. MSC094820UNSH (1/ea)
Medline Remedy® with Phytoplex™ Nourishing Skin Cream Helps maintain skin’s natural moisture balance. Absorbs into the skin without a greasy residue. Moisturizes with a blend of natural emollients including safflower, oleosomes and carrageenan. Soothes the skin with oat kernel and licorice root extract. Ideal for use on hands, face and body. Enhanced with Phytoplex, additional botanicals and essential fatty acids.
Remedy Phytoplex Nourishing Skin Cream, 16 oz. pump MSC092416H (1/ea)
Remedy Phytoplex Nourishing Skin Cream, 8 oz. bottle MSC092408H (1/ea)
1.855.294.9618 | medline.com 11
Exam Gloves
Share the (G)love 12 Physician Office Services | Helping You Improve the Health of Your Practice™
Exam Gloves When a healthcare professional is wearing Medline’s signature Generation Pink® gloves, they are helping in our mission to help provide women, regardless of their means, with year-round breast cancer education and support resources through our partnership with the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF). For nearly a decade, we have helped make significant strides to improve the lives of everyone affected by the disease – patients, survivors, families of those who lost their battle, healthcare workers and more. In 2011, Medline invited the healthcare industry to join in the Pink Glove Dance competition to help increase awareness, build morale among healthcare workers and engage the community in a common cause. To get involved in the overwhelming success of our campaign, here is what you can do: 1. Vote on your favorite Pink Glove Dance video. Voting begins on October 25 at pinkglovedance.com. 2. Your Purchase Makes a Difference in the lives of millions of people. Medline will donate $1 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for every case of Pink Gloves sold.
3. Educate patients and their families about breast cancer. If you have a patient or family member with questions about breast cancer, take them to our Patient Education section on medlineuniversity.com where we host “Beyond the Shock®,” the NBCF’s education portal. Beyond The Shock is a free, comprehensive guide to understanding breast cancer, early detection and treatment options. 4. Get Social and connect with Medline, our Pink Glove Dance competition and our Breast Cancer Awareness campaign through tweets, Facebook® posts, Instagram® photos and more.
Generation Pink Nitrile Exam Gloves
CURAD® White Nitrile
The extra sensitive glove with exceptional chemical resistance and barrier protection. When you need extra protection, you need nitrile. Generation Pink Nitrile delivers proven protection for some of the toughest health care situations. Boxes now hold twice the usual amount of gloves for convenience, savings and waste reduction.
CURAD White Nitrile exam gloves are designed with the physician office in mind. Now in a convenient 6-pack to help make small orders convenient and economical. Latex-free nitrile protects patients and staff from latex allergies. Exceptional fit, stretch and sensitivity. Crisp white color provides excellent contrast.
X-small: PINK6800H (200/bx) Small: PINK6801H (200/bx) Medium: PINK6802H (200/bx) Large: PINK6803H (200/bx) X-large: PINK6804H (180/bx)
Small: CUR8414 (600/cs) Medium: CUR8415 (600/cs) Large: CUR8416 (600/cs)
1.855.294.9618 | medline.com 13
Proper Hand Hygiene
how to take the hurt out of hand hygiene
Skin irritation is a leading cause of hand hygiene noncompliance. Protect patients and staff with these pain-free sanitizing strategies. Itching. Burning. Scaly and cracking skin. Too often that’s the experience of healthcare workers who sanitize their hands countless times every day – especially during the winter months. And it’s not just a problem for your staff. Irritant contact dermatitis (ICD) is the primary cause for hand hygiene compliance failure – potentially increasing the risk of infection transmission for your patients. The good news is that you can introduce behaviors and products into your practice that help take the hurt out of hand hygiene.
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Proper Hand Hygiene Choose Sanitizers Over Soap. Alcohol hand rubs lead to improved skin condition compared to soap and water washing, not to mention providing significantly better decontamination. Irritated skin has significantly higher bacteria counts than healthy skin, and non-medicated soap and water washing has demonstrated limited efficacy for reducing microorganism contamination of damaged hands. Select Sanitizers with Skin-Soothing Ingredients. The addition of emollients and hydrating agents can help mitigate the effects of frequent hand hygiene procedures. Augment with Glove-Compatible Lotions or Creams. Systematic use of lotions and creams can help mitigate skin damage and speed skin repair. Intensive treatment – e.g., frequent application for extended periods – may be required to counteract skin compromise and minimize the negative impact on infection control. Log in to Medline University to participate in “Breaking Through Hand Hygiene and Skin Care Barriers,” a CEU-accredited video course in which Dr. Marty Visscher discusses the conclusions of her published study on the use of lotions/creams to mitigate the damaging effects of hand hygiene.
Sterillium Comfort Gel® Hand Sanitizers
Compliance. Comfort. Efficiency. • 85% w/w ethyl alcohol kills ≥99.999% of a broad range of pathogens within 15 seconds, without water • Proprietary blend of moisturizers • Increase skin hydration by 14% after just two weeks of use1 compared to untreated skin • Formulated without foaming agents, gel thickeners or fragrances that could cause allergic reactions Do more with less Sterillium Comfort Gel delivers excellent performance with a smaller application. Available in user-friendly packaging from single-use foil packs and pocket-sized bottles to wall-mounted dispensers. Ask your Medline representative for a free sample, or visit Medline.com to learn more. MSC097062H (1000mL, 1/ea) MSC097063H (475mL, 1/ea) MSC097065H (50mL, 1/ea) 1. Kampf G, Muscatiello M, Segger D. Dermal tolerance and effect on skin hydration of an improved ethanol-based hand gel. International Journal of Infection Control; 2009; 5 (1).
1.855.294.9618 | medline.com 15
A Revolutionary new way to protect against the flu BioMask™ Antiviral Face Masks Medline’s BioMask marks the first true innovation in face masks in several decades. Traditional face masks act only as a filter and do nothing to neutralize the harmful germs that remain active on the mask itself. In addition to filtering pathogens and other particles, BioMask is shown to inactivate 99.99 percent of laboratory tested flu viruses within five minutes contact, including pandemic and seasonal strains of influenza (flu) viruses, such as H1N1, Bird flu and Swine flu.* The BioMask works by using a combination of citric acid, zinc and copper — all powerful but safe ingredients. BIOM2001AZ (50/bx) *Inactivates >99.99% of tested influenza viruses on 5 minutes contact. See filligent.com for international, independent lab results.
Contact your Medline representative to learn more or to start using BioMask to help improve the health of your practice. ©2013 Medline Industries, Inc. All rights reserved. Biomask is a trademark of Filligent (HK) Limited. Helping You Improve the Health of Your Practice and Phytoplex are trademarks and CURAD, Generation Pink, Medline, Medline Remedy, Medline University and Pink Glove Dance are registered trademarks of Medline Industries, Inc. Beyond the Shock and National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. are registered trademarks of National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc. Instagram is a registered trademark of Instagram, LLC. Olivamine is a registered trademark of McCord Research, Inc. Sterillium Comfort Gel is a registered trademark of BODE Chemie GMBH & Co. MKT1330035 / LIT636R / 8M / QG / 3