“ICU in a Suitcase”

From Medgadget:

Do you remember when a cellphone came in a small suitcase? If you don’t, your parents surely will! Well, the FDA has just approved an “ICU in a suitcase”. Containing an integrated ventilator with CO2&O2 monitoring, ECG, invasive pressure monitoring, non-invasive blood pressure monitoring, low and high rate infusion pumps with a fluid warmer… But that’s not all. It also measures temperature, pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation, and it has…

Volunteers

From the Washington Post:

“The Risks We Take”

Late last month, after volunteer EMT Tonya Mallard died in the crash of a Maryland State Police medevac helicopter transporting two teenagers from a car accident, people started asking me questions: “How come a volunteer was on that flight? You’re just backup, aren’t you?” they’d say. Or “It’s not really volunteering, right? You get paid, don’t you?”

Getting on that flight was not part of Mallard’s normal duty. These helicopters are typically staffed by only a pilot and flight paramedic. But she volunteered anyway, just as she’d volunteered to serve the Waldorf volunteer fire department, and just as she’d volunteered to leave her family that night.

Physician staffing Web site launched in Wisconsin

From Modern Healthcare:

Just 38% of the physicians trained in Wisconsin decide to take jobs in the state, but advocates are hoping to reverse that trend with a new Web site. More than 500 physician vacancies have been posted at wisconsinphysiciancareers.org, which was officially launched today by the Wisconsin Council on Medical Education and Workforce. The vacancies already listed include 100 in family medicine and 60 in internal medicine. “We wanted to make sure that when we rolled it out, that it was a robust Web site,” said George Quinn, senior vice president of the Wisconsin Hospital Association.

The workforce council, which includes the state hospital association and several Wisconsin colleges and medical societies, intends to specifically exclude headhunters from the recruitment process and put physicians directly in touch with hospitals and health systems. Quinn said that the decision was based on surveys of physicians, who said they were tired of the constant barrage of inquiries from staffing companies. “Their preference is to have openings come directly from clinics and hospitals, and not headhunters,” Quinn said.

On the Web site, healthcare organizations can post their openings, and physicians looking for work can also post their resumes and wait for employers to seek them out.