Medical Shipment Blog

March is Kidney Awareness Month, and you can celebrate by keeping kidneys at the forefront of your medical decisions, and in your classroom or lab. Here are a few ways to observe Kidney Awareness Month:

Learn more about kidney disease
Kidney disease is complex and can be the result of a variety of chronic conditions such as diabetes or even high blood pressure. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4.9 million adults currently live with kidney disease, and it is the ninth leading cause of death for adults. You can also visit WorldKidneyDay.org to discover information as well as how to get involved with the movement.

Join a Twitter conversation
Use social media for yourself, or in your classroom, to join in a conversation with The National Kidney Foundation’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joseph Vassalotti. You can log in on Thursday, March 14, which is National Kidney Day to ask questions on Twitter and learn from others who serve people living with kidney disease. Dr. Vassalotti will be on Twitter from 12pm-2pm EST. Use the hashtag #WorldKidneyDayNKF and ask questions on the NKF page.

Commit to Prevention
The more you know about kidney disease, the more you understand the importance of prevention. Check for a local kidney screening in your area, or offer to volunteer at one. Since March is Kidney Awareness Month, kidney screenings are easier to find throughout urban and rural areas.

Beyond getting a screening, review your lifestyle choices and how they could be improved. Drink more water, exercise regularly, and limit unhealthy food choices as much as possible.

If you are a clinician or teacher, you have an important role in passing on reliable information to students. This month, consider giving a bit of awareness to your students about kidney disease as well as ways to increase kidney health.

May is National Osteoporosis Month and the perfect time to brush up on your knowledge about this serious, and rather common, condition. Learn how to keep yourself, and your patients, safe from this degenerative bone disease by adapting lifestyle habits that will keep bones strong well into the retirement years.

Prevalence of Osteoporosis
While osteoporosis can affect anyone of any age, the chances of getting it increases greatly with age. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16.2% of adults over the age of 65 had some signs of osteoporosis. Seniors who were over the age of 80 had a higher prevalence rate of 25.7%. 

It isn’t just age that increases risk for osteoporosis – sex has a major influence as well. Women are much more likely to have osteoporosis than their male counterparts, across all age groups.

Eating for Bone Strength
Combatting osteoporosis begins with nutrition, as bones are literally built by what you eat. Calcium intake has been shown for decades to be helpful in preventing osteoporosis, but Vitamin D is also a key component that allows for successful absorption. Patients should actively eat foods high in calcium and in Vitamin D, but should also supplement. Older adults should especially supplement Vitamin D in the winter months, for those who live in areas that see decreased light in the winter season.

Staying Active for Bone Strength
Beyond eating for healthy bones, patients should include physical activity in their daily life to keep bones strong. Resistance training, even using light weights, can have a significant impact on decreasing the chance of osteoporosis, as well as walking or jogging. While anyone of any age can begin these active lifestyle habits and see results, it is especially important to begin these activities decades before the risk of osteoporosis increases.

Partnering With Your Doctor
Finally, it is imperative to seek medical advice about your specific risks for osteoporosis. Patients should work closely with their medical team to perform the appropriate scans and screenings, as well as to determine a plan for nutrition and exercise.

This May, protect your bones by committing to a healthy lifestyle that will decrease your chance of osteoporosis.

Background

Medication errors occur in highly complex health care environments. A challenge exists to replicate complex environments to study the effect on medication error rates. Virtual reality three-dimensional (3-D) simulation holds promise for faithfully duplicating such environments.

Methods

A proof of concept study was conducted to examine the feasibility of virtual reality 3-D simulation to reliably mirror medication withdrawal from an electronic medication dispensing system (Pyxis) in a complex health care environment using a convenience sample of clinical nursing faculty.

Results

Participants felt that the simulated environment was realistic. The computer-generated Pyxis system did not function as well in the virtual environment compared with an actual environment. A perceived discrepancy between the actual process and the simulation was identified as a problem requiring further refinement.

Cardiovascular Accidents (CVAs), known more commonly as strokes, are the leading cause of disability in America. Strokes are also the fifth leading cause of death. When strokes happen, side effects can become immediately visible. However, there are also side effects that may not be noticeable until the crisis situation is resolved, leaving the person’s new “normal” on display. Each stroke affects each individual in a unique way. Some side effects are serious and last for years, while other side effects last only a few months. Aphasia is a common side effect that many stroke survivors need to live with for a short, or an extended, period of time.

What is aphasia?
Aphasia is defined as a language disorder that makes it difficult to communicate. Some people living with aphasia cannot speak, while others can speak but words come out jumbled or confused. Still others living with aphasia can have difficulties interpreting conversation around them. In all cases, aphasia can be a barrier to happy relationships and a healthy quality of life.

Aphasia Adaptations
For people living with aphasia, communication can be frustrating. However, communication with family, friends, doctors, and even strangers is essential to having relationships and getting needs met. Fortunately, there are adaptations that people living with aphasia can use to help communication go a bit smoother.

People with aphasia should work with a speech language pathologist. This key component of their medical team can provide tips and adaptive devices that best suit their specific situation. Further, time in speech therapy can help the person practice communicating with others.

One way to communicate is to use nonverbal cues, like hand gestures or body language. This can be an easy way to communicate needs or wants, or to fill in if a person with aphasia cannot think of the word necessary to complete the thought.

Beyond using nonverbal gestures, people living with aphasia can also utilize communication boards. Some people with aphasia may not be able to speak well, but they can write. For these people, carrying around a notepad and pen, or a dry erase board and marker, can be an excellent alternative to communication. Other people living with aphasia can carry a communication board with words or photos they can point to in order to communicate needs or wants. These are especially helpful for those living with severe aphasia complications.

You can learn more about aphasia by visiting The American Stroke Association’s website.

In 1994, community health organizations and leaders joined together to celebrate and highlight the impact that infant immunization programs have had across the country. What started as a celebration that year has turned into an annual event, National Infant Immunization Week, geared to increase awareness about, and promote the benefits associated with the immunization of children 2 years old and younger.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, immunization can protect infants from 14 diseases before the age of two. One of these preventable diseases is measles. Before the 1960s, it was common for almost all children to acquire measles. However, after a vaccine for measles was introduced in 1963, cases of measles began to decrease. Now, most medical practitioners have never seen a case of measles in American infants.

However, while it is exciting that diseases such as measles have been nearly eliminated, there is still the chance for outbreak when vaccinations decrease. In 2014, measles saw a bit of a resurgence. A total of 667 cases of measles was reported that year, the greatest number of cases in America since the disease was considered eliminated in 2000. This example is an important reminder about how crucial it is to keep infants immunized and healthy.

To keep children safe, parents and caregivers should assure open communication with their pediatrician. While the autism-vaccine link has been debunked, there are still many parents who are concerned or have questions about infant vaccines. Pediatricians are more than happy to give reliable facts and reassure worried parents through positive communication.

Beyond communication, caregivers should also be sure to keep immunization appointments for their infant. Immunizations work best when on a particular schedule, recommended by scientists and epidemiologists. Not keeping appointments or straying from an immunization schedule can cause problems with developing healthy immunity.

This April, take time to join community health organizations across the country to celebrate and highlight infant immunization. Our kids depend on it!

Medical Shipment is now also the sole educational distributor for the latest Pyxis MedStation ES system, an automated medication dispensing system supporting decentralized medication management. Pyxis helps clinicians safely and efficiently dispense medications while offering enterprise-ready integration, and with the educational unit allows for your healthcare learners to practice with real equipment! Medical Shipment is a premium supplier of simulation nursing supplies and equipment who strives to provide extraordinary customer service and value their personal relationships with each customer. Their goal is to ensure your complete satisfaction with each order and carries an extensive range of products and services that will fit the needs of all healthcare educational programs.  Simulated training can not get more realistic then on actual professional healthcare devices. Learn more by visiting the MedicalShipment.com Pyxis website today!

Customizable information can be entered into console to display on the Pyxis with the additional Console Unit, providing the ability to enter specific names and information to match textbooks or teaching materials. As well, the Console has the capability to connect multiply Pyxis MedStation systems wirelessly. The Console allows educators the ability to enter customized: Patients, Users, Medications, Medication orders, Reporting capability. HealthySimulation.com covered an on-site review of the Pyxis MedStation 4000 at the College of DuPage outside of Chicago which you can watch below, with another video about the ES from Pyxis down further:

Key Features for the Pyxis ES Medication System:

• Simplified caregiving: Efficient, patient-centric clinical workflows guide nurses to medication and patient information in one place.
• Enhanced formulary integration and management: PIS integration can result in one centrally manageable system formulary, supporting standardization, with site-specific adjustability.
• Improved system options: Flexible storage space options support size, scope and capacity needs including storage for larger medications.
• Enhanced safety New safety enhancements help prevent potentially harmful medication errors and adverse drug events.
• Reduced risk: The system sustains uptime while minimizing disruptions, delays and risk of medication error.
• Operational efficiency: Web access enables pharmacists to efficiently manage the system and access operational reports and key metrics.
• Streamlined user management: Integration with Active Directory simplifies system user management.
• Scalability: Common interfacing functionality integrates with the HIT, allowing you to add functionality and devices as needs arise.
• Improved IT: integration and efficiency Supported by the BD Pyxis Enterprise Server, the system helps reduce IT footprint and leverage existing IT investments.

Pyxis MedStation systems have barcode scanning to help ensure accurate medication dispensing and features to prevent loading of the wrong medication and active alerts to provide an added safety precaution for high risk medications. Certainly, the Pyxis MedStation system can help your facility support safe and efficient medication management. The Pyxis is built by CareFusion, a BD company, which serves the health care industry with products and services that help hospitals measurably improve the safety and quality of care.

LEARN MORE BY VISITING THE MEDICALSHIPMENT.COM PYXIS WEBSITE TODAY!

CHICAGO, Nov. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Leading medical supplier, Medical Shipment LLC, is making moves to expand internationally with its first partnership with Serbia. Last month CEO and founder of Medical Shipment LLC, Dan Micic, took several meetings and interviews in Europe to begin foreign collaborations.

“We already do business with Canada and Mexico but I think it is time to start working with European countries as well,” Micic said. “My family is from Serbia and I spend a lot of time over there, so it felt like the right place to start this global expansion.”

During his last visit to Serbia, Micic sat down with Prince Alexander and Princess Katherine to discuss the various ways a medical supply company such as Medical Shipment could work with Serbian institutions. The goal is to supply European institutions with the medical equipment they need to properly train medical students. In some areas, it is difficult to have access to premium medical supplies and Medical Shipments wants to help solve that problem.

“It has always been about providing medical professionals and teaching facilities with the equipment they need to train and provide help,” Micic said. “Medical Shipment has the resources to expand our reach and be sure other countries have access to proper medical supplies.”

The streamlined online ordering process makes it seamless for international businesses to work with the US-based supply company. There is still some red tape to go through before Medical Shipment can officially work with Serbian companies. However, the process has begun and the opportunities that this collaboration presents are exciting. Medical Shipment plans to be meeting Serbian medical supply needs in 2019.

Medical Shipment LLC has been operating in the United States for over 10 years. Although the company began with the purpose of supplying nursing and medical schools it has since grown to work with hospitals, healthcare agencies, and individual consumers. Regaled to be the fastest and most competitively-priced company for quality medical supplies, Medical Shipment continues to raise the bar in terms of customer satisfaction. The user-friendly website allows customers to easily create a quote online and connect directly with a supply expert for assistance.

About CEO and Founder:

Dan Micic started Medical Shipment in 2007 while still attending Harper College. His first sale was 90 cases of medical gloves for privately held manufacture company Medline. With no office, he had to have the order shipped to his parents’ house and worked from there. That was just the start to what has grown to be one of the largest providers of medical supplies to Universities in the country. Today, Medical Shipment is a multimillion-dollar business and was named in the Inc 5000 list 3 years in a row.

CONTACT: Kaitlin Dilworth, kaitlin@statuslabs.com

SOURCE Medical Shipment LLC