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• STATE - R.I. Nursing Schools Sounding Alarm on Faculty Shortage
• NATIONAL - Covid Patients May Have Increased Risk of Developing Mental Health Problems
• CAPITOL - President extends COVID-19 national emergency declaration beyond March 1
• HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES - Agios Wins FDA Approval for Pill to Treat Rare Blood Disease
• UPCOMING EVENTS - Digital Signage – Essential in Today’s Healthcare

COVID-19 Case Summary as of February 24:

• New: 209
• Total: 355, 294
• Hospitalized: 140
• ICU: 14
• On Ventilator: 10
• RI Deaths: 3,406

Visit the RI Department of Health for data on COVID-19 cases

More COVID Updates

APIC

• a new four-part tool is available to help hospitals and health systems estimate the cost and benefit of interventions to prevent health care-associated infections. The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology collaborated with AHA to develop the tool with funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. For more on preventing health care-associated infections, see AHA’s suite of free online training resources. In April, AHRQ plans to release a customizable toolkit to help prevent central-line associated bloodstream infections and catheter-associated urinary tract infections in intensive care units

FDA:

• announced a Class 1 recall of the E25Bio COVID-19 Direct Antigen Response Test, which was marketed and distributed to U.S. customers without authorization or approval. Due to the potential for false results, FDA said health care providers who administered the test in the past two weeks and suspect an inaccurate result should consider retesting patients with an authorized test
• listed all over-the-counter COVID-19 diagnostic tests authorized for home use, including links to home use instructions for each test.

HHS:

• Senate passed and sent to the president the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act (H.R. 1667), that would authorize grants for programs that offer behavioral health services for front-line health care workers. Named for a doctor who led the emergency department at New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, the bill also would require the Department of Health and Human Services to recommend strategies to facilitate health care provider well-being and launch a campaign encouraging health care workers to seek assistance when needed. The House passed the bill last December and the president is expected to sign it into law

Read about COVID in Rhode Island

R.I. Nursing Schools Sounding Alarm on Faculty Shortage
Faced with a crippling staffing crisis at local hospitals, professors at Rhode Island’s public colleges say it’s time to solve a long-standing problem with the pipeline of health care professionals: a shortage of nursing faculty, which keeps scores of prospective students on waiting lists. “Having an adequate workforce is difficult to do when there is a limited pool of nursing faculty to prepare them,” said Barbara E. Wolfe, dean and professor at the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing. “We need to attract nurses to the faculty role to truly address the current shortage. I wish it was simply a matter of adding positions. Unfortunately, it is a bit more complex.”
Source: Providence Business News

Covid Patients May Have Increased Risk of Developing Mental Health Problems
Social isolation, economic stress, loss of loved ones and other struggles during the pandemic have contributed to rising mental health issues like anxiety and depression.But can having Covid itself increase the risk of developing mental health problems? A large new study suggests it can. The study, published Wednesday in the journal The BMJ, analyzed records of nearly 154,000 Covid patients in the Veterans Health Administration system and compared their experience in the year after they recovered from their initial infection with that of a similar group of people who did not contract the virus.
Source: The New York Times

Digital Signage – Essential in Today’s Healthcare
Learn how digital signage is being used to significantly improve the experience and the engagement of patients, visitors and employees. Discussions include how Digital Signage is providing healthcare centers with cost effective and efficient communication platform for them to inform, guide, educate, promote, alert and entertain everyone anywhere. They will cover a variety of Digital Signage concepts being use in lobbies, cafeterias, emergency rooms, others. It will also include Digital Signage use cases within the employee workspaces like nursing stations, breakrooms and auditoriums. Finally, they will share best practice, recommended technologies, and services to ensure a successful Digital Signage program.
Virtual Webinar
Wednesday, March 2, 2022
12-12:30PM EST
Free!
Register Now!

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