Editorial – A parliamentary spotlight on prevention

It can be a disconcerting experience as a health promoter when the question comes up “So …what do you do”. In reply you might say: “I manage health promotion projects”, or “I am a health promotion researcher”. The smile that you receive indicates that your interlocutor likes the sentiment of what you are saying, but the quizzical furrow on her or his brow suggests a lack of certainty about what it is you mean. If you are in the mood you might go on to discuss what health promotion is all about, but the experience serves as a reminder that it is not a widely recognised field of work. But things may be changing. The reports of the Preventive Health Task Force and the debate around the Australian National Preventive Health Agency (ANPHA) Bill 2009 in Parliament have brought an unprecedented level of attention to our field. The Hansard related to the ANPHA Bill provides a window into how our elected leaders understand health promotion and whether they consider a greater investment in this endeavour to be worthwhile.     

Rancocas and Zurbrugg Hospitals introduce "News Hound" idea

You may have more public relations ambassadors throughout your healthcare facility than you realized. They're called employees. Rancocas and Zurbrugg Hospitals in New Jersey mobilized them in an effort to spread the good news. Now they're News Hounds, and the results have been above expectations.     

Tech vendors getting fiscal. General Electric Co. is leading the way with an array of services, from capital and equipment to consulting over quality, efficiency

General Electric Co. and other technology vendors see a golden opportunity in cash-strapped hospital clients. By also offering financing and consulting services, they're helping their providers stay in the game long enough to pay them back for their high-tech goods, and come back for more. GE's Rick Wolfert says, "We have reason to believe we either are or soon will be the leading provider."     

PHRs are now in hospitals; what does this mean for quality?

* Hospitals can have immediate access to vital information such as meds, history, recent test results. * HIPAA does not apply to PHRs, since patients control transfer of information. * Let your patient population determine which PHRs you select.     

A hat-trick of model teams

You have seen your team in action and found out what the score is. Now you must interpret that score, build on the facts you have gleaned from the game so far. Certain concepts come into play if your managerial dossier is to do its analytic bit properly. Michael Walton and Graham Smith, continuing their team management saga, help make you aware of these concepts, as you must be in pondering the game's latest phase.     

When dangerous employees cause harm

What happens when you have a dangerous employee in your workplace? How can you tell? What can you do about it? What does the law require? If you manage to get rid of the dangerous employee, are you off the hook? These questions are defining the cutting edge of employment law as it is currently developing in the courts. And these developments have recently hit home--in a big way--in the healthcare arena. This article is devoted to fully understanding the nature of the problem, with the ultimate goal of developing a framework for resolving it.     

Three mistakes to avoid in marketing your practice

If you don't view your practice as a business, and don't have a written mission statement and business plan, you may not be taking full advantage of opportunities in your market. A practice consultant explains how these mistakes can hurt you and how to avoid them.     

Next steps in child protection, policy and practice. a perspective from england

Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today. I am very pleased to be able to do so at such an important time for all of you who are involved in children's services in Northern Ireland. Today I want to share with you the key points of the Department of Health's strategy for taking forward the refocusing debate in England and some of the ways in which change has been implemented by local child care agencies. I will not address die Welsh context as I am not familiar with it in any detail. I do know, however, that agencies there have been working hard to address these issues at a time of both change and stress as they have been involved in local government reorganisation, and the Clwyd Inquiry is ongoing.     

Creating a vision for your medical call center

MCC technologies and applications that can have a positive impact on managed care delivery are almost limitless. As you determine your vision, be sure to have in mind the following questions: (1) Do you simply want an efficient front end for receiving calls? (2) Do you want to offer triage services? (3) Is your organization ready for a fully functional "electronic physician's office?" Understand your organization's strategy. Where are you going, not only today but five years from now? That information is essential to determine your vision. Once established, your vision will help determine what you need and whether you should build or outsource. Vendors will assist in cost/benefit analysis of their equipment, but do not lose sight of internal factors such as "prior inclination" costs in the case of a nurse triage program. The technology is available to take your vision to its outer reaches. With the projected increase in utilization of call center services, don't let your organization be left behind!     

The rising risk tide

Hospitals have a tricky course to navigate as health care reimbursement moves from volume- to value-based. Move to accountable care too soon and you leave volume-based money on the table. Move too late and you risk losing the market to better-prepared competitors. "How do you keep standing with your feet in two boats, one tied to the dock and the other pulling away?" a hospital executive wonders.     

Clinical staffing patterns

When choosing a method of calculating clinical staffing, you should evaluate several models and collect data to determine what your current staffing pattern is providing. You should also evaluate your service performance to determine whether you are doing the correct tasks. If you have the data to compare your staffing to your facility standards of care and several other comparable facilities, you will have a greater confidence level when you report that your staffing is based on requirements for efficient services to meet your patient needs.     

Office System in Public Health Administration

Failure to locate papers in an office is a symptom of careless thinking, states this writer. If, as a health officer, you have not established efficient office methods and trained the personnel to see that these methods "carry on," perhaps such failure is due to the kind of thinking you have been doing.     

Editorial – Chaos and patterns: whither the health promotion trajectory?

The unpredictable and the predetermined unfold together to make everything the way it is … It's the best possible time to be alive, when almost everything you thought you knew is wrong.’ Some years ago, I had the pleasure of attending a performance of Tom Stoppard's play Arcadia. In the final scene of Act 1, the young mathematician Valentine excitedly expounds the essence of complexity theory to the questioning historian, Hannah, in Stoppard's brilliantly evocative language, as exemplified above. On hearing this on that night in the Sydney Opera House, I immediately felt that Valentine was saying something that I wanted to heed – something that had meaning to me in relation to my work. I have often since mused over this text, endeavouring to clarify why I felt this way. I now once again return to Valentine's words in confirming the way I feel health promotion should progress in this 21st Century.     

Physical activity—the more we measure,the more we know how to measure

In the nineteenth century, the legendary physicist Lord Kelvin remarked, “to measure is to know” and “when you can measure what you are speaking about, and can express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind”. Even though Lord Kelvin did not have epidemiology in mind when he made these statements, they hold true in the world of epidemiology—where measurement is the key. The importance of physical activity as a determinant for health and diseases—and as an adjuvant in medical treatment and rehabilitation—is increasingly valued. And, it has been highlighted by this journal many times.     

Sex Redefined: The Reclassification Of Oral‐Genital Contact

CONTEXT: Although partially anecdotal, some evidence suggests that oral‐genital contact is increasingly excluded from young people's notions of what behaviors constitute sex. Such a shift may have implications for STD prevention. METHODS: In 2007, a convenience sample of 477 university students participated in a survey that included the question “Would you say you ‘had sex’ with someone if the most intimate behavior you engaged in was” each of 11 behaviors. Chi‐square tests and independent samples t tests were used to assess gender differences, and chi‐square analyses were used to compare the data with similar data collected in 1991. Predictors of beliefs concerning the classification of oral‐genital contact were assessed using logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The majority of respondents indicated that penile‐vaginal intercourse and penile‐anal intercourse constitute sex (98% and 78%, respectively), but only about 20% believed the same was true of oral‐genital contact. The proportion classifying oral‐genital contact as sex in 2007 was about half that in 1991. This difference was consistent for both sexes and for both giving and receiving oral‐genital stimulation. Responses did not vary by respondents’ sexual experience or demographic characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Sociocultural conceptualizations of oral‐genital contact have shifted in a way that may leave people who engage in this activity unmindful of its potential health risks. Sex education programs, which generally focus on penile‐vaginal contact, could help STD prevention efforts by explaining the risks associated with oral‐genital stimulation and the measures that can be taken to minimize those risks.     

Editorial – Changes in your Journal

As you will have realised from the flyer sent out with the August 2002 issue of the Health Promotion Journal of Australia, the editorial team of the Journal has changed. After three years Rob Moodie (Editor‐in‐Chief) and Chris Borthwick (Managing Editor) have passed on the editorial role to an interim editorial group. This group comprises Adrian Bauman, Jeanne Daly, Damien Jolley and Chris Rissel.     

Efficiently finding information on the Internet

The Internet: a vast frontier of endless information. Despite this gold mine of knowledge, most users remain lost in cyberspace with little knowledge of what is available, where or how to find these treasures. Popular communities such as America Online have emerged because they help to organize the content into manageable pieces. But once you venture outside these confines, you get lost. This article will enable you to efficiently find general information and medically-related content on the Internet.     

Taking the pulse of the community

In recent years, the technology and methodology have been developed to help you identify, collect, analyze, and apply health status information about the community you serve. Called a population-based community health status assessment, this tool is not intended to help you identify "needs"--you probably already know what many of them are in your community. Rather, it allows you to develop precise indicators of the health status of the community in general as well as of specific subgroups with particular health problems and risk factors. The assessment is useful both for the data and insights it provides and for organizing, implementing, and evaluating community health improvement interventions. Seven steps for the successful design and implementation of a population-based community health status assessment follow.     

Office System in Public Health Administration

Failure to locate papers in an office is a symptom of careless thinking, states this writer. If, as a health officer, you have not established efficient office methods and trained the personnel to see that these methods “carry on,” perhaps such failure is due to the kind of thinking you have been doing.     

Getting ready to get ready for EHRs: measure for success

What is the easiest and most efficient way to begin readiness for electronic health records (EHRs) that most support your style of care? Just as you scrub a room before re-painting, steps presented in this article can have your entire staff prepared, trained, and ready to move! Topics covered include options that you can begin now that will "jump start" a successful transition to EHRs. This article will suggest current and future actions along the way to achieve a "win-win" situation as you adopt electronic options while maintaining a partnership of care with your patients.