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Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton

Put your Hospital Security Department on a Low Fat Diet

Posted on August 11, 2011 12:55 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

Hospitals are reeling from potential losses in funding related to state budget cut-backs
and potential cuts in Medicare programs.  Every area of the hospital budget are being scrutinized, looking for areas to cut and reduce costs.

Instead of waiting for a memo about cuts that affect YOUR department, be a
pro-active manager and right-size your security department and show management
the changes you want to make.

It is possible to have an efficient, accountable security department without having costs run out of control.  It has to be based on real dollars, on real risks and it has to have the ability to show management WHY you need each element in your program.

The already-required risk assessment is the first start in this process.  When regulators come in to a hospital, they want to see the risk assessment first, and then they look to see if you followed the remediation plan identified in the risk assessment, which means they want to see you made the right improvements, based on the plan.

By including program elements in the risk assessment, and mapping it back to your actual budget, you can easily say that the Return On Investment is for each part of your program.



Is $7000 Enough of a Fine for a Young Girl’s Murder?

Posted on August 3, 2011 8:48 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

OSHA workplace safety officials have fined the organization that runs a Revere group home, where a Peabody mental health worker was stabbed in January, for not having adequate safety measures in place despite high probability of an incident occurring.

The Revere mental health clinic where Peabody caseworker Stephanie Moulton was stabbed in January as fined $7000.00 by OSHA for not having adequate safeguards against violence in place for employees at the clinic. OSHA cited the facility for “a serious violation of [OSHA’s] ‘general duty clause’ for failing to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause serious injury or death.” 

Moulton, 24, died from her stab wound inflicted by a patient, 27-year-old Deshawn Chappell, after he fled the group home, taking her with him and then dumping her body behind a church in Lynn. Chappell, who had a history of violent behavior, attacked Moulton during a counseling session.

The fine is a piddling amount, but the damage done by the fine is much worse. Because the organization was directly fines by OSHA, that gives the victim’s family solid grounds for a lawsuit for negligence, and they can quote OSHA, that they “failed to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause injury or death”.

It will be interesting to see if a lawsuit develops, and if the organization puts stricter controls in place to protect staff members.

OSHA and the Joint Commission have reported for several years that violence against healthcare workers has steadily increased, and the Joint Commission even issued a Sentinel Event about the increase in violence.



AT RISK – YOUR HEALTH – Check out the antidote for overweight Baby Boomers – The Juice Reboot solution featured in new movie, ‘Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead”. It convinced me!

Posted on July 30, 2011 1:44 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

Fat Sick And Nearly Dead: A Movie Review from Dr. Whimsey

Recently, I watched the movie “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead,” available on Netflix. The film chronicles the real life adventure of Joe Cross, an entrepreneur from Australia, who decides to go on a 60 day juice fast. Cross had a series of medical conditions that included obesity, and an autoimmune disease commonly referred to as “Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria.”Cross’s decision to go on a juice fast, is based on the idea that his lifestyle choices made him sick. In fact, many healthcare providers now believe that much of America’s epidemic of obesity and chronic disease have more to do with diet and lifestyle choices than anything else.

The film was shot in the United States, and depicts Cross traveling across the country asking people about health and diet, while discussing the current medical epidemic of obesity and chronic disease that has lead to Americans consuming more prescription drugs than any other nation on earth. Along the way Cross meets a truck driver named “Phil,” Phil is 425 pounds and suffering from the same debilitating disease. Phil decides to go on his own juice fast and not only recovers his health but looses close to 200 pounds (for his part, Cross lost around 90 pounds during his fast).

This film is amazingly inspirational, and I highly recommend people watch it. Not just because it demonstrates how diet and exercise can cure disease, but because it addresses, what I have come to believe, are gaping holes in our current healthcare system. Mainly, the lack of emphasis we have placed on diet and lifestyle changes to cure disease in this country, and have opted instead for the “quick fix,” medications can offer instead.

The film maker argues that juicing is better than eating foods raw because it would take far too many fruits and veggies to equal the amount of nutrients found in a single glass of juice. Therefore, in order to maximize the amount of micronutrients available in vegetables it is better to juice them.

This is not a perfect film. I am not a huge proponent of a juice only fast. One of the main reasons I don’t like this type of fast is because it eliminates fiber from the diet. Fiber is vital to our health for a number of reasons. For starters, fiber bulks up our stool helping us to have healthier and more frequent bowel movements (preventing constipation, and decreasing our risk of diverticulitis and polyps). Fiber is also thought to reduce our risk of colon cancer and type II diabetes. Fiber also helps keep our blood sugar stable. It does this by slowing down how quickly sugar can enter the blood stream; preventing the elevated levels you can sometimes get from consuming high sugar content food items like soda pop and white bread.

Instead of the juice only diet seen in this film, I advice people to do both a juice fast combined with nutrient dense foods like plenty of raw veggies, brown rice, and beans. This keeps the blood sugar stable during the fast, while still gaining all of the added benefits of taking in nutrient dense juices.

Like every article we write on Anderson Health Watch, we always want you to ask your doctor before starting any diet or exercise regime to see if it is right for you.

 

See the original Dr. Whimsey review at:

http://andersonhealthwatch.blogspot.com/2011/07/fat-sick-and-nearly-dead-movie-review.html



Did you know that Organized Crime now Runs Most Identity Theft rings and That They Already Have Your Personal CC Information?

Posted on July 27, 2011 3:47 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

A recent CNNMoney article looks at why cybercrime has gotten so pervasive and concluded that you have probably already been hacked!

Cybercrime and theft of personal identity elements like credit cards, bank accounts, passwords, etc. has moved from a kitchen industry populated by techy college students in countries like Bulgaria and Romania, to a dependable source of income for organized crime.

Similar to the way Russian crime gangs have infiltrated the shipping-port business, identity theft has become a commodity and they are stealing BILLIONS of dollars every year, including from the world’s largest corporations like Sony and Citigroup.

According to CNN Money, “These aren’t petty thieves. They’re committing breaches like the Sony attack that stole credit card information from 77 million customers and the Citigroup hack that stole $2.7 million from about 3,400 accounts in May. They’re organized, smart, and loaded with time and resources.

“It’s not like the Mafia, it is a Mafia running these operations,” said Karim Hijazi, CEO of botnet  monitoring company Unveillance. “The Russian Mafia are the most prolific cybercriminals in the world.”

The Russian mob is incredibly talented for a reason: After the Iron Curtain lifted in the 1990s, a number of ex-KGB cyberspies realized they could use their expert skills and training to make money off of the hacked information they had previously been retrieving for government espionage purposes. Former spies grouped together to form the Russian Business Network, a criminal enterprise that is capable of some truly scary attacks. It’s just one of many organized cybercriminal organizations, but it’s one of the oldest and the largest.

“The Russians have everyone nailed cold in terms of technical ability,” said Greg Hoglund, CEO of cybersecurity company HBGary. “The Russian crime guys have a ridiculous toolkit. They’re targeting end users in many cases, so they have to be sophisticated.”

Though credit cards continue to be a source of revenue for organized crime syndicates, there’s not much money in credit card theft, so crime rings go after large corporations and sensitive information that can be sold or used for blackmail.

Globally, data breaches are expected to account for $130.1 billion in corporate losses this year, according to the Ponemon Institute. Historically, about 30% of that total cost has been direct losses attributable to the breaches, which would mean about $39 billion will stolen in 2011.



7 Hot Weather Tips for People & Pets

Posted on July 21, 2011 3:54 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

Seven Tips to Reduce Heat-Related Health Problems

I grew up in southern California without air conditioning!  I used to jump in the pool and sleep in wet pajamas with a fan running to stay cool. 

And don’t forget to give your pets the care they
need during hot weather!

The best defense is prevention. Here the top 8 tips for coping with hot weather.

1.  Drink more liquids (not alochol) and drink more all day, not just
     when you feel thirsty.

2.  Don’t drink alcohol or sugary drinks – they cause you to lose
     body fluid.

3.  Stay indoors in air conditioning.  If you don’t have a/c, go to
     the library or the mall.  And bring your pets into the air
     conditioning, too.

4.  Cool off with water, take a cool shower before bed.  And make
     sure pets have plenty of cool water, too, add ice to their water
     dishes.

5.   Wear white, or light-colored clothing that doesn’t absorb the heat, it will
      reduce insect bites, too.

6.   NEVER leave children or pets in a closed vehicle during the summer and
      especially during a heat wave.

7.   Reduce strenuous outdoor exercise until the heat breaks.



Risk Assessment: How about Giving Guns Back to Former Mental Patients

Posted on July 6, 2011 2:37 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

A recent New York Times article explained that a provision tucked in a bill to make it harder for people diagnosed with mental illness to possess firearms, actually restores the rights of mental health patients to get their firearms back. The legislation was passed after the massacre at Virginia Tech in 2007.

One of the main elements of risk assessment is a quantitative (meaning = real numbers) on what has happened in the past. Looking at 2 or 3 years of incident reports, for example, show how many times there has been an incident involving gun violence in a particular neighborhood, city or organization.

Another element is the history of a particular individual to see whether individuals with a diagnosed history of mental illness are MORE OR LESS likely to trigger (forgive the pun) – a violent incident.

If we run that scenario, we will find that individuals who previously had a violent incident with a firearm are MORE LIKELY than the standard population to have another incident.
And that especially holds true if other threat indicators are present, for example:

Termination from a Job
Romantic Difficulties
Foreclosure
Difficult Economy

There is a ‘risk multiplier’ effect that takes place that makes the risk higher. By combining different sets of threat categories with areas of weakness, we are create general predictions on the likelihood of repeated violent incidents.

Do the math – it doesn’t make sense for people with a history of mental illness to
get their guns back!



Lessons I Learned from little Caylee Anthony

Posted on July 5, 2011 6:21 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

Caylee Anthony and Lessons Learned

Everyone who has watched this case found it compelling and fascinating – like watching a cobra ready to strike.

This case caught my attention right in the beginning, and what a great job #Nancy Grace and HLN did in keeping the pressure on, assisting with the search in the beginning, and actually finding photos, etc.

My daughter-in-law wasn’t pregnant when this trial started, but now she and my son have 18-month old twins, and we are all watching this trial together.    I started out disliking the Anthony parents, but now that I’ve seen Cindy and George break down on the stand and now that I understand the critical role of grandparents, I have sympathy for them.

Here’s what my lessons learned include:

1.  If you are a grandparent and thinking something is wrong – don’t wait.  Who 
     cares if your child thinks you’re nuts, you are an advocate for a child too young to
     protect themselves.   Grandparents can save the lives of their grandchildren when
     young parents are overwhelmed.

2.  Lock up the swimming pool.   Whether it’s an in ground or above-ground pool – it’s
     too dangerous for children who can’t swim.  Take extraordinary steps to keep that pool
     out of reach of any children.

3.  Don’t tolerate lying from your children when they are young.  This must be a
     lesson that is taught when children are young.  Lying is not right, and not acceptable. 
     When you in your twenties, or even in high school, it’s too late.  This tragedy was
     compounded by the constant lies of Casey Anthony.

4.  Love and enjoy your children every day because life is uncertain and you may
     never get another chance to say how much you love them, and how much they add
     to your life!



A Message for Politicians on the Fourth of July

Posted on July 4, 2011 1:08 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

Another happy fourth of July barbeque, red, white and blue flags waving on porches across America.   The politicians are out in force, speaking at parks about the future of America.

But it seems to me that they no longer really put the USA first.  Instead, they put their job first, their party first, their lobbying interests first, and the USA fits in somewhere after that.

We have all seen what happens in divided countries – we learn about the US Civil War, we watch what is happening in the Sudan, we observed what happened in Bosnia and Serbia
 – and what is happening in #Tibet.  

Our country, the citizens AND the leaders, need to start working together, and make the good of the country more important than artificial party differences. 

All over the world people want exactly the same things – a safe, decent place to live, enough food, clean water, a good education for their children – AND a way to get ahead by working hard.

I hope today that someone reads this and finds a way to get this great country back on track by discussion and agreement and coming together, instead of creating artificial distinctions between Americans based on party allegiances.  Our first allegiance has to be to America!



Unsnarling political differences based on Type preferences

Posted on June 28, 2011 1:28 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

A key component of decision making is laying out all the options to make an informed decision.

Watching the angst of the political parties trying to solve the debt problem shows that they are both charging around saying their favorite rallying cries, which does not promote dialogue, but just inflames the other party.

Think of these two parties, Dems and Repubs, as made up of two TYPES of individuals.  The MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) personality test is made up of 16 distinct types of people and you can summarize and put them into two main groups – the Traditionalists and the Innovators.

See if this sounds familiar – Traditionalists like for things to stay the same, they always support the status quo.  They dislike change for change’s sake, so they don’t want to raise taxes.  They like to keep a strong sense of order so they
are often military, law enforcement, corporate titans, etc.  They are often presidents of associations and organizations and they are great at keeping things running efficiently.

Innovators want to explore and try new things – in life AND in politics. They want to get out of Afghanistan and put in a new tax structure, and reinvent old institutions, instead of cherishing them, as the Traditionals do.

Both these groups have great contributions that they make to society – Traditionals keep things organized and running and Innovators find new, better ways of doing things.

Innovators are always searching for the next new thing so it’s so coincidence that
California has more than it’s statistical share of Innovators – they keep kept going west, and kept looking until stopped by the Pacific ocean.

Type preferences are set before you are 5 years old and indicate preferences for your entire life.  I am already seeing types emerge from watching toddlers under the age of 2.

When you understand the values of the other party, according to type preferences, you can have a more civil dialogue because you can now understand where the other side is coming from, so to speak. 

You can find out which type you are,  or just find out more about the MBTI at www.myersbriggs.org.



5 Tips to Prevent Workplace Violence

Posted on June 24, 2011 3:22 pm by Caroline Ramsey-Hamilton Comment

After studying the twenty-seven state guidelines and also new guidance from
OSHA on how to prevent workplace violence incidents,

Here are 5 tips of what areas to work on in your organization:

1.  Redo Policies – Make sure you have a clear ‘no weapons’ policy and make
     employees sign a pledge when they join the organization.

2.  Dynamic Awareness Training   – Make sure that EVERY employee attends
     a training program about workplace violence issues,  whether it’s 1 hour or
     4 hours  annually.  But boring computer training is not enough.

3.  Do a Baseline Violence Assessment   – See where your organization
     rates compared to other companies and see how closely you match to
     new standards and guidelines on Workplace Violence issues.

4.  Require Employees to Report Every Incident – Communicate to employees
     that they are required to report EVERY incident, whether it is domestic
     violence at work,  Patient violence, or anything else.  Be tough!

5.  Use Incident Tracking  – Work with both Security and HR to make sure
     every incident is tracked for analysis, and all employees know where and how
     to report incidents




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