As a professional, we are striving to give the best to our people who approach us. For this we constantly update ourselves and bring the current and the best accepted international standards we acquire to the place we practice our profession. The traditional models of spreading the awareness of @this provision of the current best practices, had been one of the following.
1. Patients who have benefited spreading the information. In India this had been the best method so far but it takes time. But the problem here can be the mass followers who may be barking at the wrong tree for sometime before realising!
2. Media and news and not everyone will have equal access to them
3. Presentations to our learned colleagues who in turn will spread the news! as it were. These can me informal meets, formal meetings and publications
4. Self advertising by the professional or the hospital itself. But there are no restrictions at the moment on these and can mislead to wrong treatment or health care.
But i think there is another way which is to make the health care delivery and advances to be transparent for the end user i.e the patient and the relatives to make their own informed choice. Though this may not be applicable universally at the moment to the common man in India, i feel that this is the best way.
This would involve in making the options available to the end user directly.
I may be wrong as the UK health care delivery model is completely opposite in that it sets the standards for the professional to practice and frees the end user in making these complex decisions of choosing.
For India this UK model will not be acceptable and the end user i.e the patient has to make lot of the decisions in choosing!. Hence the best way forward would be to make the best available options of healthcare transparent and widely available to the common man.
One needs to be very careful in choosing what is best and accepted current practice to be able to present them. We are at the moment started analysing this as a project and i will let you know the outcome soon!
Regards
Chockalingam
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Setting Standards in Health Care
Setting Standards always has motivated me to work harder. There are areas where standards will improve with time alone as developments creep in as there will be exposure to everyone. however one should not wait for these and have to be actively engaged in these activities.
It is not just important for setting standards by yourself as the long term goal maintaining the standards largely revolve around the fact that everyone follows them. I have found this as the hard way as setting standards being easier, only to find out in dismay later that these are not followed.
It is possible for us to set standards and see them maintained only if the stakeholders are taken into confidence and even be involved in setting the standards themselves by discussion. On the otherheand,forcing them enforces the changes only if two conditions are met.. 1. If you are the paymaster or the employer and the people will do with fear. 2. they will do when you are around and will not necessarily follow them when you are not there.
This is a new learning experience for myself as the culture, ethics and the society is different to my exposure in the last few years. However people's needs and the necessities are the same! Hence we trod along and find ways to set standards and maintain them.
It is also important that standards have to be constantly reviewed as the present standards are not necessarily acceptable in the future and in fact they often are not. Hence persisting the standards one learns during their earlier experience will be detrimental by not bringing new standards.
This appears to be a complex post even to me after writing this but i will elaborate by a simmple illustration.
Pain after surgery or after major trauma is perceived to be normal or acceptable to most health care workers, but from the patient point of view it is not acceptable. Hence the standards for assessing and acting on the pain of the patient by the health care worker had to be changed when i started my practice two and half years ago in India.
We brought our own version of Pain assessment and management in colloboration with the nurse leadership. I found setting the standard was not the most difficult part as the hospital management were very receptive. however the maintainance of this simple standard as we set out is difficult even after two years.
This may be the fact that i did not involve all the stakeholders when designing the standard in the first place. I am still learning.
I hasten to add that our standard of assessing and managing pain is much much better than two years ago with the awareness and the attitude to be significantly in the right direction. Hence i am happy with what we are doing and we have implemented so many other standards in the past two years.
I will elaborate on these in the future blogs
Regards
Chockalingam
It is not just important for setting standards by yourself as the long term goal maintaining the standards largely revolve around the fact that everyone follows them. I have found this as the hard way as setting standards being easier, only to find out in dismay later that these are not followed.
It is possible for us to set standards and see them maintained only if the stakeholders are taken into confidence and even be involved in setting the standards themselves by discussion. On the otherheand,forcing them enforces the changes only if two conditions are met.. 1. If you are the paymaster or the employer and the people will do with fear. 2. they will do when you are around and will not necessarily follow them when you are not there.
This is a new learning experience for myself as the culture, ethics and the society is different to my exposure in the last few years. However people's needs and the necessities are the same! Hence we trod along and find ways to set standards and maintain them.
It is also important that standards have to be constantly reviewed as the present standards are not necessarily acceptable in the future and in fact they often are not. Hence persisting the standards one learns during their earlier experience will be detrimental by not bringing new standards.
This appears to be a complex post even to me after writing this but i will elaborate by a simmple illustration.
Pain after surgery or after major trauma is perceived to be normal or acceptable to most health care workers, but from the patient point of view it is not acceptable. Hence the standards for assessing and acting on the pain of the patient by the health care worker had to be changed when i started my practice two and half years ago in India.
We brought our own version of Pain assessment and management in colloboration with the nurse leadership. I found setting the standard was not the most difficult part as the hospital management were very receptive. however the maintainance of this simple standard as we set out is difficult even after two years.
This may be the fact that i did not involve all the stakeholders when designing the standard in the first place. I am still learning.
I hasten to add that our standard of assessing and managing pain is much much better than two years ago with the awareness and the attitude to be significantly in the right direction. Hence i am happy with what we are doing and we have implemented so many other standards in the past two years.
I will elaborate on these in the future blogs
Regards
Chockalingam
Monday, May 16, 2011
Advanced Ortho Care at KMC Speciality Hospital
Sports Injury Service and Advanced Arthorscopic Surgery Service At KMC Speciality Hospital
Sports is becoming more of a passion as much as a hobby in our Country. Winning World level events has attracted more of our young boys and girls to partake in sports and even take this as their profession. As each profession carries its risks, sports poses us the biggest risk to these young generation in the form of injuries.
Injuries in sports mostly affect the musculoskeletal system. The muscles, tendons, bones and the joints are the components of this system. The joints are complex structures having cartilage, ligaments attached to the bone through soft tissues.
Most sports injuries are managed initially with the following fundamental principles. Remember the mnemonic RICE whenever one gets injured. Rest the injured part, apply Ice, apply Compression and Elevate the injured part. The practice of applying warmth in the form of hot water pack/bottle to the injured part is not recommended.
Physiotherapists either at the sports arena or at the hospital can treat majority of minor injuries to the muscles and tendons. The spasm associated with the muscle and tendon injuries can be treated with stretching and local treatment as described above. Some of these injuries especially the minor ligament injuries need rehabilitation by attending a dedicated physiotherapy department.
KMC Speciality Hospital has a dedicated Physiotherapy department to treat these injuries. The devices available in the department cover all areas of the body. They are designed to treat with mobilisation, stabilisation and retraining.
Though the initial pain and suffering improve with these simple measures and physiotherapy treatment, the long term recovery depends on detection and treatment of major injuries. These major injuries often feel like minor injuries after rehabilitation. However the key to return to sports and normality relies on recognising these as needing further treatment.
Hence we need experts who can diagnose and be able to treat them with the modern treatment methods. At KMC Speciality Hospital, we have surgeons trained and practiced abroad in treating these injuries. Treating them with modern treatment methods practiced in western countries is the key for getting back to normality.
Modern methods of treatment of the sports injuries often involve keyhole surgery to the joints. This is called Arthroscopic Surgery. Arthroscopy started as far as back in 1910s, though the treatment with this technique was possible after 1970s in Japan.
The Advanced Ortho Care at KMC Speciality Hospital has a dedicated state of the art High Definition Arthroscope with HD monitor for excellent visualisation and treatment of the injured part. The supportive power instruments, electronically controlled pump system and Radiofrequency Ablation techniques are at par with the most advanced hospitals in the world.
The problems, which can be treated with these Arthroscopic techniques, are many and can only be listed as a guide as follows.
1. Cartilage injuries of the knee: Meniscus Injuries in the knee and Wrist cartilage injuries
2. Ligament Injuries: Anterior and Posterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries in the knee
3. Tendon injuries of the muscles in the shoulder: Rotator Cuff Injuries and SLAP lesions
4. Recurrent Dislocations: Dislocations of the shoulder and kneecap, which often recur in young sports people
5. Recurrent and persistent pain in joints: Impingement of the joints, which affect mostly shoulders, ankles and elbow
6. Post trauma stiffness of the joints
7. Instabilities of the joints: shoulders and ankles
8. Infections of joints
9. Arthroscopic fusions of joints especially ankle
The technical expertise in delivering the treatment methods listed above is as important as the facility available in our Hospital. The surgeons who deliver this World Class treatment have not only acquired these skills in countries around the world, but also have been practising surgeons in UK before their return to their homeland Trichy.
Some of the other Advanced Ortho treatment Methods provided at KMC Speciality Hospital are as follows
1. Joint Replacements of Knee, Hip, Shoulder, Elbow and Ankle using imported implants with international standards [Swedish, UK and Australian Standard]
2. Partial joint replacements with implants originating from Oxford,UK.
3. World Class treatment methods of simple and major Trauma using principles of international Swiss [AO] and American Standards [ATLS]
4. Treatment of Pelvic, Acetabular and Spinal Injuries
5. Treatment of deformities in Children with Ponseti Method [Canada]
6. Treatment of complex trauma and deformities using Russian Technique [Ilizarov technique]
7. Treatment of Fractures in Children using French Technique [Nancy]
Warm Regards
Chockalingam
Sports is becoming more of a passion as much as a hobby in our Country. Winning World level events has attracted more of our young boys and girls to partake in sports and even take this as their profession. As each profession carries its risks, sports poses us the biggest risk to these young generation in the form of injuries.
Injuries in sports mostly affect the musculoskeletal system. The muscles, tendons, bones and the joints are the components of this system. The joints are complex structures having cartilage, ligaments attached to the bone through soft tissues.
Most sports injuries are managed initially with the following fundamental principles. Remember the mnemonic RICE whenever one gets injured. Rest the injured part, apply Ice, apply Compression and Elevate the injured part. The practice of applying warmth in the form of hot water pack/bottle to the injured part is not recommended.
Physiotherapists either at the sports arena or at the hospital can treat majority of minor injuries to the muscles and tendons. The spasm associated with the muscle and tendon injuries can be treated with stretching and local treatment as described above. Some of these injuries especially the minor ligament injuries need rehabilitation by attending a dedicated physiotherapy department.
KMC Speciality Hospital has a dedicated Physiotherapy department to treat these injuries. The devices available in the department cover all areas of the body. They are designed to treat with mobilisation, stabilisation and retraining.
Though the initial pain and suffering improve with these simple measures and physiotherapy treatment, the long term recovery depends on detection and treatment of major injuries. These major injuries often feel like minor injuries after rehabilitation. However the key to return to sports and normality relies on recognising these as needing further treatment.
Hence we need experts who can diagnose and be able to treat them with the modern treatment methods. At KMC Speciality Hospital, we have surgeons trained and practiced abroad in treating these injuries. Treating them with modern treatment methods practiced in western countries is the key for getting back to normality.
Modern methods of treatment of the sports injuries often involve keyhole surgery to the joints. This is called Arthroscopic Surgery. Arthroscopy started as far as back in 1910s, though the treatment with this technique was possible after 1970s in Japan.
The Advanced Ortho Care at KMC Speciality Hospital has a dedicated state of the art High Definition Arthroscope with HD monitor for excellent visualisation and treatment of the injured part. The supportive power instruments, electronically controlled pump system and Radiofrequency Ablation techniques are at par with the most advanced hospitals in the world.
The problems, which can be treated with these Arthroscopic techniques, are many and can only be listed as a guide as follows.
1. Cartilage injuries of the knee: Meniscus Injuries in the knee and Wrist cartilage injuries
2. Ligament Injuries: Anterior and Posterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries in the knee
3. Tendon injuries of the muscles in the shoulder: Rotator Cuff Injuries and SLAP lesions
4. Recurrent Dislocations: Dislocations of the shoulder and kneecap, which often recur in young sports people
5. Recurrent and persistent pain in joints: Impingement of the joints, which affect mostly shoulders, ankles and elbow
6. Post trauma stiffness of the joints
7. Instabilities of the joints: shoulders and ankles
8. Infections of joints
9. Arthroscopic fusions of joints especially ankle
The technical expertise in delivering the treatment methods listed above is as important as the facility available in our Hospital. The surgeons who deliver this World Class treatment have not only acquired these skills in countries around the world, but also have been practising surgeons in UK before their return to their homeland Trichy.
Some of the other Advanced Ortho treatment Methods provided at KMC Speciality Hospital are as follows
1. Joint Replacements of Knee, Hip, Shoulder, Elbow and Ankle using imported implants with international standards [Swedish, UK and Australian Standard]
2. Partial joint replacements with implants originating from Oxford,UK.
3. World Class treatment methods of simple and major Trauma using principles of international Swiss [AO] and American Standards [ATLS]
4. Treatment of Pelvic, Acetabular and Spinal Injuries
5. Treatment of deformities in Children with Ponseti Method [Canada]
6. Treatment of complex trauma and deformities using Russian Technique [Ilizarov technique]
7. Treatment of Fractures in Children using French Technique [Nancy]
Warm Regards
Chockalingam
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Money and Health, the conundrum!
Money is something we find as a commodity to have our life go smoothly. we start saving it by various means.this could be a current account, savings account, investment account, fixed assets such as land and assets such as gold. We spend time acquiring this to be able to spend them at some time. The spending is meant to give us worldly pleasures. This could be something like spending money to buy a nice Television so that we could enjoy watching something we enjoy.
We also know that we need to be healthy to be able to enjoy the worldly pleasures. The importance of health is though not as well transparent to our thoughts as money's importance. Healthy persons are able to live without pain and suffering and hence can be quite happy even if they have less money.
We know that we cannot take money and its various forms to where our soul go after we are rest to peace at the end of our life. hence we see some people denounce the need of money to and give importance to health. we see them suffering in some way as money's importance soon becomes apparent.
Money is also needed to keep yourself healthy. for example we need money to be able to buy good fruits and healthy food to keep us healthy. being healthy helps us to be able to get more money. for example, if one is healthy, he is able to get more work and do more work and hence can command more money.
Should one give more importance to money or health. A conundrum indeed!
The answer lies in somewhere in the middle. May be Being Healthy will win over Being Wealthy to most people when cornered into answering one over the other. however no one can not deny the fact that having some wealth is essential to be able to survive and be happy when you have good health.
I am then working on a model to be able to combine these into one in one way for a common man approach for us to follow in real life.
I will elaborate in my next blog.
Meanwhile i have not forgotten to follow up my other blog on traffic and speed awareness!
Warm Regards
Chockalingam
We also know that we need to be healthy to be able to enjoy the worldly pleasures. The importance of health is though not as well transparent to our thoughts as money's importance. Healthy persons are able to live without pain and suffering and hence can be quite happy even if they have less money.
We know that we cannot take money and its various forms to where our soul go after we are rest to peace at the end of our life. hence we see some people denounce the need of money to and give importance to health. we see them suffering in some way as money's importance soon becomes apparent.
Money is also needed to keep yourself healthy. for example we need money to be able to buy good fruits and healthy food to keep us healthy. being healthy helps us to be able to get more money. for example, if one is healthy, he is able to get more work and do more work and hence can command more money.
Should one give more importance to money or health. A conundrum indeed!
The answer lies in somewhere in the middle. May be Being Healthy will win over Being Wealthy to most people when cornered into answering one over the other. however no one can not deny the fact that having some wealth is essential to be able to survive and be happy when you have good health.
I am then working on a model to be able to combine these into one in one way for a common man approach for us to follow in real life.
I will elaborate in my next blog.
Meanwhile i have not forgotten to follow up my other blog on traffic and speed awareness!
Warm Regards
Chockalingam
Monday, May 2, 2011
Traffic awareness and Speed awareness
This is a subject quite close to my heart. Trauma is called an accident in India often meaning this was unexpected. this gives a implication that one can feel sorry for the event and the persons involved in the accident. This is quite the opposite to what is true. most trauma incidents and if not all can be predicted and preventable. the western countries have worked on this so well that most accidents are prevented.
the problem in a country like India had always been traffic awareness or the lack of it. however the present scenario of lack of speed awarenss complicates in a significant way. the same lack of traffic awareness with low speed and high speed have different implications with the resultant severity of injury quite high.
this is recognised in a country like UK where the stress on speed awareness is given a huge thrust on public education even when the traffic awareness is high
I will continue in my next blog and elaborate
the problem in a country like India had always been traffic awareness or the lack of it. however the present scenario of lack of speed awarenss complicates in a significant way. the same lack of traffic awareness with low speed and high speed have different implications with the resultant severity of injury quite high.
this is recognised in a country like UK where the stress on speed awareness is given a huge thrust on public education even when the traffic awareness is high
I will continue in my next blog and elaborate
Dental Camp at our school at Sreenivasapuram, Lalgudi
The Sugam Charity organised a dental camp with the help of Dr Iyyappan Shankar and his team from Dencity at KMC Speciality hospital and Dr Navarasu Dental Surgeon from Poovalur. The supporting volunteers were C Rajamanickam, Mrs Maragatham,chockalingam, Rajamanickam friend and his family. there was a hiccup with tamil nadu electricity board supply with unexpected stoppage of electricity. Generator was organised by Gandhimathinathan with his friend and the camp presentation started. there was a presentation by the dentists on how to care for the teeth to the children and their parents. dental check up was done for over ninety children, most of them underprivileged. a comprehensive assessment and advice was given. it was nice to see young dentists enjoying themselves in this cause of health education and awareness. please note that i am not calling this as service as i do not think it as a free service, rather it is the duty of everyone.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Charity work in Bangalore
Dear Everyone, i had a chance to partake in a charitable event in Bangalore. we were more than fifteen consultant surgeons from UK and India. we did consultation and operated on more than seventy quite disabled and socially disadvantaged children from different parts of Karnataka and Adjacent states. the experience was moving even for me who deals with patients with problems. some of the operations we did were quite complex and not done routinely in India. hence it needed the expertise of people from UK
I will post some photos soon
It gave inspiration to us who are already involved in charitable event.
visit www.sugamcharity.org
we need to mobilise money and people if we want to progress in the work we already do
comments please
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