CEO message: we are accredited
This month is special because we have achieved something significant and worth celebrating. BC Children's Hospital, Sunny Hill and the Child & Adolescent Mental Health program managed by BC Mental Health & Addiction Services, and BC Women's have officially received accreditation status from Accreditation Canada.
Accreditation Canada worked with our organization to strive for a high standard of excellence. They evaluated the quality of care and service we provide and, in participating in this accreditation process, we are showing to our patients and clients that we are committed to excellence in health care service delivery.
This accreditation is an important status that we've obtained and my congratulations go out to all leaders and employees for achieving this. It involved hard work and a thorough process for our organization and patients. Larry Gold, President, BC Children’s and Sunny Hill, and his employees did a considerable amount of work to ensure high-quality service and patient care.
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New research shows shaken baby awareness works
New studies recently released in Canada and the US show that education and awareness campaigns to prevent shaken baby syndrome are helping mothers better deal with infant crying. One study looked at mothers in Seattle and is featured in the March issue of Pediatrics. Another partner study conducted in Vancouver appears in this month's Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Both studies were randomized controlled trials of "The Period of PURPLE Crying," an educational program that includes a 12-minute DVD and information booklet. In the Seattle study, Dr. Rivara was joined by Dr. Ronald Barr, lead author of both studies and director of community child health at the Child & Family Research Institute and professor of pediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, and Marilyn Barr, executive director of the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome.
Vancouver mothers who received the PURPLE materials scored six per cent higher in knowledge about crying, were 13 per cent more likely to share information with caregivers about coping with inconsolable crying, 12.9 per cent more likely to share information about the dangers of shaking, and 7.6 per cent more likely to share information about crying.
National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome
Celebrating our kidneys
March 12 marked World Kidney Day and the BC Renal Agency took the opportunity to raise awareness about kidney disease and how these special organs play a vital role in the maintenance of good health.
In British Columbia, up to one in 30 people have chronic kidney disease, a potentially life-threatening condition, and most of them don’t even know they have the illness.
Known as the body’s master chemist, the kidneys remove wastes from the body (by filtering over 200 litres of blood a day), regulate the levels of water and minerals in the body and produce hormones that control important body functions. If the kidneys stop functioning, the body can’t survive, and dialysis or a transplant is required.
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Government invests in cardiac services
Cardiac services at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH) will be implemented by 2012. This record level of investment in health facilities in the Interior – and across the province – includes major upgrades to Kelowna General Hospital and Vernon Jubilee Hospital.
It is also expected that the new cardiac centre will provide more timely access to care and help reduce trips from the Southern Interior to the Lower Mainland for around 1,600 patients annually who need critical care.
While the permanent program is being designed and built, Interior Health will make upgrades to existing facilities at KGH to begin providing cardiac procedures by 2010, with heart surgery starting in 2012, at an estimated cost of up to $27 million. This program will, when fully operational, see more than 600 cardiac surgeries performed along with almost 1,000 percutaneous coronary intervention procedures, also known as angioplasties.
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Universal vaccination effective
Universal childhood vaccination against meningococcal C appears to reduce the incidence of the most deadly strain of bacterial meningitis in Canada, reports new research published in the March issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.
The meningococcal C vaccine was introduced as part of universal immunization programs for children in Quebec and Alberta in 2002 and in British Columbia and Prince Edward Island in 2003.
By 2005, all Canadian provinces included "men C" vaccine as part of routine childhood vaccinations. Staggered implementation across Canada offered researchers the opportunity to evaluate the universal vaccination program and there was a dramatic decline of the illness in the provinces that had the early immunization program.
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