Entries Tagged 'medical Equipt. & Instruments' ↓

The hospital compound is submerged in five feet of water, ambulances have stopped working and the only mode of transport inside is donkey carts. PHOTO: ZEESHAN KHAN/EXPRESS

MIRPURKHAS: 

Civil Hospital, Mirpurkhas, and the doctors’ residential quarters that surround it, are a bizarre archipelago in a 13-acre sea of rainwater.

Gulab, a resident of the Digri Tehsil waded through torrents of floodwater to get to the hospital located in the centre of Mirpurkhas City bearing his six-year-old daughter suffering from pneumonia.

Upon reaching the gate, he hired a donkey cart waiting there in order to cross a moat of rain, river and sewerage water only to be told that the hospital is unable to treat chest congestion and he would have to take her to Hyderabad, Lal Batti, instead.

From the main gate to the hospital, the water stands at about five feet, while the floor of the hospital is hidden under a layer of muck.

The ambulances gave way as water soaked into their engines.

A makeshift ramp has been constructed for stretchers and gurneys and a pair of donkey carts have been hired by the hospital to transport their staff inside. The patients, on the other hand, have to pay Rs10 per head for each trip to and from the gate and the hospital. Critical patients – particularly those with heart problems – do not survive the bumpy trip.

Though it is the district’s civil hospital, people from the Tharparkar, Sanghar, Umarkot, Mirpurkhas and Tando Allahyar districts all travel here and about 3,000 patients are treated daily.

Gulab was turned away from the last functioning ward of the hospital that housed a total of 100 people – doctors included.

There are about 1.5 million people living in Mirpurkhas district alone. like Gulab’s daughter, the majority of patients have to be turned away because the hospital’s supply of medicines and technology has severely been affected. others simply cannot stomach the filth that fills the wards.

Nearby, there is an area known as new Town where there are about six private medical centres. The queues outside these clinics are longer than those outside ration distribution centres as people line up, prepared to pay private bills for medical attention.

Strangely enough, the road outside is not flooded – roughly 20 days after the rains stopped, only the hospital compound remains flooded. It is one of the areas, including Mirpurkhas, Digri, Diplo and Sanghar, where water remains.

Efforts to drain the civil hospital in Sanghar have been abandoned altogether and an emergency centre in an adjoining shop has been setup to help patients in need of urgent medical care.

Meanwhile, the Mirpurkhas hospital management, taluka municipal administration and district management are too busy pushing the responsibility of draining the hospital off on each other to actually make any headway towards getting the water out.

Their homes flooded and belongings destroyed, even the paramedics and doctors living in the hospital compound have shifted away. Probably the only upside is that the electricity supply is still up and, during load-shedding, the hospital generators are also functioning. not to be overlooked either is the dedication of the doctors who wait at the gate for patients, working with what little they have.

In the days that have passed since the water flowed down from the saltwater drain to the left of the district, sewerage from the hospital has mixed into the water. The doctors say that the sanitation problem is so bad that they are not even sure what kind of diseases are spreading in the hospital. The most common complaints, after gastroenteritis and malaria, are skin diseases. Swimming through the stew of sewerage, rainwater and mud are fish weighing up to 200 grammes. According to social worker Kanji Dheel, the situation is worsened by certain influential landlords who are draining their agricultural lands and sending the water towards Mirpurkhas City.

with additional writing by husna anwar

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28th, 2011.

Annual event will feature a keynote address from Luke Visconti, Chief Executive Officer of DiversityInc Media LLC.

August 16, 2011 08:08 AM Eastern Daylight Time 

RICHMOND, Va.–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–Owens & Minor, inc. (NYSE:OMI) will host its 6th Annual Healthcare Supplier Diversity Symposium on September 13-14, 2011, in Richmond, Virginia. this year’s symposium is expected to draw approximately 400 participants, including leaders from businesses owned by women, minorities, and veterans, as well as representatives from major healthcare systems, medical device and product manufacturers, pharmaceutical firms, healthcare distributors, academia and government. the theme of this year’s symposium is “From Inclusion to Partnership: Delivering Value through Supplier Diversity,” and it will explore ways to improve utilization of diverse suppliers in the healthcare supply chain. Joining Owens & Minor in hosting the event are the Virginia Minority Supplier Development Council (VMSDC), the Healthcare Supplier Diversity Alliance (HSDA), and the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE).

“from Inclusion to Partnership: Delivering Value through Supplier Diversity”

the symposium will be held on Wednesday, September 14, 2011, at the Greater Richmond Convention Center in historic downtown Richmond. As in past years, the symposium will feature panel discussions, workshops and networking opportunities for the diversity-business leaders and healthcare company executives, policy makers, academics and government representatives.

A reception and dinner will be held at the Convention Center on the evening of Tuesday, September 13, 2011, with keynote speaker Luke Visconti, chief executive officer of DiversityInc Media LLC. Visconti, who founded DiversityInc Media LLC in 1998, is a frequent lecturer on the business benefits of diversity to corporations, business groups and non-profit organizations. As CEO, he directs all editorial and business operations of the publication, as well as events and the company’s consulting practice. Visconti, who earned his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University, was on active duty with the U.S. Navy from 1982 to 1990 as a naval aviator and commissioned officer, and served in the reserves until 1992.

“At Owens & Minor, we understand that we serve an industry that grows increasingly more diverse every year,” said Craig R. Smith, president & chief executive officer of Owens & Minor. “Our healthcare provider customers, suppliers and vendors are led by a wide range of healthcare professionals, and together we serve an increasingly diverse patient population. therefore, at Owens & Minor, we know it makes good business sense to expand the range and diversity of our business partners, as this strategy will ultimately benefit the healthcare industry as a whole.”

On September 14, the day-long symposium will feature networking opportunities, panel discussions, breakout sessions, and a luncheon with panel speakers Cynda Ann Johnson, MD, president and founding dean of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, and Tonya Mallory, chief executive officer and co-founder of Health Diagnostic Laboratory, inc.

the format of the symposium allows the participants to interact with leaders from a variety of healthcare businesses, as well as representatives from leading healthcare providers, group purchasing organizations, manufacturers and distributors, policy makers, academics and key executives. the symposium organizers hope to raise awareness of the opportunities and challenges for supplier diversity in healthcare and to enhance development of diversity in organizations working within the healthcare supply chain.

In conjunction with this year’s Healthcare Supplier Diversity Symposium, the Richmond Region of Professional Women in Healthcare will host a gathering at the Virginia War Memorial Monday, September 12, 2011, with keynote speaker Shirley Gibson, MSHA, RN, FACHE, associate vice president of nursing, VCU Health system. Gibson will lecture on “The Secrets to the Success of Living Your Dream,” rules for achieving happiness in life by doing what you love.

For more information about the symposium, please visit owens-minor.com. Owens & Minor uses its Web site as a channel of distribution for material company information, including news releases, investor presentations and financial information.

Owens & Minor, inc., (NYSE:OMI) a FORTUNE 500 company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a leading national distributor of name-brand medical and surgical supplies and a healthcare supply-chain management company. Owens & Minor is also a member of the Russell 2000® Index, which measures the performance of the small-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe, as well as the S&P MidCap 400, which includes companies with a market capitalization of $1 billion to $4.4 billion that meet certain financial standards. with a diverse product and service offering and distribution centers throughout the United States, the company serves hospitals, integrated healthcare systems, alternate site locations, group purchasing organizations, and the federal government. Owens & Minor provides technology and consulting programs that improve inventory management and streamline logistics across the entire medical supply chain – from origin of product to patient bedside. For news releases, or for more information about Owens & Minor, visit the company website at owens-minor.com.

Is there a single test that scans most of these areas?

Dont they do a test in Hospital where they place a scanning device into you to check most of these areas.I think its called a Colostomy.Excuse the spelling not a medical person.

Hi…..tell you what, it really depends on what you are scanning for and what you want to see. The MD won't want to scan an organ unless he is looking for something especially wrong with that organ. These scans cost a lot of money, so they aren't going to scan everything just to look at it.

An ultrasound can scan the organs, yet a CT scan can get inside of whatever you are looking at. yet, a CT scan can use either a dye or not, depending on what the MD is looking for.

See what I mean? There is nothing that will scan everything, nor will a MD want to do that.

I am an RN

well first of all is there a specific reason you want these areas scanned? it depends on what the problem and what the doctor may be looking for, there are mri scans, ultra sound, cat scans etc…. however these methods will only be used when required a doctor wont just preform these on request by a patient…

MRI,Vaginal UltraSound and Laprocopic surgery

A CAT scan would do the trick!it will scan the whole part of
your lower body!

CAT scan of the chest abdomen and pelvis.
Gall bladder ultra sound or abdominal ultrasound
Pelvic ultrasound or OB Pelvic ultrasound

The CAT scan is usually better, of course, this depends on the problem.