One year later: PHS’s Medical Director reports on his role in helping to keep kids thriving at home
Like PHS’s kids, Dr. Roy Maynard transitioned from the hospital to join the ranks of PHS. In January 2010, he became the PHS on-site Medical Director—bringing 18 years of experience as a neonatologist and pediatric pulmonologist to the company and the families it serves.
Here’s what Dr. Maynard has to say about the past year’s activities and his role in helping to enhance the safety and quality of care at home:
Leading infection control committee efforts
Policies and procedures applicable to homecare patients are reviewed on a monthly basis. Guidelines for hand washing, equipment cleaning and sterilization are implemented in compliance with The Joint Commission. CDC recommendations for immunization of healthcare workers are examined and communicated to PHS staff. Ongoing review of central line bloodstream infections in PHS home IV infusion patients continues to demonstrate infection rates much lower than reported hospital infection rates.
Heading up the tracheobronchitis study
The PHS infection control committee helped launch a pilot study last October to examine the incidence and management of tracheobronchitis in trach dependent patients in the PHS community. This study, which will be completed in 2011, will provide valuable information on the standard of care in managing this recurrent problem in tracheostomized patients.
Facilitating NEIP committee
Working with the committee that reviews all new equipment acquisitions for PHS has given me a lot of information about durable medical equipment and the logistical issues in acquiring, stocking and getting these products paid for by insurances providers.
This past year, a novel new ventilator series made by Respironics (Trilogy Series) has made significant inroads in our ventilator dependent infant population. The trilogy ventilator has, and continues to offer a replacement for a previous and aging infant ventilator no longer in production. PHS respiratory therapists also have been successful in adapting this ventilator to “sip and puff” mode for neuromuscular patients with respiratory involvement. See more information on the Trilogy vent in our Spring 2010 Pulse issue here.
Providing educational programs
I provided quarterly lectures for clinical staff on the following topics: cystic fibrosis, enzyme replacement therapy, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and pediatric neuromuscular diseases. These lectures provide CME credits for staff and reinforce their knowledge base to better care for patients with these diseases. View the PowerPoint’s on the News/Media Page under presentations.
PHS recently added Private Duty Nursing to its service offerings, which led to other educational offerings. We address the importance of communicating with health care providers with our homecare nurses to optimize the quality of information about a patient’s status when communicating with the on-call physician. We also have discussions with the private duty nurses on different diagnoses and the associated problems they may encounter with specific patient assignments—helping them to troubleshoot potential clinical scenarios.
Do you have any comments or questions for Dr. Maynard? Would you like to know more about any of the activities mentioned above? We’d love to hear from you.
Dr. Roy Maynard, M.D., is the Medical Director for PHS. He practices as a Neonatologist and Pediatric Pulmonologist at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics in Minneapolis, Minn, and is board-certified by the American Academy of Pediatrics in general pediatrics, pediatric pulmonology and neonatology.