HealthFirst Talks

With COVID-19 cases, deaths, and hospitalizations rising, what role will influenza play this season? Will all the extra precautions reduce flu numbers? And how is the story of COVID-19 and the flu playing out in practices? Answering these questions and more are three medical experts: Dr. Scott Cohen, Chief Medical Information Officer and Chief Performance Improvement Officer for Bassett Healthcare Network, Dr. John Graham, physician and orthodontist practicing in Salt Lake City, and Dr. Fiona Collins, dentist and international speaker and author. 

On this episode of HealthFirst Talks, host Grace Huang welcomes two medical expert guests to discuss the different COVID-19 tests, their efficacy, and what test to use in different scenarios. Those guests are Dr. Scott Cohen, Chief Medical Information Officer and Chief Performance Improvement Officer for Bassett Healthcare Network, and Dr. Fiona Collins, dentist and international speaker and author.

On today’s episode of the Healthcare podcast brought to you by Marketscale, host Sean Heath is getting a crash course on medical crash carts from HealthFirst’s marketing and product manager Lynda Goodrich.

Since 1971, Washington-based HealthFirst has been providing dental and medical offices cost-effective solutions for medical emergency preparedness, infection control, medical waste, and regulatory compliance. HealthFirst offers an automated medication replenishment system for crash carts and crash kits that contain emergency medication and equipment for life support protocols in a patient medical emergency.

While crash carts are always found in hospitals and acute care facilities, Lynda points out that medical emergencies happen everywhere. “Crashes don’t only happen to patients in hospitals,” Lynda said. “They can happen anywhere at any time. Parking lot, shopping mall, aircraft… crash carts are a necessity in hospitals but I would argue they’re a necessity elsewhere – especially in all medical and dental practices.”

While a hospital may have a crash cart routinely restocked and checked by an on-site pharmacist, a smaller, non-acute care facility may have a smaller, less-used crash kit containing similar medications. These medications often expire before they are used. They can also be prone to manufacturer recalls. Manually checking those crash kits takes a lot of manual time and labor, something that can be solved with technology.

“You can log onto OnTraq, for example, and see all of your expiration dates and your lot numbers in case of a national recall, but it also helps eliminate human error,” Lynda said. “Plus, OnTraq’s proprietary automatic replenishment system will monitor those expiration dates and automatically send a replacement medication prior to expiration."

Visits to the dentist’s office are already stressful enough, without considering the emergencies that can and do happen in routine dental procedures. Allergic reactions, fainting, asthma attacks, and even heart attacks are not entirely uncommon, explains guest Damon Matlon, Product Manager for HealthFirst. Marketscale’s Healthcare Podcast explores how dental offices prepare for these emergencies with guest Matlon. The consequences of having unprepared emergency kits can be grave, but Matlon divulges a simple solution to the problem.

What’s more, the annual one-time fee includes free online courses and trainings on their medical kits, eligible for CE credits. The course covers administering the medications in the kit, including emergency oxygen. Other courses, like bloodborne pathogens training, the blood born pathogen, keep office staff learned in on top of mandatory skills and knowledge.

Dental offices can take this task off their plate with the aid of HealthFirst’s Practice Partner Program. With just one flat yearly fee, HealthFirst provides up-to-date medical kits to dental offices all over the country. HealthFirst tracks and replenishes these drugs, staying atop recalls and expirations and sourcing drugs from safe suppliers in the pharmaceutical supply chain.

What’s more, the one-time fee includes free online courses and trainings on their medical kits, eligible for CE credits. The course covers administering the medications in the kit, including emergency oxygen. Other courses, like the blood born pathogen, keep office staff learned in mandatory skills and knowledge.

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