May 2008 Newsletter
Consultants in Dysphagia Evaluation and Management
817-514-MBS1 or 1-888-514-MBS1
May 2008
MAY IS BETTER SPEECH AND HEARING MONTH
Happy Mother’s Day!
Happy Memorial Day!
Remember our men and women that have sacrificed all to fight and maintain our freedom!
Clinical Café Newsletter
By: Ronda Polansky M.S. CCC-SLP
Monthly Motivator: Potential
Unlock your potential. The possibility for growth and expansion is inside us all.
Upcoming Summer DiagnosTEX CEU Conference – STRATEGIZE WITH STRATEGIES!
Location and date to be determined soon
Better Speech and Hearing Month – Beginning the last week in April and for several weeks in May, more than 15 million weekly listeners of National Public Radio’s (NPR) Morning Edition and The Diane Rehm Show, will hear 10-second radio spots that mention ASHA, May is Better Hearing and Speech Month, and ASHA’s Web site.
Dates to remember this month
National Day of Prayer – May 1
National Nurses Day – May 6
National Hug Holiday Week – May 4-10 – www.hugs4health.org
National Nursing Home Week – May 11-17th – www.nnhw.org
National Hospital and Healthcare Week – May 11-17th
National American Stroke Month
DiagnosTEX Holiday –DiagnosTEX will observe Memorial Day on Monday, May 26th. Please keep this in mind when scheduling your MBSS around that time. Thank you. We have veterans working for DiagnosTEX and we honor them as well as those who have and are currently sacrificing for our freedom!
Scheduling around Dialysis – We do our very best to provide you with efficient, timely, and the highest quality MBS studies! Please be aware that if there are specific time requests or a specific day of the week requested for your MBSS, we can not ensure that day that particular week or scheduling in 24-48 hours due to the complex scheduling of our 3 vans with so many facilities in so many locations across the DFW map. Please notify your patient/families and facility staff that time/day restrictions and limitations may delay scheduling the patient’s study several days whether they are at a facility or a home health. Another time restriction that becomes difficult to schedule is Dialysis schedules. In my many, many years of doing these, I have never seen so many patients receiving dialysis. I would say close to 40% of the patients we schedule are on dialysis, requiring only certain days they are available to schedule, but when you have 5-6 dialysis schedules to work around on a pending list, in addition to other scheduling restrictions from facilities, SLPs or families, which are spread all across the DFW map, the MBSS can be delayed due to many scheduling conflicts. We service numerous acute care and specialty hospitals and we know there are many critical and fragile patients, and of course each facility feels their patient is of highest priority, and we do believe they are all a priority. Due to being a mobile unit and the very high gas prices, we group our studies for each van for travel ease, timeliness, and reasonable grouped areas, for example: Fort Worth, South Dallas (Waxahachie, Desoto, Lancaster, etc), North Texas (Denton, Gainesville, etc.), North Dallas (Plano, Richardson, Garland, etc.). We continue to strive for our high standard of timely efficient scheduling! If your facility cancels an MBSS schedule for a particular day or declines a scheduled time or day, this pending MBSS will go back on the list as if the request just came in. Therefore, it will be another 24-48 hours (approximately), before we will be able to reschedule. Also please be aware that 24 -48 hours is a standard we STRIVE very hard to maintain, but this is not a guarantee, only a very passionate effort by all of the DiagnosTEX staff.
DVD’s vs. VCR Videos
Video copies of the MBSS are part of the medical record. Some are used for education of patients and families, but we also know it takes up a lot of storage room. You should check out ours! We have been asking SLP’s we service if they would prefer DVD’s or VCR. We have had requests for both, but we are also hearing that many are never reviewed again. DiagnosTEX will start offering DVD or VCR tapes as a choice soon, we will also ask if you would like to receive a copy of the MBSS. If you decline to receive a copy at the time of the study, and request a copy at a later date, there will be an extra charge for copying the study and mailing the medical record to you. We hope you will be happy about these new choices and this helps eliminate any storage issues for you as well.
Home Health
Starting in this month of May, DiagnosTEX will start charging a travel and convenience fee to all Home Health Agencies for each home health patient we see. Due to increasing current fuel costs and the wide spread locations of home health visits, this fee has become necessary. We apologize for the inconvenience but the cost of fuel for operating a mobile clinic necessitates this decision. Notification of this new fee will be sent to all Home Health Agencies we service.
Dysphagia Tidbit – New product – Aqua Thick This is a ready-to-drink thickened water, available in nectar and honey consistencies. It maintains its original consistency whether heated, cooled, or frozen. Coffee, tea, powdered mixes, frozen juice concentrate, and other beverages can be made with the AQUA THICK without presence of grittiness or aftertaste. It is clear, not cloudy. It is sugar free so clinically supports healthy blood sugar levels and the highest hydration rate. Check it out online at www.aquathick.com