Spotlight – Radiology Department

In the modern hospital, where science and medicine work together to invent advanced new tools for screening and diagnosis, medical imaging techniques such as X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs have become such a regular fixture in patient evaluation that it is easy to forget how astounding the technology behind them has become. As image-guided therapy continues to improve, doctors enhance their diagnostic abilities, enabling them to save hundreds of thousands of lives each year. The Coast Plaza Radiology Department plays an integral role in this diagnostic process each and every day, offering highly specialized, full service patient care that adds ultrasound and nuclear medicine capability to the radiological arsenal listed above.

The science of medical imaging continues to grow in popularity because it provides doctors with accurate pictures of everything that exists beneath a patient’s skin, including bones, organs and surrounding internal structures. Using diverse procedures that include transmission, reflection, and emission imaging, doctors are now able to detect hidden diseases and pinpoint the slightest abnormalities in the human body at a glance. This allows them to diagnose patient problems with greater accuracy and identify potentially harmful issues in the early stages, when treatment is more effective.

But today’s advanced techniques are only as good as the specialists who master them. As the technology continues to improve, it is the responsibility of the radiologists to stay abreast of the cutting edge so that we can offer our patients the latest medical breakthroughs, such as our new GE LightSpeed 64 slice CT scanner, which can assess the health of a patient’s heart and lungs in less than five seconds. True to the task, the Coast Plaza Radiology Department is ready 24 hours a day, every day, to protect our patients by providing our doctors with the information they need to make the most accurate and timely diagnoses.

Get to Know the OVID Search Engine

Thanks in large part to the growth of the internet and continued advances in medical technology, the volume of data generated in the field of modern health care has increased exponentially over the last 2 decades. With so much to know, health care professionals must keep their eyes open as they scan this ever increasing pool of knowledge for actions and interventions that consistently result in good health outcomes for patients, otherwise known as evidence based practices (EBP).

To aid in this Herculean task, Coast Plaza Hospital has incorporated an internet based search engine, known as Ovid. Ovid is an electronic library that offers our employees access to a wide array of pertinent databases from around the world. To suit the needs of Coast Plaza Hospital, 36 hand picked professional nursing journals including the “Lippincott Manual of Nursing Practice” and “Topics in Emergency Medicine” were chosen. Also included is the “Advanced Emergency Nursing Journal,” “Journal of Emergency Nursing,” “American Journal of Nursing,” “C.I.N., Computers, Informatics nursing journal,” to name a few.

Located in each nursing station, all Coast Plaza Employees have unlimited access to OVID, and searching for journal articles is as easy as using the internet. A basic search can be run by using a clinical question or simple keywords, which then refer the user to articles with both abstracts and full text.

I am proud to introduce this new tool to our hospital and I am certain that its range will help to increase the effectiveness of every department. Its benefits are manifold, as OVID can be used to reference everything from clinical policies to medical procedures, while the systematic, scholarly and peer review articles will be effective for a range of in-service and educational purposes that will fortify the knowledge base of our nurses at Coast Plaza. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with this powerful base of information.

Changes to Coast Plaza Email Regulations

Effective immediately, all sensitive emails sent from the Coast Plaza Email Server will contain a disclaimer notification explaining the Coast Plaza encryption policy to the recipient. As you know, Coast Plaza Hospital takes the privacy of our patients very seriously, and going forward we will do everything in our power to comply with newly enacted “HITECH” guidelines regulating the electronic exchange of medical information afforded protection under HIPAA. As a result, recipients of such Coast Plaza emails will need to create an account in order to access any encrypted messages sent from a Coast Plaza employee.

The process is easy. Senders from Coast Plaza need only type the letters “PHI” (which stands for “patient health information”) in the subject line of the email. Recipients need only provide their current email address and a chosen password on a one-time basis, after which they will be able to retrieve any encrypted email from anyone within the hospital.

We understand that this is an extra step for all involved and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. However, we hope that you will agree with our effort to ensure that the privacy of our patients is upheld.

The Coast Plaza Clinical Laboratory

Also known as the Pathology Department, the Coast Plaza Clinical Laboratory performs a number of functions within the hospital, most notably providing a variety of information to assist physicians and other health care professionals in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases. The fields in which Coast Plaza laboratory tests are performed include bacteriology, biochemistry, histology, serology, and cytology.

Among its many functions, the Clinical Laboratory is responsible for overseeing the Coast Plaza Blood Bank. This service includes such blood related procedures as compatibility testing, preparation, and storage of blood before transfusion. Pathology services also fall under the jurisdiction of the laboratory, as the pathologist’s role is to examine all specimens and present reports on tissues removed from surgery procedures. Together, the Laboratory and Surgery departments coordinate efforts to maintain responsibility and oversight of standardized practices for tissue banking and storage, in an effort to remain in complete compliance with Federal and State regulatory authorities, the Joint Commission, the Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program (formerly the AOA), U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), and American Association of Tissue Banks (ATTB).

With such a wide range of responsibilities, the Coast Plaza Clinical Laboratory is an essential element in the care of every patient at the hospital. Under the leadership and directorship of the pathologist, the Clinical Lab has staff members that include medical technologists and lab assistants. Open 24/7, this department provides its full complement of services to both inpatient and outpatient clients, performing between 200 to 300 tests daily, with an estimated 400,000 outpatient and inpatient services rendered annually.

Free Weight Loss Seminar

On Tuesday, April 27th at 6:30 PM Coast Plaza Hospital will host a free weight-loss seminar entitled “What’s New in Weight-Loss Surgery.” Open to patients, employees and the general population alike, the seminar will take place in the Doctors Dining Room at Coast Plaza Hospital.

If you or someone you know is concerned with issues involving weight-loss, please feel free to drop by for a chance to talk with the surgeon, meet the program staff, discuss lifestyle changes with individuals who have lost 100 pounds or more, and enjoy a variety of healthy, heart friendly snacks. If you are ready to make a change, R.S.V.P. at 1-888-255-5678 today.