With Flying Colors
AMR-Sonoma Life Support, the county’s division of American Medical Response (AMR), received a perfect score of 100 in its re-accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation Of Ambulance Services (CAAS). AMR-Sonoma is one of 20 ambulance services to be accredited in California, and the only one in Sonoma County.
The commission is an independent, nonprofit organization established to encourage and promote patient care in America’s medical transport system. It created national standards addressing patient delivery, the ambulance’s service operations and the relationships between ambulances and the hospitals they service. The commission’s standards often exceed state or local licensing requirements.
The accreditation process is completely voluntary and is reviewed every three years. To date, 159 agencies have successfully gone through CAAS accreditation.
“[This accreditation] represents our dedication to our patients and community,” says Dean Anderson, regional director of AMR, in a press release. “We continuously strive to do our best, and we view accreditation as independent verification of excellence. Our staff has been key to our successful completion of the process.”
New App Aids Travel
Travel is hectic enough even when things go as planned. When things go wrong—especially when it’s
health related—it adds a whole other layer of stress. But travelers who download the free app Exigency to their smartphones will be able to instantly access locations, phone numbers and other detailed information for health care services, from pharmacies to emergency rooms, no matter where they travel in the United States.
Recently launched in Sonoma County, Exigency makes it possible for travelers and health care consumers to know where help can be found, such as which services are available 24 hours or when nearby pharmacies are open. The app also identifies resources close to your location for fastest access to medical supplies or symptom relief.
Designed for travelers to use throughout the year, Exigency helps with speeding along the treatment process for some of the most common medical problems during travel such as forgotten medications, allergic reactions, insect bites or broken bones. Having the ability to access remedies quickly can make travelling significantly less worrisome.
Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine to open in 2019
Kaiser Permanente has announced plans to open the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine in Southern California, as part of the organization’s ongoing effort to meet America’s demands for 21st century health care.
Physician education will include providing care beyond traditional medical settings, acknowledging the importance of collaboration and teamwork to inform treatment decisions and addressing disparities in health.
The Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine will teach advanced skills in decision-making, teamwork, the use of technology, evidenced-based medicine and communication tailored to specific populations.
Further, students will be taught advance work Kaiser Permanente already does in physician education—with more than 600 new physicians currently completing their residency programs at the organization’s hospitals, and several thousand more (from 50 affiliated programs) who complete a portion of their training at Kaiser Permanente each year.
The planning, design and implementation of the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine will be led by a multidisciplinary team of physician, health plan and operational leaders. Recruitment for the founding dean will begin this year and the school will welcome its first class of students in the fall of 2019.
