Welcoming Hollywood into your hospital

By Jim Beardsworth,

Director, Marketing Communications

Kent Hospital

Kent Hospital - a Care New England Health System hospital in Warwick, RI - recently had the chance to participate in a Hollywood film production for the movie "Bleed for This," the true story of world champion Rhode Island boxer Vinny Pazienza and his recovery from a near-fatal car accident to winning three additional world championships.

Film scouts reached out to Kent marketing staff in late October, a request that prompted some quick but important discussions with hospital leadership, department managers, whose staff and service areas would be impacted, as well as Care New England Marketing. The formal proposal from the production company included details of the specific sites and logistics. It was quickly decided that this was a great opportunity to showcase the hospital while helping the production company ground the movie in the actual location where Pazienza received his care in late 1991. Kent President and COO Michael Dacey, MD, approved the plan and signed the final contract after it was reviewed and amended by CNE legal.

The specifics of the request were worked out through close discussions between Marketing Communications staff, representatives of key hospital departments and movie scouts. The biggest concern was how best to minimize patient impact during filming. This was successfully managed by scheduling most of the shoot after hours to accommodate OR scenes and by using closed patient care floors and other locations where there was little to no patient and visitor interaction.

From a public relations standpoint, the filming generated some nice local media publicity for the hospital. In addition, it helped create goodwill and staff pride, especially since it is expected that there will be some exterior shots of the hospital with the large Kent logo featured in the movie. Kent's participation also represented being part of a bigger community and statewide project. The film is being shot entirely in Rhode Island and is directed by Ben Younger and produced by Bruce Cohen (Silver Linings Playbook) and local Chad Verdi. Martin Scorsese is an executive producer. It stars Miles Teller, Katey Sagal, Aaron Eckhart, Ted Levine and Ciaran Hinds. It is expected to be in theaters next summer.

Finding the Right Words

By Roxanne Jones, Hurley Communications
 

It's cold and flu season! In this Monday Minutes post, here are some plain-language equivalents to terms and phrases often used in health communications with patients - and parents of young patients - when talking about colds, the flu and related respiratory problems like asthma or pneumonia.

This Week: Health Terms Relating to Colds and the Flu

Antibiotic - medicine that fights infection caused by bacteria (a type of germ)

Anti-inflammatory - medicine that reduces pain and swelling

Anti-viral - medicine that fights viruses like the flu

Asthma - a lung disease that makes it hard to breathe

Attenuated vaccine - a shot of medicine that has a weakened form of a virus in it to help build up your ability to fight off a disease

Bronchodilator �- medicine that helps you breathe easier

Contagious - catching, spreading, able to make others sick

Corticosteroids - asthma medicine

Cough etiquette - how to cough or sneeze to prevent spreading germs

Expectorate - cough, spit out

Febrile - having or showing signs of a fever, feeling hot or flushed

Hand hygiene - hand washing to prevent spreading germs

Immunize - to protect against disease, usually with a shot (immunization) Incubation period - how long a disease is in your body before you look or feel sick

Inhaler - a machine that helps get medicine into the lungs to help you breathe better

Mucus - fluid in the nose and mouth

Nebulizer - a machine that delivers medicine into the airways as a fine mist

Pneumonia - a lung infection

Pulmonary - related to the lungs

Respiration - breathing

Quarantine - staying home by yourself/staying away from other people when you are sick to help prevent spreading an illness

Spirometer - breathing test, test to measure breathing strength

Upper respiratory system - nose, throat and windpipe

Vaccine/Vaccination - a shot, an immunization

Vaccinate - to protect against disease using a shot

To learn more, check out the CDC's Plain Language Thesaurus that offers equivalents to a wide range of medical terms and phrases.

Announcing the 2015 Webinar Series

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital

A discussion with author Sheri Fink, MD 

Thursday, January 29, 2015

9-10 am

BE OUR GUEST! Non members please join us for the first webinar of the year. Enter the discount code GUEST on the payment page to join us for free. 

Buy the book here 
(You do not have to read the book to participate in this webinar)

Join physician and author Sheri Fink, MD who will discuss her New York Time best seller Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospitalfor this riveting discussion. After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers chose to designate certain patients last for rescue. Months later, several health professionals faced criminal allegations that they deliberately injected numerous patients with drugs to hasten their deaths. Five Days at Memorial, the culmination of six years of reporting, unspools the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing the reader into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing.

About the Presenter 

Sheri Fink is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital (Crown, 2013), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction, the Ridenhour Book Prize, the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Fink's news reporting has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the National Magazine Award, and the Overseas Press Club Lowell Thomas Award, among other journalism prizes. A former relief worker in disaster and conflict zones, Fink received her M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. Her first book, War Hospital: A True Story of Surgery and Survival (Public Affairs), is about medical professionals under siege during the genocide in Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina. She is a correspondent at the New York Times.