Healthcare Reform, a dinner topic for many Americans, has topped the headlines for 18+ months.  During this period, certain suggestions on reforming healthcare grabbed my attention.

Last week we focused on how polarized the pro’s and con’s on reform have become.  Although poignant, the arguments for and against were meant to stir emotions on this pressing issue.

So, this week we turn our attention to reform alternatives – beyond those typically proposed – to continue stirring the passion pot!

Proceedings’ Time Management

Let’s start with Mary R. Grealy’s, writer for Disruptive Women in Healthcare, first-hand opinion on how time was managed at the 2010 Healthcare Summit.  The title really sets the tone: “Missed Opportunities and the Mandate Dilemma.”

“I can’t help but believe that a valuable opportunity was squandered during the health reform legislative process.  This was a time for a dialogue between political leaders and the American people on the steps necessary to achieve accessible, affordable health insurance for all…

Instead, we spent valuable months arguing over whether government should take the unprecedented step of creating a health insurance entity to “compete” in the private marketplace.  The disproportionate focus on the government plan option undoubtedly helped fuel fear of expanded federal influence over healthcare and, subsequently, to the anti-mandate legislative measures we’re seeing today.”

In another portion of the post, Grealy compares an individual’s responsibility to carry health coverage to one’s responsibility to have property insurance.  If everyone could take out a policy when their house was on fire, then our property insurance system would fail.  She articulates that our health insurance will crumble to ruins in the same light if the healthiest of us could defer insurance until an illness arises. 

Urine, or You’re Out

One of the more ingenious ideas for reforming the current healthcare budget stemmed from nothing more than a FWD:  Alright – you caught me!  Now and then a catchy subject line piques my interest and “Urine or You’re Out” did just that.

I unfortunately do not have an author with whom to attribute this idea, so please allow for a bit of ambiguity:

“Like most folks in this country, I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit.  In order to get that paycheck in my case, I am required to pass a random urine test (with which I have no problem)

What I do have problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test.

So, here is my Question: Shouldn’t one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them? (I’ve taken the liberty to delete a bit of description here…if you are interested in it – let me know in the comments section below!)

 I guess we could title that program, ‘Urine or You’re Out’.” ~ Anonymous

Stop Cushioning Wallets

This idea may not have the shock factor of the last, but has been receiving publicity as of late.  Rosemary Gibson, author of “The Treatment Trap, Stop Running Red Lights AND Pay for Health Care Reform” compares medical treatments to traffic lights.

• Life-threatening procedures, such as fixing a ruptured appendix are considered green. 
• Yellow procedures involve weighing benefits and risks, such as the recent mammogram discussion.
• “Overuse”- a term coined by a panel from the Institute of Medicine –are red procedures where negatives outweigh the positives.

And, look at these research findings Gibson references:

In a survey conducted by the American College of Physician Executives, eighty percent of physicians who responded said they were very concerned or moderately concerned about their physician colleagues over treating patients to boost their income. Fifty-four percent said they were concerned about their peers admitting patients to a hospital to increase their bottom line. The survey respondents are in leadership positions in hospitals, medical practices and other health care organizations.

Wrap-Up

Overall, please note that in my opinion there is no simple, quick, stress-free option for  Healthcare Reform !  I just found the arguments for and against reform, as well as the ideas floating around for enhancing the reform process, interesting.

My hope is that these two posts stretched you beyond the ‘comfort zone.’  If you have other creative ideas for reducing costs in the healthcare budget, or ways to speed up the reform process, please comment below. 
 

In observance of National Patient Safety Awareness Week, the ECRI Institute is offering a free communications risk analysis through Saturday, March 13, 2010.  Per ECRI’s 3/4/2010 news release,

"communication is cited as a root cause in nearly 70% of reported sentinel events, surpassing other commonly identified issues such as staff orientation and training, patient assessment, and staffing. The increasingly complex healthcare environment can complicate the communication process and hinder the information exchanges necessary for optimum care."

Healthcare professionals have access to downloading "Communication" – the full risk analysis – from ECRI Institute’s Patient Safety Center Website.

We hope this resource is beneficial for your organizations!  For more information, see ECRI’s full news release. 

If any nurses on your floor are expected to deliver and titrate I.V. drugs, this resource should prove beneficial.  Take the angst and qualm out of calculating I.V. drip rates with these simplified equations from Ira Grene Reynolds, BSN, RN, PCCN-CMC in American Nurse Today.

As Reynolds writes, "Although many I.V. infusion pumps calculate drip rates automatically, these rates must be double-checked to ensure patient safety…If you feel uneasy when performing these critical tasks, you’re not alone.  To boost your confidence, this article presents simplified equations to help you breeze through selected I.V. drip rates calculations."

View the entire PDF by selecting the PDF icon:

Source: Ira Gene Reynolds, BSN, RN, PCCN-CMC, "Calculating I.V. Drip Rates With Confidence," American Nurse Today. October 2006: Vol 1, No 1.

Health Reform – controversial topic, yes, I know!

Welcome to Part I of the Healthcare Reform saga.  Scouting through a few of my favorite journalist I realized the vast perceptions on both sides of the spectrum.

Moving beyond the typical pro / con arguments, some venture to suggest ways to cut healthcare costs all together.  The idea here is that Healthcare Reform does not solely concern providing health insurance for all Amerians.  With the plethora of information available, I have chosen to separate this post into Part I: Polar Opposites and Part II: Why Didn’t the White House Think of This!

So, here we go.  Passion at its finest…

***Please do not read into the Pro’s being listed first.  One side had to be listed first, and Pro’s generally come before Con’s…I truly am trying to show both sides without a bias!***

Pro – Reform

Unnecessary Death Counts Will Rise

Ron Pollack, Executive Director of Families USA states, “Failure to pass health reform—in effect, doing nothing to make health coverage and care affordable—results in…the ultimate, inexcusable consequence—lost lives.”

“Every day in 2010, approximately 68 non-elderly adult Americans across the nation will die prematurely due to lack of health coverage. If health reform fails, the Consumer Health Report "Lives on the Line: The Deadly Consequences of Delaying Health Reform", warns that the number of deaths would grow from 68 per day in 2010 to 84 per day in 2019,” summarizes Caralyn Davis from FierceHealthcare in “No insurance? Consequences Could be Deadly”.

Stimulate Economic Productivity

"Providing all citizens the right to health care is good for economic productivity. When people have access to health care, they live healthier and longer lives, thus allowing them to contribute to society for a longer time. The cost of bad health and shorter life spans of Americans suffering from uninsurance amounts to $65-130 billion annually." From Pro & Con’s Argument: "Should all Americans have the right (be entitled) to health care?"

Constitutional Right

Many Americans have jumped on the band wagon that Health Insurance being affordable and provided to all citizens falls under the protection of the Preamble of the Constituation which states its purpose is to "promote general welfare."  Remember however that promote, not provide.  Much the same letters, but very different meanings.

These comments only scratch the surface on the conviencing arguments pro healthcare reform.  But, one would be naïve to look at just one side of the story…

Anti – Reform

Deter Competition = Hike Prices & Limit Quality of Services

I found many well-written arguments for government play in Healthcare leading to an overall increase in prices (the monopoly effect) and decrease in quality care.  However, I felt Chandler J. Rapsom from Workforce Management eloquently summarized the idea in the article “What Health Care Reform Really Needs: Effective Wellness and Free-Market Competition.”

"By removing any incentives for individuals to take control of their health and wellness, chronic conditions will soar in both prevalence and severity…By failing to include mandates that would level the playing field and allow insurers, third-party administrators and self-insured employers to compete equitably for providers and patients, there is no incentive for dominant carriers to keep premium costs down and expand the scope of coverage."

The increase in demand for healthcare may also decrease quality of care due to healthcare professionals becoming overstretched.

Detrimental to American Big Business

As sticky a subject as when his book, “Where Have All the Leaders Gone,” first came out, Lee Iacocca lists the debauchery in American politics and mentions that Healthcare costs already run American corporations into the red.

"We’re running the biggest deficit in the history of the world, and it’s getting worse every day!

We’ve lost the manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs."

Why force companies to increase spending on Healthcare when this could further inhibit entrepreneurship and achieving the proverbial American Dream?

Socialism Decreases Strive for Excellence

Although some argue that Healthcare Reform should not be classified as socialism, many believe the similarities are too obvious to brush aside.

"Providing a right to health care is socialism and is bad for economic productivity. Socialized medicine is comparable to food stamps, housing subsidies, and welfare–all of which is charity. Distributing charity to society makes people lazy, decreases the incentive for people to strive for excellence, and inhibits productivity." From  Pro & Con’s argument: "Should all Americans have the right (be entitled) to health care?"

Part I Wrap-Up

So, if these Pro’s and Con’s got your blood boiling or gears turning, just wait for the ideas coming up in next week’s posting – Part II: Why Didn’t the White House Think of This!  Feel free to add comments or other arguments on the Pro’s and Con’s to Healthcare Reform.

After reading Christopher Cornue’s Disruptive Women in Health Care post last week on Nurses, Lawsuits, and Patient Safety, I was inspired to write my own post discussing ethical dilemmas rising from reporting wrong-doings in the workplace.

So in case you are not familiar with the recent case in Texas, skim the following press release from SafetyShare newsletter, Premier, Inc.

“Texas jury finds nurse not guilty for reporting a physician for unsafe practices.

It took the jury less than an hour on February 11, 2010, to return a not guilty verdict for the nurse, Anne Mitchell, of felony charges of “misuse of official information,” for reporting a physician to the Texas Medical Board for what she believed was unsafe patient care.
Since news of the criminal indictment – and Mitchell’s being fired from her job – first spread through the nursing community, nurses across the country have followed developments. Labeling the criminal indictments “outrageous,” an outpouring of support – and financial contributions to the Texas Nurses Association Legal Defense Fund – has continued.

According to a New York Times article on February 9, the prosecutors claimed that Mitchell intended to damage the physician’s reputation when she reported him to the Texas Medical Board, which licenses and disciplines doctors. Mitchell explained that she felt an obligation to protect patients from what she saw as a pattern of improper prescribing and surgical procedures – including a failed skin graft that was performed in the emergency room, without surgical privileges.

Conflicts of interest seemed to be part of this case with allegations that this case was, in part, a result of the local sheriff being good friends with, and a former patient of the physician, and bending the rules to protect his reputation.

A number of nurses who had previous worked at the same Winkle County Rural Health Clinic testified in court that they left the clinic because of their concern about the care provided by the same physician that had never been addressed. The case is no less perplexing as to why Mitchell was even indicted – all witnesses (even the state’s) have agreed nurses have a duty to report unsafe care.

The verdict is a resounding win on behalf of patient safety in the U.S., as well as nurses and other healthcare professionals who play a critical, duty-bound role in acting as patient safety watch guards in our nation’s health care system. The greatest concern with this case has been the disbelief that a case such as this was even allowed to reach the trial stage and what a different outcome could have potentially meant for patient safety in this country. Even with an acquittal, the felony charges and trial had a chilling effect on many nurses who may think twice before reporting unsafe practices.

A civil lawsuit has been filed in federal court charging the county, hospital, sheriff, doctor and prosecutor with vindictive prosecution and denial of the nurses’ First Amendment rights. A complete summary of the case is available on the Texas Nurses Association Web site.”

Thoughts Expanded

Especially in the medical profession, if those working hand-in-hand with you do not feel protected to disclose wrongdoings, then who will?  From an outsider’s perspective, I personally take this case to heart.  Knowledge has power.  Not coming from a medical background, my trust falls on the doctors and nurses to suggest best practices and procedures for me and my family.

And, to take this one step further, consider the fact that patients under the knife literally have “no say” in changes to protocol.

Ethically speaking, individuals fight an internal battle in these types of situations.  Although they seem black and white in nature – unsafe patient care gets reported – human emotions and moral compasses start blurring the lines.  Back lash from other co-workers, disruption to workplace flow, ruining a co-worker’s career, and many other ‘what-ifs’ could prohibit “tattle-telling.”  So it is up to the Human Resource department to create an atmosphere of open communication where making wise choices, ethically speaking, are rewarded and not condemned.

So how can you ensure that core values crossover into every department company wide?

Listen to the closing remarks from Tim Keenan, President of High Performance Technologies, Inc, in his webinar for Winning Workplaces on keeping employee communication a premium.

• Keeping Communication Lines Open – mp3 – 1.7 MB – 1:50

I completely agree with Keenan on listening, acting on what you hear, and being shameless, relentless, and creative in incorporating employee thoughts.  When employees feel their positive ideas are being heard they are more likely to bring forth troublesome issues without second guessing the decision.

The outcome of this case can be marked as a victory for nurses.  No need to fear!  Nurses should feel protected to speak their thoughts when it comes to patient safety.  If nurses do not feel they can grab hold of the reigns who will keep doctors from running wild?  Alright, that may be largely exaggerated, but you get the drift!

How do you keep lines of communication open in your organization?  Comments welcome!

In response to Mac unveiling the new, controversial iPad, our good friends at Medical Software Advice conducted an investigation to pinpoint the healthcare industry’s wish list for an ‘ideal’ tablet device.   The responses from the 178 physicians, nurses, medical students, and healthcare IT professionals may surprise you.

Over 50% of the respondents stated they were at least somewhat likely to buy a tablet in the 2010 year.  It sounds like the iPad’s timing couldn’t be better!  With over half of the target market anticipating a purchase soon, a substantial portion of the market share awaits to be claimed!

But, the question still remains….will the iPad hold up to the standards needed from the healthcare industry?

Moving from the general public to a narrow niche requires ample market research and specialized product development. Take a look at the wide variety of tasks the healthcare industry wants from the tablet:

Chart depicts what % of respondents thought a feature was a “must-have” in a tablet. 
Courtesy of Medical Software Advice, a blog about electronic health records.

From this long list of “must-haves,” Chris Thorman summed up the current deficiencies the iPad should be looking to overcome:

“It lacks a large number of features that healthcare professionals deemed important, such as resistance to dust and hospital fluids and disinfectants (the iPad does not have sealed ports); fingerprint access to the system (HIPAA compliance); barcode scanning (patient safety); and an integrated camera (documenting diagnosis). In fact, you could argue that the iPad’s difficulty in being disinfected or kept clean of hospital fluids is a deal breaker for healthcare workers.”

I found it interesting that nearly a dozen new tablet devices were showcased at the Consumer Electronic Show earlier this year.   But, before Apple’s announcement last week, a tablet was still a form of pill in my book. 

So, fellow marketers should be rejoicing over the free hype Apple’s device brought to the tablet marketplace.  After all, the iPad (or some play on that name!) has been a trending topic on Twitter since the announcement reached the general public.

For more details on Medical Software Advice’s investigation, check out their blog post: Healthcare Wants a Tablet, But Not Apple’s iPad | Survey Results

So what’s the latest buzz in Healthcare Technology’s hardware department – the Apple iPad. 

Those in the healthcare industry may already be familiar with some medical apps built for the iPhone and iTouch:

• Epocrates – Instant access to prescribing and safety info for over 3,500 prescription medications
• LifeScan – One ping technology allowing diabetes patients to track glucose levels and sugar intake
• iChart – Electronic Management Record system for charting patient files

But, what they might not know is that Apple is planning on marketing themselves heavily as a competitor to the Motion Computing C5 Mobile Clinical Assistant.

Jason Wilk at TinyComb shared some insider info about Apple trying to court doctors at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles.

Apple has been going around targeting their first major paying customer for the device, which is not the average consumer, but the Healthcare industry (sorry fanbois, you’re not first priority here). This is a move widely overlooked by the media, since Apple has generally tried to own the consumer arena, and besides the film industry, hasn’t dominated enterprise. Well, now that they own the music, mobile, laptop and every teenager market, the medical industry is the next up to take over. [What's my intel? My Dad plays golf with Cedars-Sinai hospital execs, who say they have been getting frequent visits from Apple about a new device in the last 6 weeks].

Do you ever wonder where Jobs and the Apple clan get their inspiration? 

Out of adversity comes opportunity – Perhaps the iPad stemmed from Jobs frequenting hospitals while undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer. Did seeing nurses carry a hand-held device not branded by the "forbidden fruit" get Jobs’ wheels turning? 

After all – an apple a day keeps the doctor away! 

Regardless of what spurred on the tablet’s development, if the Healthcare Market adopts the Mac, Electronic Management Technology will be one step closer to an iTouch away.
 

A recent article in the LA Times caught our attention here at Amistaff Healthcare Technology.  A very valid and present concern for the healthcare staffing industry was brought up in the article Temp Firms a Magnet for Unfit Nurses:

 “Firms that supply temporary nurses to the nation’s hospitals are taking perilous shortcuts in their screening and supervision, sometimes putting seriously ill patients in the hands of incompetent or impaired caregivers” (Weber et al, 2009).

What a claim to be made with the potential to cause detrimental effects on the already declining healthcare staffing industry!  

Unfortunately, the investigation conducted by the LA Times and ProPublica found significant instances where staffing firms “skimped on background checks or ignored warnings from hospitals about sub-par nurses on their payrolls. Some hired nurses sight unseen, without even conducting an interview” (Weber et al, 2009).

One reporter found that “firms hired nurses who had criminal records or left states where their licenses had been restricted or revoked. At least three firms employed a nurse in California whose license had been suspended in Minnesota for stealing drugs at a string of temp jobs. One used him after he’d been convicted of doing the same thing at a Santa Rosa nursing home” (Weber et al, 2009).

Unlike hospitals, staffing firms do not immediately see the effects of an unqualified or inept caregiver.  Hospitals entrust staffing firms with supplying caregivers to complete their workforce.  With hiring the primary focus of a staffing firm, hospitals assume that the firms have access to and effectively use industry leading pre-hire screening assessments. 

A well-known fact is staffing firms pay the bills by placing their employees.  Therefore, the possibility that firms knowingly place incompetent, unfit caregivers in hopes that they will not “mess up” is hard to ignore. 

In fact, the reports of this investigation found examples of this exact fear:

“Temp agencies shuffled errant nurses from one hospital to another, even as complaints mounted. A Culver City agency continued sending one nurse to hospitals despite more than a dozen warnings that she was ignoring her patients and sleeping on the job. Before she was hired, the nurse had been convicted of 12 crimes, including prostitution, carrying a concealed weapon and possessing cocaine” (Weber et al, 2009).

Although Amistaff does not believe that these types of behaviors are the industry norm, we do feel that hospitals and staffing firms alike need to keep their focus on hiring the most qualified caregivers that match the job specific needs of the openings.  The current nursing shortage makes this task more challenging than ever.

So, what can be done?

We recommend hospitals look into the pre-screening tools implored by their elect staffing firm(s).  Supplying onboarding procedures should be a relatively easy task for staffing firms as the process should not differentiate from one clinician to the next.
 
Also, staffing firms and hospitals alike stand to benefit from reviewing and perhaps restructuring their internal hiring process.

Amistaff’s newest, web-based assessment tool – Prophecy Health – tests interpersonal competencies missed in traditional testing. The Behavioral, Clinical, and Situational assessments work together to create the most comprehensive employment predictor for the healthcare industry.

Regardless of the assessments selected, Amistaff strongly advises the use of assessments that are frequently monitored for reliability and validity given the ever-evolving practices in the fast-paced industry.  And, Amistaff’s clients can rest assured that these precautions are taken by our clinical team to ensure we offer the most accurate and complete assessments for the industry.  

Check out how dedicated our clinical team is to this calling by the new development process our NurseTesting.com clinical assessments undergo in order to creating validated content!
 

Weber, T., Ornstein, C., & Schwartz, L. (2009, December 6). Temp Firms a Magnet for Unfit Nurses. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-nurses6-2009dec06,0,1174984.story?page=1

About Prophecy – Prophecy is the aggregation of three assessment tools that work together to generate the most comprehensive employment predictor for the Healthcare Industry. Prophecy Clinical Assessments identify caregivers with sufficient job knowledge to perform successfully by targeting the most important aspects of each clinical specialty. Prophecy Behavioral Assessments identify caregivers with behavioral characteristics that predict high performance, such as Integrity and Conscientiousness. Prophecy Situational Assessments identify caregivers with soft-skills that are directly correlated to successful nursing practice. Learn more at www.prophecyhealth.com .

This is a true incident that occurred on an airplane in which Amistaff’s Chief Nursing Officer was a passenger. Praise to the airline and crew for their poise and composure during the crisis.

HIGH POINT: US Air Flight 1723 from Chicago to Charlotte made an emergency descend landing on Tuesday, November 3, 2009.  The cabin transformed into an emergency room before passengers’ eyes as Amistaff’s Chief Nursing Officer, James Ostmann, Sr. RN, MBA, rescued a diaphoretic woman suffering a potential heart attack and stroke.

While in route, the 81-year-old, French-speaking woman grabbed her chest and motioned pressure. With neurological deficits on the left-side of her body and color draining her face, Ostmann knew the patient’s condition was rapidly deteriorating.  Pilots phoned MedLink for medical consultation and received authorization for Ostmann to open the medical resuscitation kit.

Alongside a French-speaking, Medical-Surgical nurse from a Florida hospital, Ostmann reported the patient’s conditions to officials on the ground.  With an IV bag hung from the carry-on compartment and oxygen tank resting in a seat, Ostmann and the flight crew created a mobile ER. Ostmann initiated the IV and eased the woman’s chest pain with Nitroglycerin, keeping her vitals stabilized through landing.

Of the experience Ostmann commented:

“The crew handled the medical emergency with such composure. From 35,000 feet, US Air was able to ground our plane within 20 minutes. When dealing with stroke victims, time is of utmost importance with the tissue plasminogen activator’s limited 3-hour window. The fully equipped medical cart was color coded expediting treatment for the passenger. I hope to receive authorization to follow up with the attending hospital to check on her condition.”

The chilling truth is that Ostmann made a last minute change in his itinerary to board US Air Flight 1723. Coming from the American Society Healthcare Human Resources Association conference in Chicago, Ostmann decided to take the 2:00pm flight in lieu of the 12:00pm flight allowing extra time for travel. Had Ostmann not been a passenger on the same flight, this emergency descend could have had a much different landing.
 

Having a newborn at home, I am willing to try just about anything to avoid catching the flu virus this year.  So, I figured some of you would appreciate a comprehensive list of natural methods effective at boosting your immune system against the influenza virus as well!

Let’s Start With The Obvious

1)    Wash your hands -  it seems obvious to wash your hands, but take this idea one step further. Assume that others around you may not be washing theirs because let’s face it – many aren’t! Door knobs, customer service pens, and shopping carts are havens for germs. 

• Use a bathroom paper towel to turn off faucets and open the door before leaving,
• bring your own pen to sign credit card receipts in lines, and
• wipe your cart down with a sanitary wipe before shopping.  

Quick steps along your typical day can significantly reduce the volume of germs exposed to you.

2)    Get enough sleep – The average adult can function quite well off of 7-8 hours of sleep. Without adequate sleep the body becomes weak and thus more vulnerable to infection and disease.

Side note – did you know that your body keeps a sleep deprivation bank? Although you won’t have creditors calling for payments, failure to pay off your sleep debt causes decreased mental and physical health.

Reduce stress – funny right?

3)    So maybe think of stress relieving – This may be easier than you think. Studies show that light exercise, such as walking, is a natural anti-depressant. Check out the walking trail surrounding our home office. 

Fresh air and breath taking views help the Amistaffers relax during the day!

4)    Take a yoga class or get a massage.  Now you have another excuse…oh wait – another reason…to get that massage you’ve secretly been wanting.  Yoga and message eradicate toxins and chemical waste from your body clearing the way to absorb vital nutrients. Consider it doctor’s orders, after all you don’t want to get the flu!

5)    Pick up a new hobby such as fishing or cooking. And yes men, you can have hobbies too! Not all hobbies require yarn and a needle!

Herbal Remedies

6)    Adding green tea to your diet can protect you from many strands of the flu virus each year. The UK Tea Council says that green tea aids in fighting the flu in two ways – suppressing the growth of influenza cells and killing existing influenza cells.

7)    Ginseng is an immune stimulating herb that can be taken as a supplement.

8)    Take an echinacea vitamin.  But interesting to note – Echinacea is most effective when taken every day for two weeks and then not take for seven days, then taken again for two weeks, etc.

Balanced Diet

9)    As momma always says, “Eat your fruits and veggies, or no dessert!” Vegetables, fruits, nuts and spices containing phytochemicals boost the effects of vitamins on your immune system.  Phytochemical-rich foods include blackberries, almonds, tomatoes, and rosemary.

10)    Yogurt is a great immune system enhancer with the good bacteria acting as a natural pro-biotic. So try putting a combination of fruits and yogurt in a smoothie for breakfast or a snack each day.

11)    Drink the recommended 64 ozs of water every day. Bored with plain, old tap water? Try adding a bit of lime juice, peppermint extract, or cucumber slices for a refreshing twist. Check out this list of water flavoring ideas!

Wrapping it up!

Perhaps the most controversial way to protect from the flu is getting the flu shot. Did you ever wonder why there is an annual flu vaccine, but yet other vaccines (Hepatitis B, Meningitis, Measles, Mumps, & Rubella, Polo, etc.) last a lifetime?

Well, for the answer to that question I turned to Infection Control Today’s article Researchers Examine Ways to Combat Flu Virus.  According to Suresh Kumar, assistance professor of chemistry and biochemistry:
 

"The influenza virus is ‘smart’ in that it modifies proteins on the outside so that the hosts’ body cannot recognize it…We need to be one step smarter than the virus and attack something it is not anticipating.”

Thanks to a grant from the National Institutes of Health, four researchers from the University of Arkansas will look into the ways the virus attacks host cells in hopes of developing a one-time-fights-all influenza vaccine.
 

So, I hope this list of recommendations keeps you guarded from the flu virus this season! And please share other ways to stay healthy in our comments section below!