Talking to Unhappy Patients

Healio has published an Ocular Surgery News blog post on How to talk to unhappy patients, providing six practical tips for healthcare workers to communicate with patients or staff who are dissatisfied. Whether ocular surgery or CKD, the topic is important. The article begins with “I’ve had many fine mentors and colleagues who taught fantastic lessons in how to manage these tense moments. Applying them properly can make all the difference in saving a patient relationship. Here are my tips for communicating with unhappy patients with a reference to the source where I learned each lesson.” Find the short but powerful article at https://www.healio.com/news/ophthalmology/20210215/blog-how-to-talk-to-unhappy-patients.

10/21 NECP Webinar on Funding Emergency Communications

The DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s National Emergency Communications Plan will present an October 21, 2020 webinar on Money Talks: Funding Your Emergency Communications Capabilities. The webinar will help facilities find grant guidance and opportunities, partners to help prioritize needs and coordinate applications for assistance, and diverse funding sources to sustain emergency communications. Find details and register at https://www.cisa.gov/necp-webinars.

10/6+ NKF Webinar on Flu & COVID-19

NKF will present an October 6, 2020 webinar on Flu & COVID-19 – how to tell them apart, whether you can have both at the same time, increased risk of serious illness with CKD, how to protect yourself, and Q&A.  Find details at https://www.kidney.org/content/flu-covid-19-webinar-facebook-live, and register at https://kidney.secure.force.com/rc_connect__campaign_designform?id=7013a000002DtitAAC&form=00P3a00001XCi6zEAD&.  NKF also has a Q&A-format web page on Flu & COVID-19.  Find it at https://www.kidney.org/coronavirus/flu-covid-19.

Resources for [Medicare-Medicaid] Integrated Care will also present an October 13, 2020 webinar on Promising Practices for Promoting Flu Vaccinations for Dually Eligible Beneficiaries During COVID-19.  Dually-eligible patients are those who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid, who may be even more vulnerable to serious illness from flu and COVID-19.  Find details and register at https://www.resourcesforintegratedcare.com/2020_Webinar/Promoting_Flu_Vaccinations_During_COVID-19.

Free Online CSU Palliative Care Courses

The California State University Shiley Institute for Palliative Care has removed fees from 19 of their online palliative care courses until June 30, 2020, in order to help make healthcare workers better prepared for the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic.  The courses include continuing education credit.  Their many offerings are grouped into these categories:

• Introduction to Palliative Care Principles and Practice
• Advance Care Planning and Documentation
• Difficult Conversations and Communication Skills
• Crisis Intervention and Management
• Primary Palliative Care
• Self-Care for Frontline Clinicians
• Additional Resources – eBooks

Find more information at https://csupalliativecare.org/covid-19-resources/?mc_cid=6ff90d657e&mc_eid=67e1ad4c31.

New NCC Kidney Patient Web Hub

NCC has created an internet “hub” for patient education information, their ESRD NCC Patient Web Tool, to help people find resources created by patients for patients.  It’s major subsections include COVID-19. transplant, home dialysis, infection prevention, well-being, new patient information, and the Kidney Community Emergency Response Coalition or KCER.  Find it at https://thekidneyhub.org/.

5/26+ COVID-19 Weekly Webinars

A number of organizations are hosting weekly webinars on COVID-19.  These include:

• ESRD NCC half-hour “Quickinars” for providers and patients.   Find more information, recordings of past Quickinars, and register for current presentations at https://esrdncc.org/quickinars:

• • • Tuesday May 26, 2020 patient Quickinar on Combating Uncertainty and Fear in the COVID-19 Era (En Español), presented by a PD patient, Network Ambassador, and patient and family engagement SME.  She will share how Spanish-speaking patients are coping with fears surrounding COVID-19, and Provide links to COVID-19 information in Spanish.

• • • Wednesday May 27, 2020 provider Quickinar on COVID-19 Communication – Quick Tips to Connect, presented by the Director of Outreach and Development for the non-profit Academy of Communication in Healthcare, Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Patient Experience, and Assistant Clinical Professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

• Coalition for Supportive Care of Kidney Patients half-hour of Open Discussion for Professional Providers Wednesday May 27, 2020 – see https://nwrnbulletins.wordpress.com/2020/04/01/4-1-weekly-staff-support-calls/.

• CMS Stakeholder Engagement Call for Dialysis Providers Wednesday May 27, 2020, call 833-614-0820, passcode 6152699, audio webcast link https://engage.vevent.com/index.jsp?eid=5779&seid=2123#/main/simplify.

• • • They also offer Tuesday May 26, 2020 “Office Hours” for general Medicare questions, and Lessons from the Front Lines on Friday May 29, 2020.  For details, including recordings of past events, see https://nwrnbulletins.wordpress.com/2020/04/20/4-21-cms-shareholder-engagement-calls/.

• This week’s Wednesday May 27, 2020 Coalition for Compassionate Care of California hour-long COVID Conversations is dedicated to Skilled Nursing facilities; see https://mailchi.mp/coalitionccc.org/no-one-should-die-alone-on-the-street-746076?e=67e1ad4c31.  For weekly details and registration, recordings of past events, and additional resources, see https://coalitionccc.org/covid-conversations-education/.

RSN Podcasts on Hospitalization, Emotional Balance

RSN KidneyTalk has published two new podcasts on:

• COVID-19 and Staying out of the Hospital discusses the most common causes of hospitalization in people requiring dialysis and what to do to stay safe.  Find it at https://www.rsnhope.org/kidneytalk/covid-19-and-staying-out-of-the-hospital/.

• Maintaining Emotional Balance in an Unbalancing Time looks for the right words for dialysis clinic personnel when people are suffering from loss, and describes coping mechanisms to help alleviate anxiety and make tough life decisions.  Find this one at https://www.rsnhope.org/kidneytalk/maintaining-emotional-balance-in-an-unbalancing-time/.

5/21+ CCCC COVID Conversations Webinars

The Coalition for Compassionate Care of California will hold it’s next free COVID Conversations and Patient-Centered Care webinar May 21, 2020, on the subject of CCCC Decision Aids, Ventilators, CPR, Transfers, And Comfort Care.  Find details and register at https://mailchi.mp/coalitionccc.org/no-one-should-die-alone-on-the-street-746012?e=67e1ad4c31.

Upcoming weekly sessions will be announced at https://coalitionccc.org/covid-conversations-education/, and recordings of earlier sessions can be found there.  CCCC also provides a COVID Conversations Toolbox at https://coalitionccc.org/covid-conversations-toolbox/, with conversation tools, forms and resources on advance directives and POLST, and links to COVID-19 resources and news updates.  They also have a blog post on The Vital Importance of Advance Care Planning Amid COVID-19, which explains the difference between POLST and Advance Directives, and recommends specific actions.  Find that at https://coalitionccc.org/2020/04/covid-19-conversation-toolkit/.

4/6 CDC Crisis Communication Webinars

We apologize for being about six months late on this, but we didn’t discover it till today.

The CDC Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) program deals with communication in emergencies.  CERC trainings are based on lessons learned during public health emergencies, evidence-based practices from the fields of risk and crisis communication, and psychology.  The CERC trainings are offered in online, webinar, and in-person formats.

We’ve missed the webinar that they offered this morning on CERC Overview for COVID-19, but the slides are available, they look excellent, and reviewing them will take less time than the webinar would have.  Find them at https://emergency.cdc.gov/cerc/training/webinar_20200406.asp.  They will post video and transcript within a week.

Recordings of previous webinars include Introduction to Crisis & Emergency Risk Communication, Psychology of a Crisis, Messages & Audiences, Community Engagement, Spokesperson, Communication Channels, and Zika CERC Discussions.  Find these at https://emergency.cdc.gov/cerc/training/archives.asp?deliveryName=USCDC_964-DM25112.

1/29 CDC Emergency Communications Webinar

CDC’s Emergency Partners Information Connection (EPIC) will present a 29 January, 2020 webinar on Communication Partnerships for Public Health Emergencies.  Topics will include how to plan and build partnerships, how to make partnerships mutually beneficial, and how to work with partners to share information with the people who need it most.  Getting life-saving information to the people who are hardest to reach often requires knowing which intermediaries can do the job.  For more information and registration, see https://emergency.cdc.gov/epic/learn/webinar_20200129.asp.