Is The Gulf War Syndrome Real Essays - Military Personnel

Is The Gulf War Syndrome Real? Is the Gulf War Syndrome Real? On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. The United States government acted very quickly. Ships were dispatched to the Persian Gulf, and oil prices shot up as and oil embargo was placed against Iraq. The U.S. government told us that Saddam Hussein was poised to invade the neighboring countries, including Saudi Arabia, and the worlds oil supply was threatened. George Bush launched operation Desert Shield in which a coalition of many nation's armies gathered in the deserts of Saudi Arabia bordering Iraq and Kuwait. As the war began, the coalition of national armies assembled in Saudi Arabia took a few SCUD missile shots fired from Iraq. When the troops started moving in, Sadam's army turned and tried to get out of Kuwait. The Iraqi Republican Guard stayed safely back, far from the fighting. Several hundred U.S. troops died in the brief battle, and ten's of thousands of Iraqis died. Many, if not most, of the U.S. deaths were the result of friendly fire. At this point, George Bush decided to bring the troops home. UN weapons inspectors converged on Iraq and the coalition armies dispersed. Perhaps the most hyped war in history was now over. It was almost certainly the war most orchestrated for the media. All the troops had been drilled for months in preparation for a tremendous battle and possibly chemical and biological weapons. Suddenly it was over. They were sent home and returned to their normal everyday lives. Memories of the threat of chemical and biological weapons remained. Years pass before rumors begin to surface, a veteran suddenly died for no known cause there was a veteran who developed an enormous tumor and there was a veteran who's new child is severely malformed. The threat of chemical and biological weapons returns to everyone's memory. People start thinking that perhaps this is the cause of all these illnesses. The threat seemed very real. If it could be demonstrated that Gulf War veterans are suffering from the effects of chemical or biological weapons, they might have grounds for some restitution from the United States government, or perhaps the Iraqi government. Organizations began to form in response to rising concern over the plight of Gulf War veterans. Official Pentagon numbers show a total of 697,000 U.S. citizens took part in the Gulf War, but they may not include non-military members. About 6 percent of Gulf War veterans have reported an ailment they believe is linked to their service. The Pentagon found that 85 percent had ailments or diseases with known causes not linked to the Gulf War. Further Defense Department research is focusing on the slightly less than 1 percent of all Gulf War veterans, whose ailments could not be diagnosed. Their problems included headache and memory loss, fatigue, sleep disorders, and intestinal and respiratory ailments. These have come to be known as the symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome. The Gulf War Syndrome is nothing more than a hearsay. It is a disease in which all of the science involving it is replaced by rumor. The opinions or real medical experts are replaced by the opinion of veterans who believe they are now medical experts. There have been accounts of symptoms such as: aching muscles, aching joints, abdominal pain, facial pain, chest pain, blood clots, flushing, night sweats, blurry vision, photosensitivity, jaundice, bruising, shaking, vomiting, fevers, sinus growths, irritability, fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, weight gain, loss of appetite, heartburn, nausea, bad breath, hair loss, graying hair, rashes, sore throat, heart disease, diverticulitis and other intestinal disorders, kidney stones, a growth in the eye, tingling and itching sensations, sore gums, cough, cancer, diarrhea with and without bleeding, constipation, testicular pain, epididymitis, unspecified swelling, memory loss, dizziness, inability to concentrate, choking sensation, depression, lightheadedness, hot and cold flashes, labored breathing, sneezing, sensitive teeth and other dental problems, neurological disorders, nasal congestion, bronchitis, leg cramps, twitching, hemorrhoids, thyroid problems, welts, rectal and vaginal bleeding, colon polyps, increased urination, a bulging disk in the neck, hypertension, blood in urine, insomnia, headaches, and a foot fungus that will not go away. There have been more believable examples such as in the case of Michael Adcock. Adcock died in 1992 from lymphoma, which is cancer of the lymph glands, which then spread to the rest of his body. He thoroughly believed that he had contracted the lymphoma by being exposed by something in the war. His story was very believable, and the media attentively reported the story.

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buy custom Quality Improvement at MedStar Medical Center essay People who work in the medical sphere definitely put a lot of emphasis on customer satisfaction and continuous quality improvement initiatives and programs meant to help provide data that shows how those two concepts, the quality and level of satisfaction can be measurable and quantifiable (Kahan Goodstadt, 1999). MedStar Montgomery Medical Center is one of those institutions that care much about quality and patients satisfaction and the following paper discusses how it works. Headquartered in Olney, Maryland, MedStar Montgomery Medical Center has been serving as a communitys cornerstone since 1918. It has joined the MedStar family in 2008, and since then, the organization has started to operate as one of the largest non-profit healthcare delivery institutions in its area. For the moment, the hospital has around 140 inpatient beds and a newly reconstructed Emergency Department with other expansions. The hospital also has a fully operating MGH Health Foundation that raises funds for trainings building of new facilities and development of the special care programs for those patients who continue their treatment at home (MedStar Montgomery Medical Center, 2014). MedStar Montgomery Medical Center has been working hard to improve patients safety, and the report Quality Matters that has een an issue for many years is a proof to that. It includes certain programs, where the center is actively participating and yielding positive results. Thereafter, the key elements of the organization include concentration over strategy that covers hygiene, safety programs and specific projects that target improvements. Some of the improvements include compliance rates of the hand hygiene was very high; the number of the infections that are related to blood transfusion reduced by 50%; breathing device complications reduced for around 15%; reduced number of falls among the patients and other. Moreover, this institution has achieved zero rate in the Intensive Care Unit, in relation to blood infections already two years in a row and zero ventilator rate in relation to breathing deceases, such as pneumonia. The strategic plan of quality improvement includes the part icipation of certain programs and for MedStar Montgomery Medical Center those are Maryland Hand Hygiene Collaborative, IHIs Project Joint (former participant), MHAs Surgical Unit-based Safety Program and others. The president and the CEO of this medical center, Carmela Coyne, has been always emphasizing in her statements that quality and safety are the key priorities in the organization and the Quality Matters Report is the proof to that, as many have been accomplished already, but there is still no intenntion to stop. In addition to that, the strategy includes the cooperation with such institutions as Maryland Patient Safety Center, Maryland Hospital Association and others (MedStar Montgomery Medical Center, 2014). MedStar Montgomery Medical Center is a large institution in healthcare industry, which is why it gets to be accredited by many regulation bodies. Thereafter, the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, the Joint Commission, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are the key institutions that provide the accreditation (MedStar National Rehabilitation Network, 2014). In conclusion, this is important to mention that the dominant position of setting the standards is given to the Joint Commission that sets the relevant measures to every healthcare organization and for the MedStar Montgomery Medical Center two key performance categories have been identified. Those are National Patients Safety Goals (it falls under category of the Behavioral Health Care) and National Quality Improvement Goals. The medical center that is being discussed in the following paper is not only accredited by the Joint Commission, in relation to the mentioned categories, but it has managed to achieve high rates among quality measurement indicators and the Quality Report is a proof to that (MedStar Montgomery Medical Center, 2014). Buy custom Quality Improvement at MedStar Medical Center essay