Creating pharmacy staffing-to-demand models: predictive tools used at two institutions.

Purpose: The creation and implementation of data-driven staffing-to-demand models at two institutions are described.

Summary: Predictive workload tools provide a guideline for pharmacy managers to adjust staffing needs based on hospital volume metrics. At Abbott Northwestern Hospital, management worked with the department's staff and labor management committee to clearly outline the productivity monitoring system and the process for reducing hours.

Prevalence of oncogenic human papillomavirus 16 and 18 in the palatine tonsils of the general adult population.

Objective: To determine whether there has been a demonstrable increase in the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-infected palatine tonsils corresponding to the increase in incidence of HPV-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) over time.

Design: Review of archived, paraffin-embedded, noncancerous palatine tonsils.

Setting: A single institution in El Paso County, Colorado.

Accelerated fractionation head and neck intensity-modulated radiation therapy and concurrent chemotherapy in the community setting: safety and efficacy considerations.

Background: This article reviews our community cancer center's experience treating head and neck cancer primarily with accelerated fractionation intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), with or without concurrent chemotherapy, focusing on acute toxicity and efficacy.

Methods: Fifty-two patients treated with IMRT at the Penrose Cancer Center between 2002 and 2007 constitute the cohort. The majority (75%) received an accelerated, altered fractionation regimen, typically concomitant boost to 7200 cGy.

Rising incidence of oropharyngeal cancer and the role of oncogenic human papilloma virus.

Objectives/hypothesis: To document the increasing incidence of oropharyngeal (OP) cancer and to provide evidence that this increase is caused by oncogenic human papilloma virus (HPV).

Study Design: Epidemiologic review and retrospective case series analysis.

Methods: We collected data from Colorado and the United States comparing the average annual age-adjusted incidence rates of OP and non-OP head and neck cancer between the periods 1980 to 1990 and 1991 to 2001.

Initial report of a case of carcinosarcoma of the supraglottis.

Minor salivary gland carcinosarcoma is a rare malignancy with an ominous prognosis. This report recounts a single case of supraglottic minor salivary gland carcinosarcoma that was treated aggressively. We discuss the peculiarities of the histology, with special mention of the distinction that must be made between mucosal-origin and salivary-gland-origin carcinosarcoma.