Topic: Healthcare
This is a guest blog note by Dr. Alexis Carter, Director of Pathology Informatics at Emory University School of Medicine. She discusses some of the pitfalls of the AP-LIS documentation of the names of ... moreNearly four in every 10 uninsured children who are eligible for public children's insurance live in just three states--California, Texas and Florida--according to a newly released article from Health ... more
We compared financial performance of freestanding ambulatory surgery centres (ASCs) and hospital-based outpatient departments (HOPDs). Patient-level ambulatory surgery data (1997-2004) for the state o ... more
To settle a civil rights complaint, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center will pay for extended hours at a clinic and give door-to-door rides for non-emergency care per a voluntary agreement wit ... more
In an attempt to "streamline" services at its 11 New York City hospitals, Health and Hospitals Corporation wants to take responsibility back from the prestigious universities it once sought help from, ... more
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is considering a petition to limit residents' long work hours.The petition, which is the latest salvo in the ongoing debate about residents hours, cal ... more
Health professionals have a responsibility to respect and support patients who use cannabis for medicinal purposes, but must stay within the law and follow professional guidance at all times. UK resea ... more
The full board of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) failed to stand up to CEO Paul Levy after complaints first surfaced in 2003-04 about his improper relationship with a subordinate, accord ... more
Summary: Rick Scott, the former hospital executive who is now a candidate to become Governor of Florida epitomizes the power that concentrated wealth now has to influence American politics and, perh ... more
A lawsuit filed by J. Michael Mastej, a former hospital executive who was fired in Oct. 2007, accuses Naples, Fla.-based Health Management Associates (NYSE: HMA) of violating federal laws by bribing d ... more
Some states are taking a two-faced approach to the healthcare overhaul law.Seven states are suing to overturn the healthcare reform law, saying it's unconstitutional, the Associated Press reports. Bu ... more
It may seem paradoxical, but Dr. Jennifer Yang, a pediatrician, says she feels more energized to practice medicine after spending her Saturday off working at Tzu Chi, a Fresno-Calif., free healthcare ... more
Most patients who show up at hospital emergency rooms don't want to be treated by just any white coat.Eighty percent of ER patients expect to see a physician, according to an article published August' ... more
Cambridge Hospital nurses won a fight against the Cambridge Health Alliance when the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board ruled Friday that a unilateral cut in retiree health benefits was not warra ... more
Despite efforts by the Obama administration to educate the public on the new healthcare law, support for reform fell to 43 percent in August from 50 percent in July, a new Kaiser Family Foundation pol ... more
Hospitals that are private/for-profit, have at least 500 beds, or those in metropolitan areas are more likely to see patients with healthcare-associated infections than other hospitals, according to a ... more
We are facing a major shortage of medical technologists in this country (see: Comments on the Medical Technologist Shortage; The Continuing Shortage of Medical Technologists: a Challenge for Hospital ... more
Influenza vaccination of health-care personnel is a professional and ethical responsibility and non-compliance with health-care facility policies regarding vaccination should not be tolerated, accordi ... more
Small business is very much in the news this week, as never in recent memory has there been so much expectation resting on small business owners and entrepreneurs to lead the way. With plenty of data ... more
Dallas-based Parkland Memorial Hospital hid information from outside auditors working on behalf of federal government investigators, according to an internal memo that recently was recovered by the Da ... more
In the Darwinian world of healthcare today, public hospitals may not be fit enough to survive. As standalone hospitals, they don't have the resources to upgrade and meet new requirements, the Wall Str ... more
Over the past few years, venture capitalists have made a lot of investments in the biomedical sector. A recent blog post by CB Insights explained that biomedical deals have grown dramatically since 1 ... more
The most recent Health Wonk Review, hosted by Joe Paduda at Managed Care Matters, raises provocative questions about making health care reform a reality. You ll find Paduda s round-up of some of t ... more
Summer vacation time is winding down, but there are lots of great upcoming events to help you learn, connect and jump into Fall. This list of small business webinars, events and conferences is brought ... more
Marin General Hospital Corp. filed a lawsuit in Superior Court in Marin County, Calif., Thursday accusing Sutter Health of illegally siphoning off $120 million of the hospital's money from 2006 on, th ... more
Money and religion appear to be the two biggest factors in the death of a deal that would have seen North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System move into St. Vincent's Hospital's old emergency room a ... more
This paper uses the example of health service activity in part of a major UK conurbation to explore the idea of a 'health dividend' and 'good corporate citizenship'. Because of the scale of resources ... more
This paper offers a critique of the increasing commercialisation of healthcare. It argues for a gift economy in which patients are respected for their knowledge and capacity to help control their own ... more
In recent decades, there has been a growing shift towards the use of markets and quasi-markets in healthcare provision and an increasing managerialism in the context of major increases in expenditure. ... more
Summary: When I wrote Money-Driven Medicine, the Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much (Harper Collins, 2006), #0160; Rick Scott stood out as one of the more memorable characters in a #0160; rogues ... more
Five years after Hurricane Katrina barreled its way through New Orleans, flooding hospitals, the healthcare industry has yet to recover, WAPT reports.More than 80,000 residents in eastern New Orleans ... more
A surprising number of hospitals think many revenue-cycle problems are just part and parcel of doing business (particularly in a bad economy). But hospitals that identify issues and work across depart ... more
Saint John's Health Center of Santa Monica, which LA Weekly refers to as the hospital to the stars, will pay the U.S. government $5.25 million to settle claims of over-billing Medicare."This is a good ... more
I have posted a number of previous notes on the topics of preventive, predictive, personalized, and participatory medicine (see: Preventive and Predictive Medicine as Components of the Healthcare Cont ... more
Prescription drugs account for one-tenth of every dollar spent on healthcare. But some of those drugs are seeing much faster growth in price than others.The average retail price increases for brand na ... more
Had North Carolina billed Medicaid upon prisoners receiving inpatient treatment from hospitals and other healthcare providers, the state could have saved about $11.5 million a year, an audit found, ac ... more
Physicians should not let their frustration over the still-unchanged sustainable growth rate formula distract them from the improvements that healthcare reform delivers to their patients and the prof ... more
Three years ago, I discussed early reports that bariatric surgery can cure adult-onset diabetes through a mechanism not solely related to weight loss (see: "Curing " Diabetes with Bariatric Surgery). ... more
Consumer advocates, including Democratic lawmakers and a few Republicans, have won the battle over whether the Department of Health and Human Services should tighten up its standard for notifying pati ... more
Whether you're measuring quality of trauma care or efficiency of teleheath networks, rural areas in the U.S. continually seem to lag behind the rest of the nation. That's one of the main reasons why D ... more
Most consumers don't think doctors should have such a tight relationship with big pharma, according to the second annual prescription drug survey conducted by Consumer Reports National Research Center ... more
Hospital stocks are on shaky ground, and weakened patient admissions--due to patients putting off elective and "not critical" procedures--may be responsible. The five major, publicly-traded hospital c ... more
There are two distinct groups who do not play well in the same sandbox--clinical and IT, writes Paul Roemer, managing partner of Healthcare IT Strategy. Sometimes one group will try to quickly learn s ... more
Under the healthcare overhaul law, a rule requires doctors who refer Medicare and Medicaid patients to in-house imaging machines to disclose that they own the equipment and give their patients a list ... more
Weak federal oversight of tube design makes it all too easy for tubes with different functions to get mixed up in hospitals, harming patients, the New York Times reports. When the wrong connections ar ... more
There is no question is my mind that nearly all corporate and individual email accounts will soon be managed in the cloud, a model that is referred to as cloud mail. This will be a major change for ma ... more
Mr. HIStalk addresses the ongoing Cerner-Epic competition in a comprehensive and insightful manner. Here #39;s the complete text of a question and his response from a recent blog note:Question from re ... more
Item: Definiens has just announced the date for the First Annual Definiens International Symposium. It will be held on October 7-8, 2010, in Madrid. There is no charge to attend the event. Speaker and ... more
First of all, let me dismiss the idea that there is much room for debate about whether patients should be allowed to review their own medical records. HIPAA gave them the right to read, and even amend ... more
The current norm for medical school lectures, and it seems for many undergraduate programs as well, is to make all lectures available on the web in the form of PowerPoint presentations. Frequently, th ... more
Contract research organizations (CROs) such as Covance and Charles River, particularly those with expertise in clinical and anatomic pathology, have been in the forefront of efforts to develop global ... more
When hospitals purchase the Epic EMR, they may get more than they bargained for. One of the fascinating aspects of Epic is the extent to which the company attempts to put its own spin on the culture o ... more
Think quickly when I say "innovation " in relation to healthcare. What types of organizations come quickly to your mind. Hospitals? No. The pharmaceutical industry? No. I personally think of sectors ... more
Pharmacies and pharmacists seem to be evolving into neighborhood healthcare centers. I have posted previous notes about this phenomenon (see: Local Pharmacies Emerge as Centers for Care of Diabetics; ... more
The last Presidential election here in the U.S. was run on a platform of change. But, as usual, most of that change has happened far beyond the political arena. Meanwhile, here in the small business c ... more
Although retail health clinics are cheap, convenient, and associated with high levels of patient satisfaction, there's still some confusion about their role in the healthcare system.Do those clinics w ... more
Back-office automation and process improvements have rarely been a high priority for U.S. hospitals, writes Jim McDowell, senior director for healthcare insight and industry strategy at Oracle Corp. i ... more
Summary: #0160; Could we bring our nation s health care bill down from 17% of GDP to 12%? An intriguing study from Milliman, the independent consulting and actuarial firm, says yes. Looking at ... more
Telehealth, which can shrink the distance between patients and specialists and cut costs while improving patient outcomes, got a big boost when California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger launched what will ... more
Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE: THC) received a strong response to its $800 million offer to repurchase debt due for repayment in 2013 as companies continue their push to refinance borrowings. Two weeks ... more
(TrendHunter.com) Intelligent pills, air-purifying phones and nurse robots. Today we hunt DIY HEALTHCARE - Sprint Firsts in Medical Technology. With public health care continuing to be an issue in ... more
A group of former employees of the now-closed St. Vincent rsquo;s Hospital in New York City and community activists say hospital officials exaggerated the facility rsquo;s debt, while frittering milli ... more
In its final rule for "meaningful use" of EMRs, CMS defined clinical decision support as technology that gives healthcare professionals "general and person-specific information, intelligently filtered ... more
Bigger does not always mean better, according to some healthcare reform observers.Some argue that accountable care organizations (ACOs)--those networks of healthcare providers that are designed to cut ... more
U.S. hospitals spent $83 billion caring for people with diabetes in 2008, according to a statistical brief issued by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. That year, roughly one out of every ... more
The University of Texas System Board of Regents approved plans for a new 12-story, 424-bed university hospital at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas that's slated to open in 2015, according to a ... more
How do you go about marketing your small business? Chances are these days much of your marketing is done online. So an important part of marketing your small business is to be sure your marketing site ... more
Mentoring is widely used to support learning within healthcare settings. It is an essential component of a range of Learning Beyond Registration programmes in the UK. This research project used an ext ... more
The concept of work-life quality is increasingly relevant in enabling positive employee engagement with the demands of work and family. This paper explores employees' perception of the effectiveness o ... more
The development of technology and the internet has created a revolution in the healthcare domain, with regard to the implementation of electronic medical records using web-based applications, such as ... more
California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. this week closed down a sham RN school that targeted Filipino-Americans who already worked in healthcare. He announced a $500,000 settlement with the op ... more
Medical students would like to use video games in med school, according to findings from a survey published online in BMC Medical Education. Virtually all of the students surveyed (98 percent) like th ... more
As if growing concern about medical identity theft due to the online storage of records wasn't bad enough, thousands of Boston-area patients now apparently need to worry about their paper records fall ... more
Russia: Iran's nuclear plant to start next week MOSCOW (AP) Russia's nuclear agency said Friday that it will load fuel into Iran's first nuclear power plant next week, defying U.S. calls to hold o ... more
A Chicago-area cardiologist was sentenced to five years in federal prison for stealing $13 million from Medicare and more than 30 other public and private healthcare insurance programs over the course ... more
The U.S. has made some progress in fighting Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in hospitals, according to findings from a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medic ... more
Most people assume that with healthcare reform, everyone will opt to have insurance and therefore seek care routinely, Anthony Cirillo writes in Hospital Impact. But little is being said of the option ... more
Emergency departments are increasingly serving as the safety net for medically underserved patients, especially adults with Medicaid, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Associati ... more
A new nationwide survey of 1,060 primary-care physicians conducted by Epocrates market research explores a broad variety of physician topics such as job satisfaction, patient safety tools and healthca ... more
A Catholic group that opposes the sale of Caritas Christi Health Care to Cerberus Capital Management, a capital equity firm, was so riled by the possibility that Caritas might go secular--performing a ... more
Church-owned health systems deliver significantly better quality and more efficient care than secular not-for-profit systems, according to a study released yesterday by Thomson Reuters. Investor-owned ... more
Lapsed contracts that were not re-signed could cost a Washington hospital $854,000, according to the Whidbey News Times. A recently completed independent auditor's report of Whidbey General Hospital's ... more
After reportedly allowing an unlicensed medical assistant to inject patients with unnecessary pain injections that were billed to Medicare as more expensive nerve blocks, Dr. Robert Ritchea of Phenix ... more
Ambulatory investigations have become more and more important as many medical or physiological investigations that can be performed under the real situations of daily life. To perform complex physiolo ... more
It's been a little over six months since Apple's iPad debuted to much fanfare. Not long after its debut, speculation about what the gadget could do for healthcare was rampant. In February, Dr. Ben Ale ... more
If employers save money on health insurance because of the new healthcare law, they will give their workers a raise, according to a new report by the trustees of Social Security. The theory is that th ... more
For the first half of 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights has reported 119 instances of medical record breaches which have put at risk some 5 million patient ... more
Georgetown University Hospital has temporarily closed a lab that performs genetic analysis for cancer after the results of flawed tests incorrectly showed that two patients did not have breast cancer, ... more
Medicare might last beyond 2029, twelve years longer than a 2009 pojection, according to a report released yesterday by the trustees who oversee Medicare and Social Security.But it might be too soon t ... more
Health Wonk Review offers a summary of some of the most provocative health care posts of the preceding two weeks. The newest edition went up today, and it s hosted by the Disease Management Care ... more
Although considerable research activity has been devoted to better understanding the processes underlying user adoption of technology in general, the determinants of individual adoption and use of inf ... more
The number of cyberchondriacs--people who use the Internet to look up health-related topics--has more than tripled (50 million vs. 175 million) since 1998 and 2010, according to a new Harris Poll. The ... more
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launched a probe of CareCredit, a division of General Electric Co.'s GE consumer finance unit for misleading users on the terms of its healthcare credit card, th ... more
Small business ownership is less about climbing the latter of success than about learning lessons from the struggles we face. Sure, success in your small business on your own terms is certainly your u ... more
In a ruling against the Obama administration, a federal judge in Virginia issued a procedural decision to allow a suit filed by Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cucinelli against the Affordable Care ... more
That Republicans don t support health care reform.Opponents of health care reform have been touting the results of yesterday s primary in Missouri as if it were a national referendum on the wil ... more
Hospital leaders, take note. Your older, male physicians pose greater malpractice risks than your younger or female doctors, according to a report released yesterday by the American Medical Associatio ... more
Last week, FiercePracticeManagement Editor Debra Beaulieu wrote that healthcare is different when it comes to payment. For doctors, a natural empathy toward patients with high out-of-pocket costs can ... more
In a mostly symbolic swipe at the Obama administration's healthcare reform law, Missouri voters overwhelmingly opposed the provision that requires people to buy health insurance, the New York Times re ... more
A recent study by Manhattan Research found that 71 percent of physicians consider smartphones essential to their practice and 84 percent said the Internet is critical to their jobs, reports iHealthBea ... more
Missouri voters vote today on a ballot measure that would ban laws requiring people to have health insurance, Associated Press/Columbia Missourian reports.The vote presents the first time that voters ... more
In a ruling against the Obama administration, a federal judge in Virginia issued a procedural decision to allow a suit filed by Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cucinelli against the Affordable Care ... more
Doctors who trained abroad deliver the same level of care as doctors educated stateside, according to a new study published in the August issue of Health Affairs. The study, which analyzed 244,000 hos ... more
Test your IQ. Just how much do you know about healthcare labor strikes and hiring trends? Are you keeping tabs on the latest union contract negotiations? Tallying the massive layoffs hitting hospitals ... more
Following a firestorm of criticism from privacy advocates who say federal officials gave too much leeway to healthcare organizations that inadvertently disclose protected health information, HHS has w ... more
The administration has trotted out Andy Griffith, who starred in classic TV shows "Matlock" and "The Andy Griffith Show," to sell senior citizens on President Obama's new healthcare law in a new TV co ... more
An investigation by the New York Times has found radiation overdoses from CT brain perfusion scans were more prevalent and posed more serious consequences than previously thought. According to the F ... more
In Bad Medicine the Cato Institute white paper exploring The Real Costs and Consequences of the New Health Care Law, Cato senior fellow Michael Tanner declares the individual mandate, ... more
With MinuteClinic visits up 36 percent in the second quarter, according to Drugstore News, consumers seem to be shifting their demand away from expensive physician offices with limited hours to affo ... more
Summary: As regular readers know, not long ago Cato Institute senior fellow Michael Tanner published a 52-page critique of the new health care legislation titled Bad Medicine, and I decided to write ... more
I #8217;m getting a little concerned. I #8217;m starting to wonder if there will continue to be enough senior citizens to go around. Recently, I contributed a post over at Business.Gov in which I disc ... more
A Florida judge knocked a GOP-backed healthcare amendment off the November ballot, calling its wording "manifestly misleading," the Associated Press reports. The proposed constitutional amendment woul ... more
If you don't know much about the healthcare reform bill passed in March, you're not alone. When 2,100 adults were given a list of 18 reform items and asked to identify which were part of the law and w ... more
Hospital CFOs should try to break out of their financial silo, advises Ken Perez, senior vice president of marketing for Emeryville, Calif.-based healthcare performance management solutions provider M ... more
The trend of Americans cutting back on healthcare use during tough economic times is nothing new, considering that many lose their jobs and, in turn, their health insurance. However, according to stat ... more
In what could turn out to be a seminal article that helps raise demand for hospice care and helps the terminally ill consider a more thoughtful approach to the art of dying, Brigham and Women's surgeo ... more
Physician groups and hospitals are scrambling to set aside old rivalries and signing up as partners, in order to take advantage of incentives Medicare will give to Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs ... more
As readers of FierceHealthcare and its related publications well know, despite a notion by some that combining social media and healthcare is a dangerous mix, more and more health professionals appear ... more
People are less likely to trust non-native speakers with foreign accents simply because they are harder to understand, according to a study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. When resea ... more
Michael Stanzione got into a hospital, but he can't get out.Insurance woes have kept Stanzione cooped up in a hospital for three years, the Bergen Record reports. But it's not like he's bedridden. In ... more
Several factors--most notably an anticipated stabilization of Medicare payments to physicians and the new healthcare reform law--are contributing to many experts' opinions that more jobs at both docto ... more
#0160;In April, an independent panel established by the National Institutes of Health came to the disheartening conclusion that currently, there is nothing to prevent or delay the progress of A ... more
A California-wide survey of 118 nonprofit hospitals showed that base salary for CEOs averaged $514,000, according to Payers Providers, a healthcare business publication. Add bonuses, retirement mone ... more
The healthcare overhaul law, which was supposed to increase access to healthcare, may have exactly the opposite effect for some children.Later this year, the law requires insurers to accept all childr ... more
South Florida continues to distinguish itself as a hotbed of Medicare fraud. A husband and wife team pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Miami for participating in a $13.7 million HIV infu ... more
Summary: Once again, Health Wonk Review offers a round-up of many of the most intriguing and informative health care posts that appeared during the preceding two weeks. Julie Ferguson, of Workers Comp ... more
Learn how Gwen Darling's first part-time job in the healthcare industry as a medical transcriptionist for a solo practice physician gave her an inside look at what goes into medical records. At 16, sh ... more
The prevalence of Huntington's disease (HD) is substantially underestimated in the UK, with significant implications for those affected, the healthcare system, and research, say experts. ... more
A comparison of the current state of the healthcare system in the UK and the new system proposed under legislation pushed through by Barack Obama s government, shows some surprising results. ... more
Maine, Maryland, Wyoming, South Carolina and the District of Columbia showed the greatest improvement in healthcare quality indicators that the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has added to ... more
What #8217;s your small business story? And what are the small business stories of other entrepreneurs just like you? Today #8217;s small business news roundup from Small Business Trends looks at the ... more
Nevada hospitals will no longer be able to get away with under-reporting or mis-reporting sentinel event data. Nevada lawmakers unanimously approved two draft bills Tuesday to require state hospitals ... more
Healthcare providers can take four steps to avoid allegations of fraud against their organizations, said leaders in the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Ser ... more
The state of emergency care in the U.S. might be much improved if every state followed the lead of Wisconsin. The Badger State not only ranks ninth in the nation in terms of time spent in emergency de ... more
The Cato Institute s Michael Cannon has replied to Part 1 of my response to Cato s report on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) .You ll find his reply here. Unfortunately, the ... more
Hospitals are not adequately screening for sepsis in the ICU. Sepsis, or surgical infection, kills 10 times more than heart attack and blood clots during surgery, according to new research published i ... more
After the DEA officially lifted the restrictions against the use of electronic prescribing for controlled substances in June, it eliminated the single greatest barrier to e-prescribing in a decade. Th ... more
As a physician, I have often been drawn into situations by family and friends in which I have served as an informal medical consultant about care and treatment issues. This has usually involved only t ... more
In an attempt to kill two birds with one stone, the Youth Policy Institute in Los Angeles recently started a program to train low-income and unemployed residents as medical assistants, pharmacy techni ... more
State boards and agencies around the country failed to alert the federal government of health professionals they disciplined, leaving huge gaps in the federal database that hospitals use to weed out d ... more
Hospitals in Germany may lose a source of cheap labor if a proposal to abolish the draft is pushed through.Because Germany is under pressure to cut defense spending and modernize its armed forces, the ... more
With more than 150 hospitals throughout the U.S. now using or testing Tasers as a means of helping to restrain unruly patients, it's clear that a growing number of hospital officials see stun gun tech ... more
Dr. John Docherty is an Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the Weill Medical College, Cornell University, Director of Post Graduate Education there, and Chief Medical Officer of Brain Resource. Traine ... more
Don't look now, but targeted marketing, similar to techniques used by websites such as Amazon.com, is making its way into the healthcare sector. In other words, based on your recent purchase of Produc ... more
If young doctors succeed in making abortion part of mainstream medicine, the practice could lose its outsider status, the New York Times reports. Despite OB-GYNs' optimistic predictions that freestand ... more
One out of every eight visits to U.S. hospital emergency departments in 2007 involved adults with a mental disorder, substance abuse problem, or both, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research a ... more
This is an article by Wes Jackson that was previously published by Solutions Journal. We have included a few Campfire questions at the end. The Trouble with Agriculture Across the farmlands of the U.S ... more
The Community Health Information System (CHIS) is an integrated, patient-centric, web-based application that assists all stakeholders in healthcare management. CHIS is a single sign-on portal that all ... more
As citizens find healthcare issues to be the most important for companies to address, cause-branding as a suitable analysis for competitive comparison of any healthcare insurance firm's CSR would be i ... more
Technology in healthcare environments has increasingly become a vital way to communicate vital information in a safe, reliable, precise and secure manner. Healthcare is an arena that is constantly cha ... more
Goal-oriented requirements engineering uses modelling to improve domain understanding and requirements quality. Regulations and laws impose additional context and constraints on goals and can limit th ... more
Many organisations have invested in Business Process Management Systems (BPMSs) and methodologies in order to monitor and improve their processes, with limited practicality when evaluating potential i ... more
Healthcare data should be linked and aggregated across data sources from different organisations to manage performance and provide integrated services. The internet offers the possibility of providing ... more
This week, the Cato Institute released a 52-page report on health care reform titled: Bad Medicine: A Guide to the Real Costs and Consequences of the New Health Care Law. The tract was written by Mich ... more
Federal officials charged 94 people with plotting to swindle Medicare out of more than $251 million in false claims, the Department of Justice and other federal agencies said in a joint statement rele ... more
On the heels of last month's news that roughly 3,500 nurses who had previously been penalized in other states were licensed to work in California comes more news of the same ilk. Another ProPublica in ... more
Hard to believe, but 52 percent of specialists and 50 percent of primary-care physicians claim to be using EMRs, up from 42 percent and 38 percent, respectively, two years earlier, a new survey indica ... more
o" style="display: block; margin: 0 auto;"> #0160;(via #0160;IBMLabs)IBM is enlisting some of the company s leading scientists and technologists to help medical practitioners and insurance companies ... more
Who is the better business owner? Could it be you? Today we realize that it is not so much money or the right connections that make a business succeed in the long run. How many well funded businesses ... more
As demographic ageing impacts across the world, health and welfare organisations are seeking new paradigms of care that address people's needs as well as being inherently more scalable than the incumb ... more
As potential Medicaid fee cuts loom, physicians in Texas are threatening to drop Medicaid patients, the Dallas Morning News reports. Forty-five percent of doctors polled by the Texas Medical Associati ... more
Despite a decade-long effort to improve patient safety, little progress has been made.One big obstacle is arrogant physicians who are not held accountable for their actions, says Dr. Peter Pronovost, ... more
Healthcare leaders are seeing smaller raises, but retention is up, according to the Hay Group's 2010 Healthcare Compensation Study. The share of healthcare CEOs receiving at least a 6 percent increase ... more
My blog note of yesterday focused on how a large health system had converted to a single EMR vendor, primarily to achieve system-wide integration (see: Integration as the Major Driver for the Epic Con ... more
Triumphing over tough times is what small business success is all about. So why the doom and gloom over the current tough economic environment? The key for small businesses everywhere is to persevere ... more
On his second day of work as head of the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services, Donald Berwick got down to business, pitching the final meaningful use rule for 2011-12, as a "win-win," which would ... more
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) set the bar lower and relaxed its meaningful use rule to encourage providers to adopt electronic health record systems, HHS officials announced Tuesda ... more
Hospitals that adopt more advanced computerized monitoring systems to identify healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are more likely to have implemented best practices to prevent such infections, ac ... more
The individual health market "is an important and growing market for health plans," says analyst Debra Donahue in Mark Farrah Associates' June 24 Healthcare Business Strategy. "It is emerging as a div ... more
Despite evidence that shows most catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs) can be prevented, they remain a persistent problem for many hospitals. Targeting a zero infection rate seems unrealist ... more
Rapid identification and aggressive infection control measures allowed a Dallas hospital to stop the spread of Acinetobacter baumannii, a type of bacteria that has become increasingly prevalent in hea ... more
Here s something that frankly, disturbed me. My daughter, who just finished her freshman year in college, recently told me, I can t believe how many kids at school take prescription drugs on a ... more
Rapid advances in information technology and telecommunications, and more specifically wireless and mobile communications are leading to the emergence of a new type of information infrastructure that ... more
Hospitals still struggle to prevent avoidable healthcare-associated infections, according to a survey of infection preventionists. Half of those surveyed agree that catheter-related bloodstream infect ... more
At Seattle Children's Hospital, nurses used to stash supplies like catheters in the closet and clamps in the nurse's office because the supply system was so unreliable, according to the New York Times ... more
In the short term, the recession has put pressure on nurses to stay put and delay retirement, making it hard for newly graduated nurses to find jobs, according to USA Today. Those lucky enough to find ... more
Six orthopedic surgeons at Rush University Medical Center's orthopedic department violated federal Medicare billing rules, according to a newly unsealed whistleblower lawsuit filed in U.S. District Co ... more
The American Medical Association is at a crossroads, if an article in today's edition of Politico is any indication. The association appears to be losing influence on Capitol Hill, thanks in part to a ... more
Lesser-known provisions of the new healthcare reform law could help build support in the run-up to the contentious mid-term elections, according to Kaiser Health News. Here are some of the changes you ... more
While acknowledging the myriad privacy and security concerns about cloud computing, a top Microsoft healthcare official is touting the technology as an affordable means of network maintenance, health ... more
A recent interview of Daniel Barchi, SVP/CIO of Carilion Clinic, Roanoke, Virginia, was filled with interesting tidbits (see: HIStalk Interviews Daniel Barchi). One that caught my attention related ... more
might want to take a look at Bob Wachter s post over at Wacther s World. http://community.the-hospitalist.org/blogs/wachters_world/archive/2010/07/08/why-obama-made-the-right-call-on-berwick.aspx ... more
Summary: Don Berwick, who will soon become the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, has declared himself an extremist insofar as he is a passionate advocate of patient-centered care ... more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed a new federal healthcare information privacy rule yesterday that would expand patients' rights to access their information and restrict ... more
Should Maryland-based Johns Hopkins Medicine, which is interested in expanding into Washington, D.C., be handcuffed into rehabilitating a flailing hospital in order to get approval to take over a flou ... more
In another move that strengthens CMS positioning itself as a champion of better quality care, CMS has added outpatient indicators to hospital performance measurements listed on its Hospital Compare we ... more
A Guest Post By Authors: Mark E Williams, MD , FACP Ward K. Ensminger Distinguished Professor of Geriatric Medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Attending Physician University of Virgi ... more
If findings from a survey of teenagers on their interest in pursuing a career in healthcare are any indication, the U.S. may have to look elsewhere to ensure that its healthcare workforce is staffed u ... more
If Americans stopped seeing certain problems as medical conditions, it might be possible to whittle away some of the more than $2 trillion the country spends annually on healthcare, reports the Florid ... more
What do these two cases have in common?Case No. 1: Jayant Patel, a surgeon dubbed "Dr. Death" in Australia for several botched operations was sentenced last week to seven years in prison for killing t ... more
Let me now share what the Judging Panel and the SharpBrains team found most impressive from each Winner and Finalist of the 2010 Brain Fitness Innovation Awards, accompanied by some additionalΓΒ info ... more
We define Brain Fitness as having the brain-based cognitive, emotional and self-regulation capacities required to succeed in one rsquo;s environment. Not everyone is exposed to the same mental demands ... more
In spite of the recent economic downturn, revenues for digital technologies to assess, enhance and treat cognition, or digital brain health and fitness tools, grew 35% in 2009. #8220;The convergence ... more
If domestic medical travel takes off, your biggest competitor might be a hospital hundreds of miles away that offers better-quality and less expensive care. Healthcare dollars may be headed out of tow ... more
As expected, last night's announcement that President Obama would bypass Senate confirmation and use a recess appointment in naming Dr. Donald Berwick the next head of the Centers for Medicare and Med ... more
Fraud bureaus are reporting an increase in fake health plans, according to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, an anti-fraud watchdog nonprofit. The plans may sound legitimate, but pay little to no ... more
Perks associated with recruiting and relocating upper-level healthcare executives seem to be drying up, according to findings from a survey by MSA Executive Search. It's possible that the pressure to ... more
Various types of medical registries (e.g., cancer, drug, prosthesis) are becoming critical elements for assessing the quality of healthcare. This applies to physicians and patients alike (see: Saving ... more
Tonight the White House Blog explained: In April, President Obama nominated Dr. Donald Berwick to serve as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Many Republicans in ... more
At one time it might have appeared like the big brands had it all wrapped up. Now the mainstream media would have you believe the economic downturn as reduced small mom and pops to near collapse and c ... more
Summary: Today, many argue that the traditional relationship between doctor and patient is changing. At one time, the doctor had the information, the patient listened. #0160;But today, as more and mor ... more