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Advances in information technology (IT) can improve the quality and other aspects of health care, but electronic storage and exchange of personal health information might compromise privacy, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report issued Sept. 17.
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Several resources are available to health care providers and consumers on end-of-life issues.
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The use of integrative medicine therapies continues to grow, with hospitals opening integrative medicine centers and health care providers offering massage therapy and acupuncture.
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It is not essential that a hospice create a staff position for a grant writer, but a hospice's fundraising program does have an advantage when a staff person is assigned the responsibility of finding and applying for grants, according to experts interviewed by Hospice Management Advisor. In fact, the part-time grant writer for Hospice of Wake County has more than covered her salary with more than $450,000 in grants obtained in the 14 months she's worked for the agency.
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Michelle Mickey Rork, program director for PeachCare for Kids, Georgia's State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), says that one of the state's most successful initiatives for increasing enrollment and retention of eligible children has been through the work of its Right from the Start Medicaid Outreach Project.
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Several states already have made midyear payment rate cuts for FY 2009.
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The Joint Commission has strongly endorsed recently issued compendium infection prevention guidelines, announcing that the condensed, actionable recommendations may become required as accreditation standards by 2010.
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Patient satisfaction is higher at hospitals that embrace technology, according to the 10th Annual Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study of Hospitals & Health Networks magazine, which is published by the American Hospital Association.
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There's good news and bad news in a new study just released by the Health Research & Educational Trust, an affiliate of the American Hospital Association, and the Boston University Health Policy Institute: Of 470 hospital chief quality officers surveyed, 97% reported that QI activities had a positive effect on patient care outcomes.