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Do you want to increase satisfaction scores, improve patient care, and boost staff retention all in one shot? Consider switching to a team model of nursing.
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If asked, How do you ensure patients are not mistakenly identified before medications are given? during an accreditation survey, would every nurse in your facility be able to answer the question?
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Although drug-eluting stents were launched in Europe about a year prior to their introduction in the U.S., the market penetration of the devices in Europe is now significantly less than in the U.S. As discussed at the EuroPCR meeting (formerly the Paris Course on Revascularization), held here in mid-May, the slow trend in adoption is mainly attributable to reimbursement policies in a number of countries that cap the amount paid by the national health system at a level below that which would allow hospitals to use drug-eluting stents on all patients.
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Listening to the heart with a stethoscope is the most widely used method for the detection of heart murmurs, but Zargis Medical (Princeton, New Jersey) has developed an auscultatory device it hopes will become the new standard of care.
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The American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC; Washington), publisher of Lab Tests Online, a web site for laboratory testing information, has launched a second version of the site in the United Kingdom.
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Escalon Medical (Wayne, Pennsylvania) said it revised its initial exchange offer for the shares of Drew Scientific Group (London), a company specializing in analytical systems for laboratory testing worldwide.
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In a nearly unanimous vote, an FDA panel voted last month to oppose new labeling sought by WorldHeart (Ottawa, Ontario) for its Novacor LVAS (left ventricular assist system) for use with very sick heart-failure patients. The panel said WorldHeart did not present enough evidence to show the device would let those sicker patients improve enough to receive a heart transplant.
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Cardiocom (Minneapolis, Minnesota) reported that Ucare Minnesota, a non-profit health maintenance organization, renewed its multi-year agreement with the disease management company to provide systems for remote daily home monitoring of Ucares congestive heart failure (CHF) patients.
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A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation last month to change Medicare to cover ultrasound screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), often called a silent killer. At a Capitol Hill press conference, Sens. Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut) and Jim Bunning (R-Kentucky) and Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) joined members of the National Aneurysm Alliance (Washington) and aortic aneurysm survivors to announce the SAAAVE (Screening Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Efficiently) Act.
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Conor Medsystems (Menlo Park, California) presented acute and follow-up data from the PISCES (Paclitaxel In-Stent Controlled Elution Study) trial during last months EuroPCR (previously Paris Course on Revascularization) conference in Paris. The company said results from the trial support the safety of its stents and demonstrated in one of the study arms a binary restenosis rate of 0%.
