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Although most Americans say they would prefer a low-tech approach to death, the opposite is happening, with more than 20% of terminally ill patients dying in intensive care, according to an article in the March issue of Critical Care Medicine, the journal of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.
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An evaluation of Arkansas Medicaid Cash & Counseling program, in which enrollees direct their own personal care services, indicates that people in the program are much more likely to receive such services than are those who were eligible for services but had to get them in the usual way.
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Does the HIPAA security rule prohibit transmission of protected health information (PHI) by e-mail? Are health organizations responsible for the protection of unsolicited e-mails sent by patients? If an employee, other than field staff, works out of his or her home, either full-time or part-time (e.g., during maternity leave, on weekends or evenings, or as part of a telecommuting job description), do the HIPAA security regulations apply? If so, how do we ensure compliance?
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CMS tightens rules for processing claims; Upcoming hospice educational events.
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Current work practices are not adequate to protect health care workers from chemotherapeutic agents and other dangerous drugs, and hospitals need to be more vigilant in their efforts to prevent exposure, according to a hazard alert from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
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Nurses who prepare and administer chemotherapy agents in outpatient settings often dont use the proper gloves or other recommended personal protective equipment (PPE), according to a survey of oncology nurses. Furthermore, few nurses who handle chemotherapeutic drugs received health evaluations that included reproductive and cancer evaluation, the survey found.
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Studies have associated workplace exposures to hazardous drugs with health effects such as skin rashes and adverse reproductive events (including infertility, spontaneous abortions, or congenital malformations) and possibly leukemia and other cancers.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced an initiative to emphasize hazard communication, an area that already is a routine part of inspections. Every inspection even those focused on a specific complaint includes a review of hazard communication and record keeping.
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A phlebotomist developed active TB and 56 employees tested positive for latent TB infection after a highly infectious patient spent three weeks on general medical wards before being placed in a negative pressure room.
