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About 4 million Americans undergo urinary catheterization annually, and more than 500,000 of these catheterizations involve indwelling catheters left in place for some period.
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Husbands or wives who care for spouses with dementia are six times more likely to develop the memory-impairing condition than those whose spouses don't have it, according to the results of a 12-year study led by Johns Hopkins, Utah State University, and Duke University.
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The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) has created a new home health care committee called Medical Devices and Systems in Home Care Applications to tackle home health care issues, which complements the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) initiative.
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A new compound similar to the active component of marijuana (cannabis) might provide effective pain relief without the mental and physical side effects of cannabis, according to a study in the July issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).
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A study evaluating the use of Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) in nursing homes found that patients with a POLST are less likely to receive unwanted hospitalization and medical interventions than patients without a POLST.
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When first developed in the 1970s, advance directives focused on providing specific legal instructions, such as a patient's wishes to withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment in cases of terminal illness or incapacity. The documents helped physicians avoid legal problems associated with fulfilling the patient's wishes.
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Living wills and advance directives often don't ensure that dying patients receive the kind of medical care they want, or don't want, to receive.
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A new Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert warns that health care providers today are being confronted with steadily increasing rates of crime, including assault, rape, and murder.
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The use of volunteers to enhance hospice services has grown and will continue to grow, according to Greg Schneider, founding director of Hospice Volunteer Association in Occidental, CA.