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Atorvastatin: What Is Good for the Heart Is Good for the Kidneys
For patients at risk of or who already have been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease and are taking atorvastatin, an added benefit is improved kidney function in a dose-dependent manner.
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Ethical Issues and Standards in Case Management, Part 1
This month, we will discuss principles related to ethics and how they affect one’s role as an RN case manager or a social worker. These principles include patient advocacy, which applies to all the roles and functions that case managers perform.
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Intensive Inpatient Rehabilitation: Optimal Path for Stroke Patients
After acute care, a stroke patient’s discharge plan should include an inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) when they meet specific medical criteria, according to the 2016 American Heart Association/American Stroke Association guidelines. Stroke also tops the CMS 13 list, which designates 13 medical conditions that 60% of an IRF’s patients must have for the IRF to qualify. IRFs provide hospital-level care to stroke patients who need intensive, interdisciplinary rehabilitation care provided under the direct supervision of a physician.
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Children With Chronic Illness: When Compliance Is Complicated
Children living with chronic illness often struggle with their treatment regimen. Depression and anxiety may be involved, as the child likely cannot cope. But that is just one component of the noncompliance picture. Psychological and medical trauma, as well as family issues, may be involved.
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Case Studies Offer Clues to How Team Case Management Model Worked
West Virginia University's team case management approach to diabetes management has led to positive outcomes with patients.
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Program Targeting Patients With Diabetes Reaches A1c Goals
West Virginia University's diabetes care program helped patients lower their A1c levels from an average of 10.25 to an average of 8.7 within three to six months. Even at 18-month follow-ups, 86% of patients recorded lower A1c levels than they did in the beginning, and one-third of patients registered A1c levels below 8. The team-based diabetes care program started as a quality improvement initiative.
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Not All Capitated Payment Models Work
Nearly a decade ago, Maryland experimented with a global budget payment model for rural hospitals. The plan was to give them a set amount of money, called Total Patient Revenue, to improve their efficiency. But it did not quite work out. ED visits dropped 12%, and non-ED admissions declined 23%. But there was little incentive for the hospitals to collaborate with community providers to improve patients’ health. Instead, the hospitals just reduced overall services.
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Health System Reaches ED Visit Reduction Goals by Focusing on Frequent Users
When a five-year, federally funded demonstration project began in New York, the goals were lofty: reduce preventable readmissions by 25% or more. NYU Langone Health achieved this goal through identifying frequent users and working with them through a targeted case management approach.
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New Tool May Identify People at Risk for HIV
A potential analytical tool may help providers identify those at risk for HIV in efforts to offer pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Using a machine-learning algorithm to predict who could become infected with HIV during a three-year period, researchers were able to flag 2.2% of 3.7 million patients as high or very high risk.
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Check Postpartum Opioid Use in New Moms
In a new national cohort study of more than 300,000 deliveries, findings indicate that women who received a peripartum opioid prescription had rates of new persistent opioid use of 1.7% for vaginal delivery and 2.2% for cesarean delivery.