Hospital Management
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Challenges with Surrogate Informed Consent
The central ethical question is whether a surrogate’s judgment for consenting or refusing a medical intervention on behalf of a patient is consistent and congruent with this patient’s preferences, interests, and values.
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Is It a Problem to Pay Research Participants?
Paying people to participate in clinical research can be seen as ethically problematic. Yet community members expressed the opposite view, according to the results of a recent study.
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Changing Practice Models in Healthcare Raise Some Ethical Concerns
With all the ongoing changes in healthcare, such as physician contract clauses, new regulatory requirements, private equity ownership, and physician leadership, hospitals worry about the implications on revenue, patient satisfaction, and compliance. There also are important ethical considerations. The authors of a new policy paper from the American College of Physicians examined these.
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Policies Support Clinicians if Asked to Provide Inappropriate Care
When a family demands possibly inappropriate life-sustaining interventions, clinicians often turn to hospital policies for guidance. The authors of a recent study examined the effectiveness of Yale New Haven Hospital’s Conscientious Practice Policy. A theme emerged, focused on the inconsistent use of the policy. Whether it was used depended mostly on how resistant the family was to limiting interventions.
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Social Media Fuels COVID-19 Vaccine Fear
To fight the proliferation of vaccine misinformation and disinformation spreading on social media, public health agencies and academic partners have created a vaccine misinformation field guide outlining how to respond to the misinformation that is undermining uptake of the COVID-19 vaccines.
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Needlestick Risks at COVID-19 Vaccination Sites
Needlesticks are threatening to move beyond the hospital in a big way. With a variety of people with various skill sets administering COVID-19 vaccines — sometimes in unusual situations — there is understandable concern about sharps injuries at immunization sites. As COVID-19 vaccine guidelines expand to more age groups and populations, occupational health experts are reminding HCWs that needlesticks could lead to transmission of bloodborne pathogens.
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Good News for Pregnant Healthcare Workers
Pregnant healthcare workers face a personal choice to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, although emerging evidence suggests contracting the virus outweighs the risk of immunization. The CDC recommends lactating women can be vaccinated. However, the effects of the vaccines on pregnancy are unknown, though emerging trends look good.
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OSHA Steps in to Protect Healthcare Workers from COVID-19
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued a National Emphasis Program to ensure employees in high-hazard industries like healthcare are protected from contracting SARS-CoV-2. But a somewhat controversial problem is that researchers are finding most of the COVID-19 infections in healthcare workers are acquired in the community.
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Vaccinated HCWs Can Be Trusted Voice to Communities, Colleagues
Healthcare workers (HCWs) immunized against COVID-19 can be trusted voices to instill vaccine confidence in their colleagues and communities, public health officials and clinicians emphasize. Role-modeling of immunization also might encourage HCWs who are reluctant to take a vaccine. In a recent poll of 1,327 HCWs, 27% said they do not plan to take a COVID-19 vaccine, or have not yet decided. Breaking down the results, 17% of the HCWs polled do not plan to take the vaccine, and 10% were undecided.
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HCAHPS, Other Satisfaction Scores May Suffer from COVID-19 Effects
Before the pandemic, 73% of patients surveyed said they were very satisfied with the communication with their healthcare providers. During the pandemic, that figure nosedived to 60%. The number of patients who said they were not satisfied at all tripled.