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If a patient gives a different Social Security number from the last time he or she presented, this could mean that that patient is confusing the number with his or her spouse or child's. However, it could also mean the patient is assuming a false identity.
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On Feb. 17, 2009, the Health Information Technology and Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH) was enacted.
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Will funding from the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), propel state Medicaid programs forward with the use of electronic health records (EHRs)? Or will state fiscal crises or other unforeseen problems prevent the hoped-for progress?
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It is more important than ever for patient access/registration departments to monitor outcomes, as this can "make or break" the success of the department. However, data can be missing, misleading, or just plain bad. Any of these scenarios means trouble for patient access
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One mother came into the emergency department at Greater Baltimore Medical Center frantic and upset because her small child was very ill. She was visibly frustrated with the registration process, until the patient access representative performing the registration expressed concern.
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The staggering burden of heath care associated infections (HAIs) in lives and dollars is "unacceptable," but changing the status quo is difficult because the health care system is woefully skewed toward treatment rather than prevention, Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said recently in Atlanta at the opening of the Fifth Decennial International Conference on HAIs.
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At DuBois (PA) Regional Medical Center, employees were failing N95 fit tests in alarming numbers. In the cardiology department, about 46% of employees failed fit-tests even after trying a variety of models and sizes. Things weren't much better in anesthesia (35%), cardiovascular ICU (34%), or the emergency department (26%).
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At the Infected Health Care Worker Program in the Minnesota Department of Health, nurse specialist Stephen Moore, RN, MPH, has a case load of 150 health care workers who have HIV, hepatitis B or C. Some are administrators not involved in patient care. Only about 20 are nurses, doctors, or dentists who perform invasive procedures that are considered exposure-prone according to a 1991 guideline from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention