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Transitions of care have been a bugaboo of medicine for years. And the problem isn’t getting easier. With accountable care organizations and the increased emphasis on various spokes of the healthcare wheel being able to talk clearly across the radius to each other, it has become more and more important to find simple, proven ways to ensure that handing a patient from one part of the system to the other happens quickly, yet with all the pertinent information.
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With reports that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) told its surveyors to contact public health departments immediately if they see flagrant breaches of infection control, one surgery center has developed a new policy and procedure on infection control breaches.
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Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and other leading causes of death, and now a new study has found that some hospital workers have significantly higher risk of developing the disease.
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The care coaching model of case management provided through the Medicare-Medicaid Alignment Initiative (MAI) in Illinois provides social support to people at risk for escalating health problems.
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A new Affordable Care Act demonstration project in Illinois has case managers working with a Medicare-Medicaid population to meet their psychosocial needs in addition to monitoring their health.
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Prescription opioid misuse and abuse is an expensive and dangerous problem nationwide as injured workers stay on the drugs too long, hurting their recovery and dampening their motivation to return to work.
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Emergency providers determine whether to admit patients to the hospital every day, but a new study suggests that while many of these decisions are consistent and clear-cut regardless of region or hospital, for certain common, low-mortality conditions, some physicians are as much as six times more likely to admit patients than others.
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In one sense, undocumented patients are like any other patients some have health insurance, but many will not. Whats particularly challenging is that undocumented patients who are uninsured will usually not qualify for the safety net programs that provide assistance for similar patients with citizenship, says Mark Kuczewski, PhD, chair of the Department of Medical Education and director of the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics at Loyola University in Maywood, IL.
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Blogs, message boards, and patient communities are being used not only by patients, but also by research participants. In some cases, this reveals whether or not a participant is taking actual medication or placebos, compromising the studys validity.
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Should cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) be given to end-stage Ebola patients, despite the risk to health care providers? What training is necessary at this point to ensure staff and patients are protected?