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Clinicians may face pressure from family members to keep going when there is concern that the patient might not have wanted aggressive end-of-life interventions, or the health care team considers palliation in the patients best interests.
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Learning health care systems" necessitate the collection of large amounts of data electronically during every health care encounter.
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Clinical ethicists can help surrogate decision makers and clinicians to resolve conflicts over a patient's end-of-life wishes by facilitating communication between involved parties and exploring difficult questions.
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Ethical issues involving the medical use of marijuana include whether it is possible for the benefits to exceed its known risks, and that many physicians making recommendations operate on the margins of the medical community.
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Interpretation of results of genetic screening tests is potentially problematic for both providers and patients, and misunderstandings can arise regarding their implications.
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As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) make yet another change in the regulations regarding "observation status, the confusion continues over when a patient qualifies or doesn't qualify for this type of care, and what is at stake in these decisions for patients and providers.
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As the concept of the patient-centered medical home grows in popularity, opportunities are opening up for case managers to work with patients on the primary care level to augment the care provided by physicians and spend the time necessary to help them learn about their disease and follow their treatment plan.
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Harmonic scalpels and staples were missing at a hospital in Florida. A review of videotapes showed what appeared to be a surgical resident leaving the equipment storage room with items he was not authorized to take.
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As part of its efforts to reduce admissions and emergency department visits, Capital District Physician Health Plan (CDPHP) has embedded case managers in 15 primary care practices and is conducting a pilot project that embeds a case manager in a local hospital.
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Sometimes just making people aware of their performance is all that is necessary to significantly improve care. Investigators at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) found this to be precisely the case when they attempted to use this approach to improve door-to-needle times for stroke patients who presented to the ED for care at UCSF Medical Center.