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Two organizations will pay a combined $4.8 million to settle a case sparked by a breach of protected health information (PHI). The settlement is the largest ever for a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
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In patient rooms, doctors are prescribing a low-sodium diet to improve health. But in hospital cafeterias, employees and visitors may be loading up on salty and processed food.
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Safe patient handling may become an imperative in the nations hospitals not because of any proposed legislation or regulation, but because of rising financial pressures related to both patient safety and workers compensation.
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Standardized language in health care is not yet universal, which can cause problems when implementing electronic health records (EHRs) in an employee health setting.
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Hospitals increasingly are teaching managers to look for signs of drug abuse among employees, focusing on subtle clues like talk of financial problems or more blatant signs, such as arriving to work late or failing to show up as scheduled.
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Health care systems handle cases of employee substance abuse in a variety of ways from punitive measures to providing treatment and long follow-up care and monitoring.
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Common wisdom suggests the drug-addicted doctor is different from the drug-addicted sales rep or homeless person.
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After years of development, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has created a respiratory protection device prototype that is expected to improve health care workers comfort and tolerance when wearing these devices.
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The violent attack on nurses at St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood, MN, was caught on surveillance video that soon was released to the public. The images are disturbing, particularly because the staff members are so defenseless against their attacker.
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The healthcare system involved in a false claims investigation prompted by a former employee blowing the whistle has settled the case. Dignity Health hospital system, based in San Francisco, has agreed to pay $37 million to settle the charges.