Recent Articles
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A new study on vitamin E may change how cardiac patients are treated
Lisa Mulcahy Medical & Allied HealthcareAs a cardiologist or hospital administrator, your priority is to give your heart attack patients their best fighting chance — and now there may be a simple new way to do just that. Researchers at Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia, report that giving patients suffering from cardiac arrest symptoms a vitamin E dose may provide better procedure outcomes prior to vessel/stent surgery and may be beneficial to patients' overall outcomes if given before discharge after a procedure.
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Bills requiring baby changing tables in men’s restrooms become more…
Scott E. Rupp Facilities & GroundsPieces of legislation mandating that men's public restrooms include a baby changing station continue to gain support. If all goes according to plan in Wisconsin, the state could soon join others in doing so, reports Milwaukee's WTMJ-TV. Two state representatives and a state senator — all men — have introduced the bill requiring the changing tables in any newly built or substantially renovated public building. Massachusetts is looking at a bill, too. Similar bills have passed in Arizona, Utah, California, Illinois, and New Mexico.
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Good reasons to visit the Badlands
Dave G. Houser Recreation & LeisureProtected as a national park since 1978, the Badlands are definitely a good choice for visitors. The scenery is mind-boggling, wildlife abounds and there’s plenty of hiking and camping opportunities throughout the 244,000-acre preserve. Native Lakota people named this 400-square-mile maze of buttes, canyons, pinnacles and spires in South Dakota "Mako Sica" or "Bad Land." Too dry and inhospitable for settlement or development, the Badlands eventually gained the favor of conservationists who recognized the striking landscapes and paleontological riches.
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Planning for the future: There’s no time like the present
Carina Oltmann Medical & Allied HealthcareThe holidays are upon us. There are gifts to purchase and wrap, parties to plan, potluck dishes to prepare and lights to string. Inevitably, many of us will share in some festivities with our close family members. For those of us who work in healthcare, we know that the gifts of good health and time shared with loved ones are precious. What we may not think about is that these hours or days together are an opportune time to take care of a very important matter: Planning for the future and establishing advance directives.
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What you can do about the 8% Medicare reimbursement cuts to therapy services
Jarod Carter Healthcare AdministrationThis month, CMS came down with its final ruling on the Physician Fee Schedule, which is going to cut Medicare reimbursements for physical therapy services by 8% in 2021. This was in no way a surprise, even though the APTA called it a "surprising decision." It’s not the APTA's fault. It's no group's fault. It’s no individual’s fault, or the profession as a whole. It's just math. I know a lot of practices out there that are running on such thin profit margins that an 8% reduction in Medicare reimbursements for physical therapy services could be the nail in the coffin. But it doesn’t have to be that way!
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Investigational hyperbaric oxygen therapy indications: Preconditioning…
Eugene R. Worth Medical & Allied HealthcareWelcome to another post on plausible, off-label uses for hyperbaric oxygen therapy. We have previously discussed the rationale for using hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) in an "off-label" indication. We suggested that there must be a scientific rationale, physiology that made sense for use of HBOT, and some sort of verified outcome (case report, case series, controlled clinical trial, etc.). Today, we are going to discuss the use of HBOT for patients who have an ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) to the myocardium.
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Your brain on the holidays
Catherine Iste Mental HealthcareOne of my sisters recently noted she was about to complete a knitting class. In the midst of the hubbub of Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping and several birthday celebrations, she had committed to a multiple-session class to learn how to knit. While I assumed that would have increased her stress levels, instead she said it reduced them because it forced her to sit still each class, concentrate on something completely new to her and best of all, would result in the creation of several gifts. Research by a few professors at Harvard confirms her claims.
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What’s the best distance to practice at for self-defense? It’s…
Mike Ox Law Enforcement, Defense & SecurityI see the debate of how far out to put the target almost every time I go to a range during public hours. Should I put it at 21 feet because of the "21-foot rule?" Should I put it at 11 feet since half of law enforcement fatalities happen within 11 feet? Should I put it at nine feet since an "average" self-defense encounter happens within three yards, lasts three seconds, and three rounds are fired? The answer is a little simpler and a little more flexible than you may think.
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A tale of 2 year-end reviews: YouTube vs. Spotify
Tory Barringer MarketingYouTube's 2018 year-end video, "Everyone Controls Rewind," has the dubious honor of being the website's most-disliked video. This year, YouTube played it safe with "For the Record," a video montage celebrating the biggest creator moments of the year. The reaction so far has been more positive than last year, but that isn't saying much. Meanwhile, Spotify recently unveiled its annual Spotify Wrapped, a personalized review of each user's individual listening habits. Chances are you've already seen Spotify Wrapped links posted all over your social media, and for good reason. What did Spotify do right that YouTube seems to be struggling with?
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The big bump: The airlines likely to oversell and what passengers should…
Lark Gould Travel, Hospitality & Event ManagementBumps happen. In this case, we're addressing the airline kind that often leave passengers scratching their heads over voluntary rebooking — which may bring points, money or free flights in exchange for surrendering a seat. But we are also looking at involuntary bumps — such as the forced removal of a passenger in 2017 from a United Airlines Express flight out of Chicago. These cases are more common than one would think — and are on the uptick. And while getting bumped from a flight is always a risk for flyers, some airlines are better at managing their passenger loads than others.