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5 ways to improve your pediatric patients’ hospital experience

Lisa Mulcahy Medical & Allied Healthcare

As a hospital administrator, you know your pediatric patients have much different emotional and physical needs than their adult counterparts. But even though you think you're working effectively to address those needs, you may miss the mark. It's key to encourage kids and their families to express what they want and need from your staff during a hospital stay — but it's also key to anticipate what they will make them feel comfortable, too. Use this research-driven advice to ace the task and earn high patient satisfaction marks.

New protocol triples storage time for donated livers

Chelsea Adams Medical & Allied Healthcare

A three-step approach to the organ preservation process promises to help physicians store donated livers for hours longer than before. To this point, donated livers must be transplanted within nine hours of harvest. A varied protocol means livers may be viable for up to 27 hours. In previous studies, rat livers were preserved using a supercooling method that included a modified glucose compound. The combination prevented ice crystals from growing on the livers. However, when the process was replicated for human livers, it didn't work.

Infographic: Is nanotechnology the future of medicine?

Brian Wallace Pharmaceutical

Nanotechnology has been used in medicine since 2001, but it's now being developed into something bigger. Ingestible capsules containing sensors, cameras, and more are already changing the face of medicine. By 2024, the global market for nanotech will exceed $125 billion. However, there are some ethical concerns about this futuristic field, and public sentiment is currently mixed regarding nanotech. This infographic outlines the advances in medical nanotechnology as well as where the industry is headed.

Deadliest, most common cancers get the least attention

Karen Selby Medical & Allied Healthcare

Cancer is one of the top five leading causes of death in the U.S. The American Cancer Society estimates 1.7 million new cases will be diagnosed and more than 600,000 people will die of the disease in 2019. Americans across the nation are responding to these alarming numbers, but the public and the federal government are focusing their concerns — and donations — on cancers getting the most publicity, not the ones killing the most people.

Cafeteria plan benefits: A primer for employers

Grace Ferguson Business Management, Services & Risk Management

According to a 2019 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, "employers were more likely to increase offerings in all benefits categories than to decrease offerings." Further, employers believe that healthcare benefits are the most important to their workforce. However, healthcare benefits have a long-standing reputation for being expensive. To alleviate the cost burden for employees, in 1978, the U.S. Congress created Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code. Benefit plans established under Code Section 125 are known as cafeteria — or Section 125 — plans. A cafeteria plan enables employees to pay for qualified benefits, such as group health insurance, on a pretax basis.

Collaboration in healthcare: Beyond the silo

Keith Carlson Medical & Allied Healthcare

Silos are a common sight in the farmlands of the world, but what about the silos we inhabit as healthcare clinicians, researchers, academicians, and administrators? What would happen if the silos disappeared? What kind of collaborations might result and how would the face of medicine and healthcare change? Historically, nurses have been at the beck and call of physicians, relegated to tasks previously identified as "non-professional." Recently, the separate silos of nurses and doctors have become less pronounced, allowing for increased trust, collaboration, and shared practice.

CMS: ACOs are producing savings, physician-based models faring best

Scott E. Rupp Healthcare Administration

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are paying off big time, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said, with the programs generating more than $739 million in net savings in 2018. ACOs are designed to lower growth in expenditures and improve care quality. For its part, an ACO agrees to be held accountable for the quality, cost, and experience of care of an assigned Medicare beneficiary population. According to Health Affairs, ACOs that successfully meet quality and savings requirements share a percentage of the achieved savings with Medicare.

US payrolls add 136,000 new jobs; unemployment rate drops to 3.5%

Seth Sandronsky Business Management, Services & Risk Management

In September, U.S. nonfarm payrolls added 136,000 new hires versus 130,000 in August, as the unemployment rate dropped to 3.5%, a 50-year low, compared with 3.7% in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There were 5.8 million unemployed workers in September, down 275,000 from August. Despite the record low rate of unemployment in September, average hourly earnings for all workers on private nonfarm payrolls dropped a penny after climbing 11 cents in August, according to the BLS.

Soulfully preparing for the end of life

Lisa Cole Medical & Allied Healthcare

These past seven months I’ve been on a mission. Throwing caution to the wind, I moved out of state temporarily to be near Mom to set her up to "age in place." Amidst the plethora of preparations, we’ve shared many soulful moments. What began as an odyssey is ending with an opus. Before launching into all her current and possible future arrangements, it was important for us to sit down and talk. Heartfully and honestly talk — as if our lives depended on it. Because, they did.

It’s true at work: No good deed goes unpunished

D. Albert Brannen Business Management, Services & Risk Management

Life is full of sayings that can apply to work. Some of them might include: "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," "turn the other cheek," "walk the high road," and "kill them with kindness." But, unfortunately, this employment lawyer has learned that when it comes to work, one adage always seems to ring true: "No good deed goes unpunished." It often seems that the more breaks an employer gives an employee, the more often the employee asks for a loan or pay advance, files a charge of discrimination, or starts a campaign to get a union into the workplace.

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