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Study: Teaching hospitals are no more expensive than nonteaching ones
Scott E. Rupp Healthcare AdministrationWhile the perception may be otherwise, the facts tell us something different: Major teaching hospitals are less expensive compared with nonteaching hospitals over the course of an entire episode of care and the costs incurred at 30 days, researchers found. This the major finding after researchers analyzed 1.2 million Medicare hospitalizations for common medical and surgical conditions. Researchers said that when they expanded the "time window" to 90 days into the episode of care for a surgical procedure and subsequent treatment, spending at major teaching hospitals was actually lower on post-acute care and readmissions than nonteaching hospitals. Initial hospitalizations were more expensive, however.
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5 questions you should always ask your doctor
Lisa Mulcahy Medical & Allied HealthcareYou want to be as proactive about your health as you possibly can. But did you know that certain questions you never knew you should ask your doctor can actually help he or she diagnose you or provide clearer and more effective treatment options? Whether you're seeing a specialist for the very first time or have concerns you're bringing to the attention of your longtime PCP, there are certain key questions it's good to be curious about — asking them shows you're responsible and want to be fully informed about your own health situation.
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HHS’ ONC division wants streamlined prior authorization, better price…
Scott E. Rupp Healthcare AdministrationThe United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is having a busy time. In addition to its effort to provide clarity for its interoperability rule, the department announced that it’s looking for ways electronic prior authorization can be improved. Don Rucker, head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, said at Academy Health's annual research conference in Washington, D.C., in early June that the current state of prior authorization, including the requirement that providers obtain approval from a patient's insurance before prescribing medication or therapy, is a "non-computerized kabuki of payment" that "needs to get rethought."
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Pharmacists’ role in promoting patient safety through deprescribing
Sheilamary Koch PharmaceuticalPharmacists are obviously key players in prescribing medications. Now, as medication-related harm impacts aging populations, these same pharmacists are being called to take on an equally crucial role in the deprescribing process. Deprescribing is the planned and supervised identification and reduction or discontinuation of unnecessary, inappropriate or ineffective medications. It is a viable route to consider for patients who are suffering from a number of maladies, including polypharmacy, adverse drug reactions, ineffective treatment, falls, or when the goals of treatment have changed, note medical researchers from the Centre for Education and Research on Ageing at the University of Sydney.
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How to recognize employees when summer Fridays aren’t practical
Catherine Iste Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementSummer Fridays refer to the practice that employees get to leave early or work remotely on Fridays between Memorial Day and Labor Day. While this can be a fantastic benefit for office workers, it can be extremely impractical to implement outside of standard 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. offices and cost-prohibitive to offer to nonexempt employees. This does not mean our hands are tied as leaders when it comes to giving employees a break during the summer months. Here are some other options to consider when summer Fridays are not practical.
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A new device that measures stress
Dorothy L. Tengler Mental HealthcareAccording to a new survey from the American Psychological Association, average stress levels in the U.S. rose from 4.9 in 2014 to 5.1 on a 10-point stress scale, and there has been an increase in number of adults who experience extreme stress. Andrew Steckl, an Ohio Eminent Scholar and professor of electrical engineering in the University of Cincinnati's College of Engineering and Applied Science, and his research team have developed a new test that can easily and simply measure common stress hormones using sweat, blood, urine, or saliva. Their unique device measures multiple biomarkers and can be applied to different bodily fluids.
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Ready or not, we die
Lisa Cole Healthcare AdministrationWhat is one of the first things we, as healthcare providers, do when providing acute patient care? Clarify "Do Not Resuscitate" (DNR) status, correct? This singular item informs the patient’s entire plan of care. Yet, how many of us are personally equally prepared? Have we completed what we hammer our clients, colleagues, and clan to do? Ready or not, death will be knocking on our door.
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US economy adds 75,000 jobs; unemployment rate stays at 3.6%
Seth Sandronsky Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementThe May jobs report shows that nonfarm payroll employment rose 75,000 following 263,000 new hires in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. May’s rate of unemployment stayed at 3.6%. Is May’s drop in job creation a sign of a slowing economy? "One month doesn’t make a trend," according to Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, hourly wages barely rose in May.
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Healthcare providers on the brink
Keith Carlson Medical & Allied HealthcareNo one in their right mind would argue that healthcare careers aren’t stressful. Burnout, depression, stress-based illness, and even suicide are common in certain populations of healthcare workers. If our nation and the world depend upon nurses, doctors, pharmacists, and other professionals to provide care that millions of patients require, why are we ignoring the stressors that cause healthcare providers to develop debilitating symptoms, abandon their careers, or even take their own lives?
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6 simple ways to boost your hospital’s hand-washing compliance
Lisa Mulcahy Medical & Allied HealthcareYour hospital staff knows that hand-washing is essential for reducing infection rates, but sometimes they may cut corners when it comes to compliance. Stress, fatigue, and high workloads can lead to your doctors, nurses and workers skipping proper and continual hygiene steps. Also, patients very rarely wash their hands when they're in bed — and their visitors almost never make it a practice to so, either. Yet, boosting compliance rates can be much easier than you think. Here are six surprising (and easy) ways to identify hygiene risk situations and quickly fix them to protect everyone in your care environment.
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