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Common pain relievers may promote C. difficile
Dorothy L. Tengler Medical & Allied HealthcareClostridioides difficile (C. diff) is the most commonly diagnosed cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea and has surpassed methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus as the most common healthcare-associated infection in many U.S. hospitals. Healthcare costs attributed to these infections can reach nearly $5 billion each year. Commonly occurring in older hospitalized adults after the use of antibiotic medications, C. diff affects the normal flora of the gut. This hardy type of bacteria is very difficult to treat. An estimated 15,000 deaths are directly attributable to C. diff infections, making it a substantial cause of infectious disease death.
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CVS Health to give $100 million to take on the social determinants of health
Scott E. Rupp Medical & Allied HealthcareSocial determinants of health are conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. According to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, conditions in these various environments and settings have been referred to as "place." In addition to the more material attributes of "place," the patterns of social engagement and sense of security and well-being are also affected by where people live. Following on this impact, and CVS Health's $69 billion acquisition of Aetna, the company announced that it will give $100 million over the next five years to improve community health.
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Ways to protect your healthcare workers from workplace violence
Lisa Mulcahy Healthcare AdministrationPatient-driven abuse: it's a sad but true reality for nurses, doctors and medical assistants today. As a hospital administrator, keeping your staff safe is obviously an essential priority, and your organization no doubt has policies in place to make this happen. Are those policies as effective as they can be, though? Reassess your strategies by reviewing and implementing the following research-driven findings.
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Study: Female brains may age more slowly
Tammy Hinojos Medical & Allied Healthcare"Anything you can do, I can do better! I can do anything better than you…" It's an oldie for sure, but it turns out, the catchy tune by Irving Berlin from "Annie Get Your Gun" might just have been on to something. It turns out that female brains tend to age more slowly than those of men, researchers report. Women's brains appear to be about three years younger than those of men at the same chronological age on average. This finding could provide one clue to why women tend to stay mentally sharp longer than men, the authors noted.
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Study: Patients experiencing high trauma from hospitalizations had more…
Lynn Hetzler Medical & Allied HealthcareHospitalization can be traumatizing for patients. Previous research shows that one in three patients who survived an ICU stay for an acute lung injury suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Disturbances in patients’ sleep, nutrition, mobility, and mood are common in medical inpatients, and these disturbances can be traumatic for patients. Traumatic hospitalization can also increase the risk of readmissions and emergency department (ED) visits. The results of a new study, published in JAMA, show that patients who experience high trauma of hospitalization may have a greater risk of an ED visit or readmission within 30 days compared with patients with low trauma exposure.
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Financial world weighs in on new CMS price rule
Christina Thielst Healthcare AdministrationThe Motley Fool is a media channel dedicated to helping the world invest for a better financial future. It is no surprise, then, that it has addressed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) new Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System rule, which requires hospitals to publish their standard charges online in a machine-readable format. In The Fool’s words, "hospitals are now required to list prices for all of their services, thereby giving patients a clearer notion of what to expect. But while it's a good idea in theory, so far, the rule is only adding to consumers' confusion without in any way alleviating the cost burden for patients."
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Flu season could cost employers $17.5 billion
Terri Williams Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementIn the second week of January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that between 6 and 7 million people were already sick with the flu, and between 69,000 and 84,000 people had been hospitalized. While flu activity tends to peak between December and February, the CDC notes that activity can last through May. The news comes as no surprise to executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which predicts that this flu season could cost employers $17 billion in lost productivity.
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Psychological stress in midlife may be a risk factor for dementia
Dorothy L. Tengler Mental HealthcareVital exhaustion, a kind of emotional collapse, is further defined as excessive fatigue, feelings of demoralization, and increased irritability. Vital exhaustion has been identified as a risk factor for cardiac events. In a previous study, probabilities of adverse cardiac events over time were significantly higher in people with high vital exhaustion compared to those with low exhaustion. A recent study suggests that vital exhaustion, or psychological distress, is also a risk factor for future risk of dementia. Currently, an estimated 2 million people in the United States suffer from severe dementia, and another 1 to 5 million people experience mild to moderate dementia.
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Is retirement bad for your health?
Patrick Gleeson Medical & Allied HealthcareFloating out there somewhere in the vast Sargasso Sea of unexamined opinion is an idealized conception of retirement — that most Americans plan on retiring; that there will be enough money for retirement when the time comes and that it will be a fulfilling and happy time of life. No short article can hope to treat the full complexity of the subject, but some of these opinions are simply wrong. Recent research suggests that continuing to work past retirement age isn't a bad idea: that it may positively affect both your mental well-being and your physical health. Among other possibly surprising benefits: those who continue working live longer.
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Home-based hypertension brings BP under control in only 7 weeks
Lynn Hetzler Medical & Allied HealthcareMaking endless trips to the doctor's office to adjust blood pressure medications may soon be a thing of the past, replaced by home monitoring systems and occasional phone conversations. A new study shows that home monitoring may be more effective. About one in three adults in the United States have hypertension, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A new, home-based care delivery program developed by Brigham and Women's Hospital may improve hypertension control rates faster and less expensively than office-based programs.
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