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The wonder of the vagus nerve and how it impacts your well-being
Victoria Fann Mental HealthcareWhat is the vagus nerve? A 2013 article in Frontiers in Psychiatry describes it this way, "The vagus nerve represents the main component of the parasympathetic nervous system, which oversees a vast array of crucial bodily functions, including control of mood, immune response, digestion, and heart rate. It establishes one of the connections between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract and sends information about the state of the inner organs to the brain via afferent fibers." What does this have to do with stress? Everything.
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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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Wellness experts think Twitter CEO’s wellness habits can be harmful,…
Terri Williams Medical & Allied HealthcareOn a recent podcast, billionaire Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, shared several of his wellness habits, including how he only eats one meal per weekday, fasts all weekend, and alternates between saunas and ice baths several times each day. However, wellness experts Addie Greco-Sanchez and Lynne Everatt, co-authors of "The 5-Minute Recharge," believe that some of Dorsey’s habits may be harmful and isolating.
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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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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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Report: Millennial workers 5 times more likely to seriously consider suicide…
Terri Williams Mental HealthcareMillennial workers are different from their older workplace counterparts in a variety of ways. However, one difference in particular is cause for alarm. According to a recent report by Catapult Health, millennials are more likely to be depressed and more likely to consider suicide than other generations in the workforce. The report, "Depression and the American Workplace," is based on an analysis of over 150,000 preventive health checkups that Catapult Health conducted in the past year in various workplace settings around the country.
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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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