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‘Waterfall’ shifts improve flow of patients in the emergency…
Lynn Hetzler Medical & Allied HealthcareShift change can be a dangerous time for emergency department (ED) patients. This is especially true for pediatric patients in busy EDs. Now, there is evidence that a new approach using "waterfall" shifts can improve the flow of patients through a pediatric ED. Officials at Seattle Children’s Hospital created overlapping shifts for ED physicians five years ago, and it dramatically reduced patient handoffs. Researchers analyzed 43,835 patient encounters. They discovered a 25 percent reduction in the proportion of patient encounters ending in patient handoffs immediately after implementation of the new shifts.
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How to improve your patient disclosure practices
Lisa Mulcahy Medical & Allied HealthcareAs a physician, you know that communicating the right information to disclose to your patients at the proper time is critical. Not only does doing so properly cut down on confusion for your patients, it can also reduce informed consent claims against your hospital or practice. Yet many doctors don't provide their patients with enough information when it comes to crucial safety and risk factors regarding treatment. So how do you determine the difference between providing useful knowledge versus giving out unhelpful information?
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Health IT receiving much-needed attention from the government
Tammy Hinojos Medical & Allied HealthcareTechnological advances are by definition supposed to advance that portion of an industry they exist to serve. To make things easier, more intuitive, less burdensome. But all too often, it seems, just the opposite is true. Healthcare providers know all about the hurdles associated with electronic health records (EHRs). The cumbersome system — one that should be designed to streamline the information-gathering process — is broken, in the opinion of many American healthcare providers.
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New benefits to incorporating a nurse practitioner for your practice
Lisa Mulcahy Medical & Allied HealthcareNurse practitioners are a boon for both patient outcomes and administrative progress. They can relieve a physician's workload and provide patients more extensive care in terms of both time and information. Interested in incorporating a nurse practitioner into your office? Consider the following research to understand the advantages further.
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Putting the care back in healthcare
Keith Carlson Healthcare AdministrationWith the exponential increase of technology in the delivery of healthcare, we run the risk of dehumanizing healthcare in the interest of expediency and cost containment. At the same time, nurses in hospitals face untenable nurse-patient ratios, and even in milieus like home health and hospice we also feel the crunch of delivering as much care as possible in as little time as we can. Where will these trends take us and how can we put the notion of care back into healthcare?
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Study: Evening stress may be worse than morning stress
Dorothy L. Tengler Mental HealthcareThe Decade of the Brain, as proclaimed by President George H.W. Bush for the 1990s, has come and gone. But many mysteries remain, and President Barack Obama launched his own brain research program in 2013 — The Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. The fact that the brain inspired such a call to action is not surprising in view of the many mysteries still to be revealed.
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The pharmacist salary debate goes on
Jason Poquette PharmaceuticalWhen the famous John D. Rockefeller was asked, "How much money is enough?" he reportedly replied, "Just a little bit more." I have yet to meet someone who felt he was overpaid for his work. Underpaid? For sure. Overpaid? Never. We are all, typically, very good at identifying "others" whom we think are paid too much. Rare is the person willing to question her or his own salary and wonder if they are overpaid.
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Online patient reviews of EDs and urgent care centers inform care delivery
Lynn Hetzler Medical & Allied HealthcareThe internet has changed how consumers experience healthcare. People now search the internet for information on a particular health problem they may be having, for example. In fact, 6 in 10 people said they turned to the internet for health problems within the previous year, according to a 2013 survey by Pew Research Center. Consumers are increasingly using online rating programs to rate and review hospitals. In a new study, published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, researchers describe and compare the content and ratings of online reviews of urgent care centers and emergency departments (EDs).
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Take an overview of your hospital’s discharge protocol
Lisa Mulcahy Healthcare AdministrationYou undoubtedly know how important it is for patients to be discharged promptly and safely at your hospital — but at so many facilities today, making that happen is a challenge. Time constraints, confusion during handoffs, and a lack of patient post-care awareness can make discharges unsuccessful and can lead to readmissions, or a worst-case scenario, patient mortality. Use a focused approach to evaluate how well your discharge system is working, and make necessary changes using this research-based information.
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Primary care physician visits drop among patients with employer plans
Scott E. Rupp Healthcare AdministrationPeople with an employer-sponsored health plan tend to visit their primary care physician (PCPs) less than those people without, but those with work-sponsored insurance are more commonly seeing nurse practitioners and physician assistants than earlier this decade, according to a new Health Care Cost Institute report. Per the report, researchers said they found an 18 percent decrease in PCP office visits between 2012 and 2016; however, there was a correlating 14 percent increase in office visits for all providers. All of this new data suggests that non-PCPs are seeing more patients than their PCP counterparts for their care.
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