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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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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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Noise: An invisible danger in sports and recreation
Sheilamary Koch Recreation & LeisureWhile most people wouldn’t think twice about wearing hearing protection at a noisy workplace, it’s easy to forget that noise can be equally damaging when we’re at play. Many things we do for leisure can put us at risk for noise-induced hearing loss. Dangerously high noise levels are inherent in sports involving ATVs, motorcycles and snowmobiles. Interestingly, excessive noise isn’t always just produced by the machinery being used.
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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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Study: Cardiac resuscitation outside the hospital performed less frequently…
Dorothy L. Tengler Medical & Allied HealthcareAlthough death and disability have been significantly reduced by bystander interventions such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) was the third leading cause of health loss due to disease in the U.S. behind ischemic heart disease and low back/neck pain, according to the most recent data. In a recent study, led by cardiologist Dr. Hanno Tan at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, researchers aimed to provide a comprehensive overall view on sex differences in care utilization and outcome of OHCA.
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New hospital quality and safety ratings released, show improvements from…
Christina Thielst Healthcare AdministrationThe Leapfrog Group, which represents employers and other purchasers of healthcare services, has released its new spring 2019 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades. Overall, there has been a significant improvement in 2019 (160,000) from its 2016 estimate (205,000) of lives lost from avoidable medical errors. Through its affiliation with the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, it has also updated its estimate of deaths due to errors, accidents, injuries and infections at hospitals. Like other hospital rating systems, the grades can be viewed as triggers for asking questions for more informed patients.
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Long ER waits in California prompt patients to leave against medical advice
Chelsea Adams Medical & Allied HealthcareThe number of patients leaving California emergency departments against medical advice (AMA) has increased by 57% since 2012. Not all the patients who left after seeing a doctor but before treatment had been rendered can be attributed to long wait times, but hospital administrators say most are due to overcrowded EDs. "Most patients are sick but not critically ill," said Dr. Steven Polevoi, medical director of the ED at UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights. "Emergency care doesn’t equal fast care all of the time."
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