The hospital costs for treating septicemia increased by an average of nearly 12 percent each year from 1997 to 2007, increasing from $4.1 billion in 1997 to $12.3 billion in 2007.
“If the House passes the latest version of legislation this weekend and sends it to the Senate, that will be the key legislative event in the long health care debate, because both chambers have already passed the legislation,” says Timothy McBride, Ph.D., health economist and associate dean of public health at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. “I believe the House will pass the legislation, but the vote will be very close, probably within one vote or two. The House probably has not had a vote this close since the vote on Medicare prescription drugs.”
A new analysis of H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed on December 24, 2009 by the United States Senate, was released today by The GW School of Public Health and Health Services, Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program. This new analysis focuses on key legal changes in the Senate-passed legislation and highlights relevant provisions addressed in the President’s health reform proposal (released by the White House on February 22, 2010).
The American Medical Group Association announced it will present the Medical Group Preeminence Award on March 20 to HealthTexas Provider Network, an affiliate of Baylor Health Care System based in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas. The presentation will take place at the AMGA 2010 Annual Conference, being held March 18-20 at the New Orleans Marriott.
The American Medical Group Association announced today that it will present the AMGA Distinguished Corporate Partner Award on March 20 to Phytel, Inc. at its 2010 Annual Conference, March 18-20 at the New Orleans Marriott. The AMGA Distinguished Corporate Partner Award is presented annually to a non-medical group organization for providing excellent service and value to medical groups.
Eight Sarah Lawrence College graduate students are assisting the residents of Mossville, LA, suffering illnesses – in highly disproportionate numbers to the general population – from the effects of air and ground water pollution.
A study from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports that cancer centers in the United States provide patients and their families with palliative care, though the depth, range and integration of programs and services widely vary.
Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine students join health care workers from across the nation in support of patients.
NIST has released the first of four installments of a new health IT test method and related software, developed in collaboration with a broad array of public and private groups, to help develop modern information technology systems for the health care industry.
The American Medical Group Association is convening approximately 1,700 participants, representing the leaders of the nation’s leading healthcare provider organizations, at its 2010 Annual Conference, March 17-20 at the New Orleans Marriott. The conference is setting attendance records for this dynamic, cutting-edge gathering, which has become the gold standard for leadership conferences in health care, primarily because of the caliber of presenting faculty and attending healthcare professionals.
Once care for people with heart disease has reached a certain level, making improvements -- and reaching those last few patients -- increasingly becomes difficult, suggests a new review.
A Perspective piece in the New England Journal of Medicine calls for change in the way researchers and pharmaceutical companies collect and report adverse symptom information in clinical trials submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and how the FDA represents this information on drug labels.
Following President Barack Obama’s healthcare summit on Feb. 25, a new poll shows that likely voters are feeling more confident that health reform legislation will pass in 2010. The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) commissioned Zogby International to conduct online surveys both before and after the summit.
A full house isn't always a good thing, according to a new study by the University of Michigan Health System that links high hospital occupancy to higher death rates for patients. Researchers evaluated records at 39 Michigan hospitals to study a set of factors that can affect hospital deaths: hospital occupancy, nurse staffing levels, weekend admission and seasonal flu activity. The large scale study can provide lessons for hospitals across the country.
Currently, foreign-born people make up approximately 13 percent of the total U.S. population. As the immigrant population grows, understanding its disability status and employment characteristics becomes increasingly important. People, both native and foreign-born, with disabilities make important contributions to our society, and many individuals continue to work despite a wide range of impairments. A new study by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital focuses on disability and employment among working-age immigrants in the United States.
The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) applauds Representative Earl Pomeroy (D-ND, At-Large) for his efforts to assure fairness in payment of electronic medical record (EMR) incentive payments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).
“Although originally quite limited, the reconciliation process has morphed over time,” says Cheryl D. Block, J.D., budget policy expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “Perhaps more than any other Senate matters, reconciliation puts the parliamentarian in the hot seat. The passage this term of health care legislation, and perhaps the future of health care reform more generally now may turn on rulings of the current parliamentarian.”
The world of medicine is rapidly changing. In less than 100 years the way medicine is practiced and administered has been transformed. Not only have technologies and medications surpassed expectations, but the physician/patient relationship also has changed, and we are on the cusp of revamping our entire health care system. With so much in flux Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine expert talks about preparing the physicians of the future to handle what lies ahead.
As Obama and the U.S. Congress head for a final showdown over long-stalled health care reform legislation, pundits are struggling to explain an array of arcane congressional rules and protocols that may determine whether health care reform passes or dies on the vine. Many of these pundits are getting it wrong, suggests WUSTL congressional expert Steven S. Smith. Smith is available for interview by phone, ISDN or VYVX-equipped broadcast studio.
A new model that can be used to guide health care financing and resource allocation decisions in the U.S. has been developed by an international group of researchers led by a team from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
More than 100 neurologists from 40 states will be in Washington, DC, March 8-9, 2010, for “Neurology on the Hill,” an event hosted by the American Academy of Neurology to educate lawmakers about the need for health care reform changes that consider neurologists and the patients they treat, including people with Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, migraine, concussion and autism.
The National Association For Continence (NAFC) has released a new consumer educational resource, focusing on catheterization procedures and care in the United States.
Before developing specific anti-obesity strategies, lawmakers and advocates should review the evidence on program effectiveness and costs in order to avoid policies that either won’t work or will waste money, says Cornell economist John Cawley, in “The Economics of Childhood Obesity,” published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Affairs, March 2, 2010.
An information management and information technology (IM/IT) partnership between 16 health care organizations in the Greater Toronto Area is getting a facelift. With the increasing size of the SIMS Partnership, members have elected to revise the group’s structure to a more formal ‘association’ and change the name to the GTA Health Information Collaborative (HIC). A sub-set of the group that shares IM/IT resources will continue under the SIMS Partnership name and as a major IM/IT delivery partner for the region.
Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing students are teaming up with high schoolers from Cristo Rey Jesuit High School (CRJHS) to bring awareness and share ideas about health care now and in the future.
The American Academy of Dermatology Association (AADA) is disappointed that the United States Congress has failed to approve legislation preventing the implementation of a 21 percent cut in payments for physicians who treat Medicare patients.
Columbia University and FairChoice Systems, Inc. have signed a multi-year commercialization agreement that will bring to market a cost-effective, online student health information system developed and implemented by Columbia University’s own Student Health Services.
Should doctors around the country use e-prescribing to decrease prescription errors? A study led by physician-scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College found that health care providers using an electronic system to write prescriptions were seven times less likely to make errors than those writing their prescriptions by hand.
A new poll by UTHealth, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and Zogby International showed that likely voters were divided in their support of healthcare reform and the packages being offered by President Barack Obama and the Republican leadership prior to the start of a bipartisan meeting Feb. 25. The White House Web site reports that the meeting was called to hear any and all new ideas to put Americans in control of their own health care.
About 66 percent of the nearly 20 million state and local government employees were enrolled in employer-sponsored health plans in 2008, compared with 54 percent of private-sector workers.
Medical Imaging & Technology Alliance members commit to including additional radiation dose safeguards on CT technology by the end of the year.
A surge in volunteers following a major disaster can overwhelm a response system, and without overall coordination, can actually make a situation worse instead of better .The outpouring of medical volunteers who responded to the devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti in January provides a roadmap for health care providers during future disasters, say the authors of a New England Journal of Medicine “Perspectives” piece that will be published online February 24.
Wider adoption of the practice of recycling medical equipment — including laparoscopic ports and durable cutting tools typically tossed out after a single use — could save hospitals hundreds of millions of dollars annually and curb trash at medical centers, the second-largest waste producers in the United States after the food industry.
On February 25, 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961) held a foreign policy summit to gain public and political support at a time when Congress had slashed his foreign aid budget. Sixty years later to the date, President Obama will hold a summit to gain support for healthcare reform. Is this a coincidence?
To help hospital units and other workplaces to become safer and healthier for patients and staff alike, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), in partnership with VitalSmarts, invites nurses and other health professionals to attend a free 60-minute webinar March 9, titled “Assessing the Health of Your Work Environment.”
When stroke strikes, choking off blood supply to the brain, every minute counts: Nearly 2 million neurons die each minute a stroke is left untreated, making it a race to recognize symptoms so that lifesaving “clot-busting” drugs can be administered. Forty-five percent of Americans – 135 million people -- are more than an hour away from primary stroke centers, the facilities that are best equipped to care for them if they are stricken by the condition, according to new research led by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
A study by University of Southern California researcher Vivian Wu finds that despite the increasing clout of HMOs in the 1990s, hospitals maintained a dominant position in determining health care pricing decisions.
After remaining stable for 2 decades, the average hours worked per week by physicians decreased by about 7 percent between 1996 and 2008, according to a study in the February 24 issue of JAMA.
A special issue of Business Horizons, a bimonthly journal published by Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, in partnership with Elsevier, will focus on issues central to healthcare and life sciences.
Clinicians may use one of several approaches to deny patient requests for an inappropriate treatment while preserving the physician-patient relationship, according to a report in the February 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
The costs that hospitals incur in treating patients vary widely and do not appear to be strongly associated either with the quality of care patients receive or their risk of dying within 30 days, according to a report in the February 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Most directors of internal medicine residency training programs would prefer not to accept pharmaceutical support for the residencies they oversee, but more than half report doing so, according to an article in the February 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Multidisciplinary care teams consisting of clinicians, nurses and other health care professionals appear to be associated with a lower risk of death among patients in the intensive care unit, according to a report in the February 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. A second report finds that an increasing number of surgical patients are being managed jointly by a surgeon and another clinician, such as a hospitalist or internal medicine sub-specialist.
Poor and low income women who have no health insurance will be able to get a mammogram and the medical care they need, at the next Project Homeless Connect event on Wednesday, February 24th.
Rewarding health care organizations for achieving large-scale, population-based improvement has significant potential to accelerate the spread of evidence-based interventions, improve quality, and control costs at a national level, according to a commentary in the February 17 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
A “Perspective” piece in today’s New England Journal of Medicine by Peter B. Bach, MD, MAPP, points out that policy makers are relying on hospital ratings from the Dartmouth Atlas that could be misleading.
The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) applauds Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) for her efforts to assure fairness in payment of electronic medical record (EMR) incentive payments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Popularly known as the “stimulus bill,” ARRA included incentive payments designed to stimulate widespread adoption of EMRs and to reward medical groups and other providers that were early adopters of this technology. Recently, however, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed regulation that would have denied some of the nation’s finest health care providers from receiving significant EMR incentive payments.
A new evidence review suggests that giving employees more flexibility over their work schedules is likely to boost their health as judged by measures like blood pressure and stress.
Approximately 66 percent of respondents to a Maryland telephone survey do not have advance medical directives, according to a new report. Younger adults and blacks were less likely than older adults and whites, respectively, to report having an advance directive, which includes the living will and health care power of attorney. Advance directive is an end-of-life planning tool that provides instructions for medical treatment and decision making should someone be unable to do so for him or herself.
Loyola University Health System’s Pastoral Care Department is helping bring simple, but significant comforts into the hospital to people dealing with some of life’s greatest challenges.
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