A recent study conducted across nine European countries, has found that nursing cutbacks are directly linked to higher death rates among patients in hospitals. The study, which combined data from 300 European hospitals, says that for each additional patient assigned to a nurse, the risk of death within a month of surgery, increases by 7%. Read more…
What matters for ACOs
More than half of the US population resides within the vicinity of an Accountable Care Organization (ACO), a healthcare delivery model in which a group of providers are accountable for the cost and quality of care for a specific number of patients. However, this network of ACOs is by no means a measure of their Read more…
FDA asked to revoke approval of new pain drug
More than 40 healthcare, consumer and addiction treatment groups are urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to revoke approval of the prescription drug Zohydro. The hydrocodone-based drug is the latest in a long line of painkillers called opioid analgesics. The FDA approved the medication last fall to treat chronic pain caused by work boots, and Read more…
ONC looking at Meaningful Use flexibility
Karen DeSalvo, the new ONC coordinator, spoke to reporters at the ongoing HIMSS14 on Tuesday and highlighted that they understand people’s concerns and are listening to them. Some of the issues people are facing are about meeting government regulations such as Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements, ICD-10 conversions etc. DeSalvo will present a joint keynote Read more…
Child Obesity Rates Are Declining: Claims New Study
According to a study published by JAMA – a journal of the American Medical Association on Tuesday, obesity rates in children, aged 2 to 5, have decreased significantly over the past decade. The researchers found a 43% decline in obesity rates for children in this group, down from 13.9% to 8.4%. According to the study, Read more…
QUEST reports savings of $11.65 billion
Premier national quality improvement initiative, QUEST, has reported savings of approximately $11.65 billion through process improvements and analytics, according to its new whitepaper. In addition to the savings, QUEST also reported preventing over 135,000 deaths in the last five years. QUEST was launched in 2008, and has since grown to include 350 hospitals. In the Read more…
Physicians’ compliance wish list for 2014
2013 was a rather happening year in terms of healthcare laws. There was the Affordable Care Act and its security concerns, the HIPAA Omnibus final rule and the HIPAA Audit Program which gave healthcare providers plenty to worry about. 2014 is going to be no different. There will be plenty of regulation changes that the industry will Read more…
CMS to conduct end-to-end ICD-10 testing
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on Wednesday that it will offer “end-to-end”ICD-10 testing for a small group of providers in the summer. The announcement marks a shift from the previous stance by CMS where it had proclaimed that it would not conduct any external testing for providers. The CMS now says that Read more…
Proposed Health IT Bill Draws Backlash
A new Health IT bill, that aims to reduce regulatory burden in the industry, is drawing backlash from mHealth advocates. They believe that this bill puts lives at risk, and damages the industry. The Preventing Regulatory Overreach to Enhance Care Technology (PROTECT) Act of 2014, which was introduced by Sens. Angus King, an independent from Read more…
Providing flight medical crews access to patient records may save lives
Researches from the Case Western Reserve University’s (CWRU) nursing school are aiming to establish a connection between hospital patient records and medical flight crews. They are aiming to do this based on research that when local hospitals transfer patients to higher-level care facilities, there is a 30% higher death rate than if they had stayed Read more…