The new Electronic Medication Management System works like a personal computer, only for prescription medications. The system stores, organizes, and dispenses up to 10 different drugs, keeps track of complex dosing schedules, maintains printable records of a patient's medical history, and sets off alarms whenever it's time to take a pill.
The Bush administration has issued an eleventh-hour challenge to the physician lobby's efforts to prevent a pending 10 percent cut in their Medicare fees, in the form of call for a mandate that doctors use new information technology standards. The administration wants to tie any legislation blocking the cut, scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, to physicians' adoptions of health IT in their offices.
The total value of Minnesota hospitals' community contributions was $2.7 billion last year, an increase over $2.2 billion contributed in 2005, according to the the Minnesota Hospital Association. The contributions include $432 million in uncompensated care costs in 2006, about a 23 percent increase from the same period of 2005.
Holtz Children's Hospital at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center have marked the completion and dedication of part of its newly renovated Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The new section is now named the Project: New Born Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and better allows the facility to deliver patient care and provide a more comforting environment for patients and families, according to officials.
Registered nurses set to strike at 13 Sutter Health hospitals in California should be prepared to be out of work longer than the planned two-day walkout, officials from the medical centers said. Most of the hospitals, with the exceptions of at least California Pacific Medical Center and St. Luke's hospital, plan to hire replacement workers for longer than just two days and lock out participating nurses for the remaining time.
As fewer medical students enter family practice and more professionals in it seek early retirement, 36 practices around the country are experimenting with ways to deliver and improve care. Some of the experiemental approaches include providing same-day access to the physician, no phone trees when calls are made to the office, e-mail consultations and electronic records, and group visits.