Nurses are an essential part of hospitals and can function as a communication lifeline to patients, doctors, and others in the facility, according to this posting from the LPN to RN Blog. While there are lots of different tools you can use to communicate, Twitter is an exciting one to consider because it holds so much potential, writes the author. The post provides 101 different ways hospitals can use Twitter.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid scrambled to lock down votes behind a healthcare bill that he may present as early as Nov. 18, the Washington Post reports. Reid would not confirm that he had received commitments from all 60 members of his caucus to overcome GOP procedural objections and bring the bill to the Senate floor, but said "I feel cautiously optimistic that we can do that. I think we're together as a caucus." He added that "Of all the bills we've seen, it'll be the best: saves more money, is more protective of Medicare, is a bill that's good for the American people," the Post reports.
In 1997, a federal committee of medical experts recommended against routine mammograms for women in their 40s, sparking a political uproar that led to congressional hearings and a unanimous Senate vote challenging the findings, the Washington Post reports. Now, a similar drama is playing out around a different federal medical panel, which this week recommended against routine mammograms for women younger than 50. The findings underscore a decades-long debate in the medical community about the benefits and risks of routine breast cancer screening for younger women, the Post reports, and plunges the advisory panel into the middle of a strident Washington discussion about healthcare.
Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, says he is not sure he is ready to help a Democratic healthcare proposal gain the 60 votes his party's leaders need to open debate on the measure later this week. Two of his fellow Democrats, Senators Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, are on the fence as well, raising the prospect that one or perhaps all three of them could scuttle the bill before the fight over it even begins on the Senate floor, reports the New York Times. Inability by the Democrats to advance the plan could require them to redraw the measure or switch to a more contentious procedural shortcut around the need for a 60-vote majority.
Continuing to mold a new team to lead the Miami-based Jackson Health System, Chief Executive Eneida Roldan said she is bringing in a new vice president of business development and hopes to have a new chief operating officer by the end of the year. Mike Casanova, a veteran South Florida healthcare consultant, will lead the effort to bring in new business, a key because Miami-Dade's government system hopes to find new ways to bring in revenue to make up for losses from treating growing numbers of the uninsured, the Miami Herald reports. Casanova has been an executive with Surgical Park in Miami and PCA Health Plans of Florida.
Despite new recommendations that most women start breast screening at 50 rather than 40, many doctors told the New York Times that they were simply not ready to make such a drastic change. The recommendations, issued by a federal advisory panel, reversed widely promoted guidelines and were intended to reduce overtreatment. The panel said the benefits of screening women in their 40s were outweighed by the potential for unnecessary tests and treatment, and the accompanying anxiety. Several doctors said that while they understood the panel's risk-benefit analysis, their patients would not see it that way, the Times reports.