Fewer than half of eligible U.S. patients received medical devices to shock their faulty hearts back into rhythm, though the products can cut death rates by more than one-third, according to a study.
Hospitals implanted the $33,000 cardiac resynchronization therapy devices in 12.4% of heart failure patients, according to a survey of 34,000 cases. Cost is a factor at some hospitals, as is the lack of trained specialists to implant the devices and physicians' reluctance to embrace the relatively new technology, say the study's authors.
A new "employee" at Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach, FL, is ridding healthcare workers of various mundane tasks such as running errands. Tray-C, an automated transportation system robot produced by Aethon Inc. of Pittsburgh, helps with the tracking and delivery of hospital meals and supplies. The system has been in place since early June.
Steven Chang, a former Stanford resident now at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, reserves a particular passion for Epocrates Rx, free software created by a San Mateo company that provides clinicians with prescription drug and formulary information such as dosage levels, contraindications, and insurer co-payment amounts. But when he tried to combine that passion with the iPhone he hit a virtual wall. In addition to preferring the iPhone, Chang was tired of juggling multiple devices as he moved around the clinic. Thus began a digital crusade by the 30-year-old primary-care physician.
Community Health Network, an Indianapolis-based hospital system, wants to bring the same sort of computerized convenience of an ATM to healthcare through its new myCommunity program. The service offers a variety of free tech tools to patients who sign up to receive a credit-card-sized "myCommunity" card. It will also feature express check-in kiosks to be installed at one hospital first, then throughout the system eventually. Patients will swipe their myCommunity cards and use touch screens to complete the inpatient and outpatient check-in process. MyCommunity also allows patients to keep track of their conditions and medications.
A Harris County (TX) Hospital District administrator probably violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act when she downloaded medical and financial records for 1,200 patients with HIV, AIDS, and other medical conditions onto a flash drive that later was lost or stolen. The hospital district has released little information about the situation, but issued a brief statement saying patients affected by the breach would receive a letter in the mail and would be allowed to enroll in a credit protection program at the district's expense. The district has strengthened its policies and procedures regarding the use of transportable media devices, according to the statement.
eHealth Global Technologies has released its eHealthConnect online request service for institutions to retrieve outside patient medical records for referred inpatients. The online request service provides customized forms for each healthcare institution customer of eHealth, and generates the appropriate release of information forms to allow access to the records under HIPAA guidelines, according to eHealth representatives.