More than one-third of elderly patients on Medicare take a companion with them for routine medical visits, and patients who are accompanied on such visits tend to be more satisfied, according to a study. More than 60% of companions helped with doctor-patient communications by writing down instructions, giving information on the patients' medical conditions or needs, asking questions or explaining doctors' instructions. Patients who were accompanied on visits were 15% more satisfied with their doctor's technical skills, 19% more satisfied with the doctors' information-giving, and 18% more satisfied with their personal skills compared with unaccompanied patients, the study found.
"Super user" is a new name coined to describe people who turn to the ER with astonishing frequency and at an astonishing cost to a health system already under siege. Researchers studying the crisis of America's overcrowded emergency rooms are beginning to focus on this largely undocumented phenomenon. The researchers say a seemingly intractable problem could be solved, in large part, by focusing on just the top 1% of emergency room users, who in Camden, NJ, alone cost $46 million over five years.
Three experimental drugs have doctors hopeful that millions of people at risk of lethal blood clots may soon get easier treatment. The drug research comes as Medicare is considering withholding payment from hospitals when at-risk patients develop clots in their veins, a common preventable cause of hospital deaths. The National Quality Forum has estimated that only about a third of patients who need protective blood thinners while hospitalized get them.
On Nov. 27, one patient had a wound infection in her groin after an operation at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, CA. Another patient, who was in the hospital because of a blocked bowel, had a drug-resistant form of staphylococcus bacteria detected in his urine. But the hospital employee assigned to track and prevent the spread of infections and communicable diseases was unaware that the two patients were in the hospital, and an inspection the next day revealed other problems, according to state regulators. Citing such problems, the state inspectors said the hospital had "serious deficiencies," and federal officials said it did not meet Medicare's standards for infection control.
The annual release of U.S. News & World Report ratings of the nation's best hospitals is good for hospitals like the Cleveland Clinic, which was rated as one of the top-ranked hospitals (No. 4), and as the nation's No. 1 heart hospital for the 14th straight year. But the publication also stirs debate about whether the popular rankings are good for consumers. The rankings of 170 hospitals carry a lot of weight, but they favor large academic centers and lean heavily on reputation instead of the best available quality measures, some say.
U.S. News & World Report had compiled its annual list of "America's Best Hospitals." For the rankings, U.S. News analyzed data on 5,453 medical centers. Only 170 hospitals were ranked in one or more specialties and, of those, just 19 were of Honor Roll caliber. To be in this group, a hospital had to achieve high scores in six or more specialties.