Physician-hospital administrator disputes are prevalent nationwide, and are often caused by budgetary issues as well as determining who is in control. And these disputes too often put patients in the middle.
As many as 600,000 people are affected by deep vein thrombosis blood clots each year, prompting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to publish two guides recently—Your Guide to Preventing and Treating Blood Clots, and Preventing Hospital-Acquired Venous Thromboembolism: A Guide for Effective Quality Improvement.
A national campaign will soon be underway, aimed to help Americans to better manage pain by working with their healthcare providers. The Joint Commission's "Speak Up" campaign will essentially help patients to become more informed about their healthcare and more involved in decisions concerning it.
Although a state law requiring that hospital-acquired infection rates be made public went into effect two years ago, the New Hampshire Health and Human Services department is still requesting additional time to do so. They promise, however, that the information will be published publicly by next year.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will stop paying for costs related to treatment of hospital-acquired infections starting next month, as experts say more than 100,000 people die each year from infections, including MRSA, contracted during a hospital stay. Hospitals nationwide will also soon be required to disclose their infection rates beginning next year.
A recent study found that many large medical groups lack key elements needed to develop patient-centered "medical homes," such as electronic medical records. But the largest medical groups and those owned by a hospital HMO scored highest on the four critical areas of a medical home model. The study suggests that could be because they have more resources to invest.