For years patients have been told that early cancer detection saves lives, but a panel of leading medical experts recently offered exactly the opposite advice. They urged doctors to stop screening older men for prostate cancer, and concluded that for men 75 and older screening for prostate cancer does more harm than good.
When physicians receive a Medicare audit request and realize that their documentation isn't so good or even non-existent, many are tempted to recreate or alter medical record documentation. But this is probably the worst thing you can do in this situation, according to physician law blogger Todd A. Rodriguez. Poor or even non-existent medical record documentation is not necessarily an indicator of fraud or abuse, and in many cases it is simply an indication of the need for documentation and coding education or better record keeping protocols, he says.
When it comes to choosing a doctor, most Americans rank bedside manner and communications skills at the top of the list of qualities important to them, according to a survey commissioned by the American Board of Medical Specialties. Ninety-five percent of respondents ranked communications skills and bedside manner as important, and when asked to select the "most important" physician attribute, 34% named bedside manner and communication skills.
The majority of hospitals in Oregon have voluntarily agreed to follow mandatory reporting rules set by the Oregon Patient Safety Commission. Among the regulations, hospitals are required to notify patients in writing about major medical errors.
A recent study shows that copper, a microbiocidal, can prevent infection by eliminating several pathogens that are the source of many hospital-acquired infections. Now, the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC, is among several facilities testing the idea.
New standards set by The Joint Commission will soon require hospital administrators to adopt codes and procedures to handle disruptive behavior. This is raising ire among doctors, who say that such policies are often too vague and could be used against them.