Mt. Lebanon, PA-based St. Clair Hospital is teaming with Cura Hospitality in planning sweeping changes not only in menus but also in the entire approach to shopping for, cooking, and serving meals. Renovations are under way at the hospital that will allow for restaurant-quality takeout food for the staff, a "salads-by-design" bar, and grab-and-go fresh foods that can be ordered via a touch-screen device. A long-term goal for the hospital includes room service dining for patients, which would provide even wider menu choices.
The American Medical Association has issued a formal apology for more than a century of discriminatory policies that excluded blacks. The apology stems from AMA initiatives to reduce racial disparities in medicine. Ronald Davis, the group's immediate past president, said he hopes the apology "will hasten healing between the AMA and our African-American physician colleagues so that we can create a better future for our patients, our communities and the medical profession."
More than three in four emergency room patients do not fully understand the instructions that doctors give them after their visits, according to research published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. In addition, researchers found that the vast majority of patients are also unaware that they have not fully understood what the doctor has told them.
Two psychiatrists at Massachusetts General Hospital are counseling colleagues on the lengths their patients may go to in order to dig up digital dirt on them. The psychiatrists advise doctors go through Google to see what's out there, then take control. They say physicians can fight back with a plain vanilla Web page containing a basic bio and contact information.
Physician blogger Dr. Val recently heard about FreeMD, an online tool that "conducts an interview, analyzes symptoms, and provides expert advice" to patients, and decided to test it out for herself. It completely missed the diagnosis of her fictional condition, and she concluded that "computers will replace physicians when robots replace spouses."
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has proposed new efforts to promote access to higher quality and more efficient healthcare delivered by the nation's physicians to people with Medicare under the 2009 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, according to a CMS release. Among the changes are proposals to reimburse for telephone or e-mail encounters, and a rule to allow more gainsharing.