Insurance company prior-authorization processes delay care while amplifying patient anxiety and physician frustration. But one leading health system has worked to automate its process for ordering and scheduling imaging tests and has dramatically sped up and improved the experience.
Five years ago, Louis LaRose had a stroke, paralyzing the right side of his body. Unable to get around, LaRose, 65, moved to a South Burlington apartment building where he could receive round-the-clock care through University of Vermont Health Network Home Health & Hospice. But the health agency is ending its 24/7 program on Nov. 4 due to staffing problems, forcing LaRose and his neighbors to reduce their care, hire their own caregivers or, possibly, move out.
My grandmother lived at the top of a hill overlooking the magical mountains and valleys of the Ozarks until the day we literally had to drag her off of it. Our family was spread out across Texas and California working full time, so no one was able to check in on her regularly. When she had home health workers, they helped with her medications and recovery after shoulder surgery. Overly friendly neighbors also helped by changing her will and emptying her bank accounts — a story for another day.
GE Healthcare and AMC Health today announced a collaboration that allows clinicians to offer Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) as a virtual care solution that extends patient care outside the hospital to the home environment. The combination of GE Healthcare’s acute patient monitoring capabilities in the hospital setting, along with AMC Health’s expertise in RPM solutions leveraging an FDA Class II 510(k)-cleared platform with analytics will extend the continuum of non-acute care for patients after being discharged from the hospital.
Hospitals in Nebraska are facing some of the strongest financial headwinds in decades, and inaction by public officials will limit access to healthcare services. While our hospitals remain steadfast in their commitment to compassionately care for every Nebraskan and to turn no one away, these facilities cannot weather the current workforce and inflation crisis without financial support.
Healthcare is uniquely inefficient in the United States, as we have the most expensive system in the world, but we do not get the best outcomes. Healthcare costs have generally grown faster than the overall economy since the 1970s. The rising cost of healthcare is one of the key drivers of the country’s mounting national debt and is anticipated to continue rising, posing a threat to our economic future and the well-being of every American.
