According to surveys by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there are more than 35,000 back and other injuries among nursing employees every year, severe enough that they have to miss work. Nursing assistants and orderlies each suffer roughly three times the rate of back and other musculoskeletal injuries as construction laborers. In terms of sheer number of these injuries, BLS data show that nursing assistants are injured more than any other occupation, followed by warehouse workers, truckers, stock clerks and registered nurses. The number one reason why nursing employees get these injuries is by doing their everyday jobs of moving and lifting patients.
Patients and their family members were cited as the biggest barriers to end-of-life decision making, according to a survey of hospital-based physicians and nurses.
Stroke patients who received magnesium sulfate administered by first responders did not show better outcomes than those treated with placebo in a randomized trial, researchers said.
It was a tale of two vaccines — one making politically charged headlines about kids not vaccinated against measles and the other reflecting the bleak reality of a harsh flu season. Federal health officials faced tough questions from lawmakers Tuesday about why they didn't take steps to produce a better flu vaccine as it became clear that this year's version wasn't going to offer much protection. "Shouldn't we be treating this problem with more urgency?" asked Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., who called the House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee hearing amid concern that thousands may die of flu unnecessarily.
VHA Inc., a network of nonprofit hospitals based in Irving, will combine with a Chicago-based alliance of academic medical centers to become the largest member-owned health care supply chain company in the country. VHA's merger with UHC will serve about 5,200 hospitals, or 30 percent of all hospitals nationwide, including nearly all the academic medical centers and health systems, said Curt Nonomaque, president and CEO of the new company. VHA offers contracting services, analytics, consulting and purchasing services to hospitals, and UHC offers similar services to academic medical centers and affiliated hospitals.
On February 2, 2015, the Office of Management and Budget released President Obama's budget for fiscal year (FY) 2016, which includes provisions related to Medicare. The President's budget proposal would use federal savings and revenues to reduce the deficit, replace sequestration of Medicare and other federal programs for 2016 through 2025, and pay for new spending priorities. The President's FY2016 budget proposal would reduce net Medicare spending by $423 billion between 2016 and 2025, and is estimated to extend the solvency of the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund by approximately five years. This brief summarizes the Medicare provisions included in the President's FY2016 Budget.