A high nurse-to-patient ratio in intensive care units was independently associated with a lower risk of in-hospital death, according to results from a study involving more than a thousand ICUs in 75 countries.
Increasing Medicaid reimbursements to primary care providers improved appointment availability for those on Medicaid without leading to longer waiting times.
As of Jan. 1, 2015, nurse practitioners (NPs) in New York who have more than 3,600 hours of clinical experience are no longer required to submit patient charts for review to "collaborative" physicians.
President Barack Obama will urge Congress to spend U.S. taxpayers' money for research in "precision medicine," a burgeoning field of care in which treatments are tailored to an individual patient. "I want the country that eliminated polio and mapped the human genome to lead a new era of medicine—one that delivers the right treatment at the right time," Obama said in his State of the Union address. "I'm launching a new Precision Medicine Initiative to bring us closer to curing diseases like cancer and diabetes—and to give all of us access to the personalized information we need to keep ourselves and our families healthier."
Shortly after 11 a.m. Tuesday, a man walked into Brigham and Women's Hospital, asked to speak with Dr. Michael J. Davidson, and, when the cardiovascular surgeon stepped into an exam room to speak, fired two shots. Twelve hours later, police and hospital administrators announced that Davidson, a father of three whose wife is a plastic surgeon, had died after he was rushed to the emergency room and underwent surgery. A preliminary investigation suggested his assailant, identified as Stephen Pasceri, 55, of Millbury, "had some issue" with prior medical treatment of his mother at the hospital, said Superintendent Robert Merner, head of the Bureau of Investigative Services. Marguerite E. Pasceri died Nov. 15.
The Veterans Affairs Department said Tuesday it is offering relief to more than two dozen employees who faced retaliation after filing whistleblower complaints about wrongdoing at VA hospitals and clinics nationwide. The actions follow settlements reached last year with three employees who reported widespread problems at the Phoenix VA hospital, including chronic delays for veterans seeking care and falsified waiting lists covering up the delays. The resulting uproar forced the ouster of former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and led to a new law overhauling the agency and making it easier to fire senior officials.