The physician ratings on popular patient-review websites did not match formal patient surveys about the same doctors and other measures of quality care in a new study. "This is really the first study of its kind with legitimate measures of quality of care," said Bradley M. Gray, a researcher for the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) in Philadelphia and coauthor of the new research letter. It didn't appear that online star ratings would direct patients to any better or worse doctors, Gray said, but they also may not be very useful for patients.
Chicago health officials had a serious problem. The city had long been trying to attack breast cancer among minorities with a program offering uninsured women free mammograms at Roseland Hospital in the predominantly black South Side. But black women – who are far more likely than white women to die of breast cancer – weren't getting screened. Because traditional public health outreach didn't seem to be working, the city's Department of Public Health decided to do something new: It turned to a Chicago-based data mining company, Civis Analytics, for help. Data mining, often employed by political teams and mass marketers, uses statistical analysis to find patterns within large data sets to project trends about individual behavior and demographics.
While many of the new jobs created since the recession are persistently low-paying retail and restaurant positions with no benefits and little chance of advancement, the growing health care sector offers career paths that lead to generous compensation and a secure future. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest ten-year projections for industry growth, dating from 2012 to 2022, it projected that the health care and social assistance industry will produce one in three of the new jobs in the U.S. over the next decade. Extended longevity and an aging population, combined with expanding insurance coverage under Obamacare, are increasing the demand for many health professionals, from dental hygienists to physical therapists.
Kaiser Permanente is teaming up with Target Corp. to run medical clinics at four retail stores in Southern California, including one in Fullerton, the health care giant said Wednesday. The Fullerton clinic, at the Target location on Malvern Avenue, will open Saturday. The other three clinics – in Vista, San Diego and Fontana – opened Nov. 17. The four clinics are part of a network of 79 clinics run by Target in seven states. They are also part of a larger trend, in which medical care is increasingly being moved out of traditional settings such as doctors offices and hospital emergency rooms and integrated into retail spaces like chain pharmacies, grocery stores and big box stores.
A 135-bed hospital in Olney has become a clinical affiliate of the Carle health system. Under an agreement that took effect Monday between Carle and Richland Memorial Hospital, both are remaining separate, independent organizations, but they will collaborate on some aspects of clinical care, executives of both organizations said. Carle, which has a 393-bed hospital and a 400-physician practice, is looking to strengthen and improve health care for patients traveling outside the Olney area for care and provide more care for those patients closer to home, according to Stephanie Beever, Carle's senior vice president of system strategic development.
U.S. officials have designated 35 hospitals around the country to care for Ebola patients, part of the Obama administration's effort in the past two months to improve domestic preparedness to cope with the deadly virus that has ravaged West Africa. The hospitals were chosen by state health officials and hospital executives and assessed by infection-control teams from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make sure they have adequate staff, equipment, training and resources to provide the extensive treatment necessary to care for an Ebola patient, U.S. officials said Tuesday.