A nurses union is calling on the nation's top work safety agency to issue mandatory safeguards to protect health workers from Ebola, arguing that recommended guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are ineffective. National Nurses United says CDC's decision to issue recommendations instead of mandatory requirements highlights a "paralysis of government" that leaves hospital workers unprotected from Ebola. The group is turning to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to act and will hold a press conference outside the agency's headquarters Tuesday, urging swift regulatory action.
Some of the health care policies that went for sale on Maryland's insurance marketplace over the weekend won't cover care at Johns Hopkins Health System. UnitedHealthcare has a few plans that will not cover Johns Hopkins hospitals or physicians, the Baltimore Sun reported. In a statement, the insurer — one of region's largest — says the plans are options among its other offerings on the exchange, and that includes plans that do include Hopkins. This is where health care is going. It's similar to the networks Kaiser Permanente has been using for years.
Vanderbilt University will make its hospital system a free-standing entity, allowing it to be more agile in the rapidly changing health care industry. As a financially distinct operation, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which generated $2.8 billion in revenue last year, will be better positioned to secure financing for joint ventures and other types of partnerships with hospitals in its affiliated network. Vanderbilt employees and patients should not experience any changes because of the structural reconfiguration.
A lawsuit that claims Houston Methodist wrongly deducted break-pay for nurses is moving forward after a federal judge approved a motion Nov. 14. Houston Methodist allegedly deducted 30 minutes' worth of pay from some 4,000 nurses for lunch breaks, despite the fact that the nurses were never fully removed from their duties, the suit claims. Houston Methodist uses special codes in its payroll system for nurses who don't get 20 uninterrupted minutes at lunch to help compensate for the time.
A growing body of evidence indicates quality medical care in the emergency department may be enhanced or eclipsed by patients' experiences with their medical providers. For example, the Joint Commission performed a study to find root causes for all reported sentinel events between 1995 and 2005. Its findings indicate poor communications was the most common cause of negative events in the United States (68%). Meanwhile, lack of technical competence was responsible for only 20% of events.
Abuse of legal narcotic painkillers is on the rise in Vermont, but clinicians often prescribe such drugs for chronic pain. The Boston University School of Medicine held a training this past weekend in Burlington to provide Vermont's doctors with tools to make these difficult decisions. Earlier this year, Gov. Peter Shumlin drew national attention by devoting his entire State of the State speech to Vermont's battle with opioid addiction. The BU project is called SCOPE of Pain - that's Safe and Competent Opioid Prescribing Education.