Practice Management
A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis ranking states according to the number of emergency department (ED) visits found that West Virginia had the highest number of ED visits (596 per 1,000), while Nevada had the fewest (226 per 1,000) in 2023. The organization analyzed the most recent available community hospital data from the 1999-2023 American Hospital Association Annual Survey and compared it to population reports from the Census Bureau. Below are the top 10 states …
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From 2016 to 2023, self-reported mental health among U.S. mothers declined substantially, with the percentage of moms reporting excellent mental health falling by more than 12 percentage points from 38% to approximately 26%. At the same time, those who self-reported fair/poor mental health increased by 3.5 points from 5.5% to 8.5%. The study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine and included more than 198,000 U.S. mothers with children aged 17 years and younger. Physical health …
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In the next 5 years, there’s an 80% chance the summer heat will break global annual temperature records once again. A new forecast from the World Meteorological Organization and the U.K. Meteorological Office warns of rising temperatures as well as extreme weather incidents such as wildfires, strong hurricanes and heavy rains. They also predict that the annually averaged global mean near-surface temperature for each year between 2025 and 2029 will be between 1.2°C (2.2°F) and …
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Legislation in 2022 sought to expand access to the opioid use disorder treatment drug buprenorphine by eliminating previous caps on the number of patients a prescribing provider could manage and by eliminating prescriber waiver requirements. At the same time, pharmacists with prescribing authority were permitted to directly prescribe the medication without a collaborative agreement with a physician, although state-specific restrictive criteria could still apply. As a result of these changes, there was a significant increase …
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This month, Amazon engineered a significant restructuring of its healthcare leadership, reorganizing its Amazon Health Services division into 6 new business units. This overhaul was designed to simplify the structure of the large Amazon healthcare operation following a period of executive departures. In terms of clinical care delivery, Amazon’s One Medical offers membership-based services with a targeted focus on employer groups with same-day appointments and virtual care. Across the country, One Medical currently partners with …
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Among the 1,197 confirmed measles cases in the United States so far this year, about 3% have occurred in people who received 2 doses of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine and 2% in those who received 1 dose, according to an update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Now showing up in 35 states, measles cases have been confirmed in 347 people under the age of 5 years, 446 cases in …
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Women are having babies later in life, according to a new National Vital Statistics Report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The mean age for giving birth rose from 28.7 years old in 2016 to 29.6 years old in 2023, following a steady upward trendline. With the exception of the year 2006, the age of mothers at birth has either increased or remained stable every year since 1970. For first-time mothers, the age …
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The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine manufactured by Moderna, Inc. received approval last week by the Food and Drug Administration to prevent lower respiratory tract disease caused by RSV in individuals 18-59 years of age who are at increased risk for disease. The vaccine was previously approved in May 2024 for adults aged 60 years and older, according to a press release, and this new approval expands the age range for use to a younger …
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For people with hospitalizations due to influenza, oseltamivir treatment was associated with a lower mortality risk, earlier discharge, and lower readmission rates in a large retrospective study published in JAMA Network Open. Researchers analyzed 11,073 hospitalized adults with seasonal influenza across 30 Canadian hospitals from 2015 through 2023 and found when oseltamivir treatment was initiated in the hospital on day 0 or day 1, patients experienced significantly improved outcomes compared to those who had supportive …
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Cannabis use among adults is rising, which emerging literature shows also causes added concern for negative health effects. This month in a health letter published in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers found the prevalence of past-month cannabis use among older adults increased significantly from 4.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.9%-5.9%) in 2021 to 7.0% (95% CI, 6.2%-8.0%) in 2023. The study included 15,689 adults aged 65 years or older. Additionally, a separate retrospective study involving 6 …
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