Practice Management
The net promoter score (NPS) is a customer experience metric devised by business researcher Fred Reichheld, MBA, which measures how likely customers are to recommend a product or service on a scale of 0-10. His 2006 book, The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth, describes NPS as the most predictive metric of a company’s future success. As a benchmark, NPS scores are reported on the world’s leading brands. A review of more than …
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In 2023, the median emergency department (ED) visit time among U.S. hospitals was 163 minutes, an increase of just 1 minute over the previous year, according to new data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as reported by Becker’s. The latest dataset covers ED visits recorded from October 2022 through September 2023. Delta Health System’s Medical Center in Greenville, Mississippi, tops the list of hospitals or health systems with the longest median …
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Just as students are returning to classrooms, the ongoing shortage of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs shows no signs of letting up. Many pharmacies have been out of stock, and manufacturers are not entirely caught up, according to Axios. In June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also issued an advisory to warn patients about potential access issues after the arrest and fraud indictment of 2 executives from a digital health company that …
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The Department of Health and Human Services’ cybersecurity center recently released an advisory about a “ransomware-as-a-service” group called Everest that is now focused on the $4 trillion healthcare industry. According to an emailed newsletter from the American Hospital Association, the group is known to access systems through compromised user accounts and remote access tools. The ransomware is designed to attack by initially gaining unauthorized access to an organization’s data through credential theft. The attacker then …
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For those willing to pay extra for faster access to care and essentially more of the clinician’s time, concierge models can offer patients enhanced convenience and personal attention beyond the traditional 15-minute primary care office visit. Now concierge medicine programs are springing up on college campuses, according to Axios. Programs are no doubt marketed to nervous parents who worry about their child being away from home and who likewise may be concerned about the quality …
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This September, U.S. households will again be able to order up to 4 COVID-19 nasal-swab tests from COVIDtests.gov for free. Local health departments will also receive extra funding to offer free COVID-19 vaccines to uninsured and underinsured adults. Additionally, government-purchased supplies of the antiviral drug nirmatrelvir/ritonavir will be available at no cost to those who are uninsured or on Medicare or Medicaid. The government is also encouraging people to get the newly updated and recently …
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A federal court in Texas has thrown out the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) ban on noncompete language in employee contracts on the basis that the commission does not have the proper authority. An FTC committee moved in April to enact national policies against noncompete contracts that prohibit workers—including clinicians and executives—from going to market competitors or launching their own competitive businesses for a certain period of time after their contract with their employer ends. The …
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A 64-year-old man presents to urgent care with a lesion on his face for the last 2 months. On examination, a shiny, eroded, blue-black nodule was seen on his right cheek. He is a postal worker. Histopathology examination showed aggregates of melanin and melanocytes within sheets of basaloid keratinocytes with peripheral palisading and surrounding clefts within a fibromyxoid stroma containing melanophages. View the image and consider what your diagnosis and next steps would be. Resolution …
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A new epinephrine nasal spray has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, in adult and pediatric patients who weight at least 66 pounds, according to an FDA press release. Until now, epinephrine has only been available for patients as an injection or auto-injection device. The agency says the new delivery mechanism addresses an unmet need in that some people who need urgent epinephrine treatment …
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Health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported elevated pertussis activity across multiple states, after months of warning Americans that pertussis—or whooping cough—was on pace to return pre-pandemic levels. Weekly reported cases are accelerating to the highest levels seen in the United States for years. For the month of July alone 2,410 cases were reported, bringing the total case count to 10,257 since January. This is 3.6 times higher than …
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