Practice Management
Ohio has joined Michigan, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Indiana in declaring an outbreak of hepatitis A. Michigan has the most confirmed cases with 843. Ohio has “only” 79, but that’s twice as many as the state saw all last year. Community health departments are requesting thousands of doses of hep A vaccine in the hope of stemming the tide. Given the proximity of the states, the presumption on the part of health officials is that …
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More U.S. high school students self-report having had a concussion than is reflected in data from hospitals and school systems, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 15% of participants in the CDC’s latest Youth Risk Behavior Study (YRBS) say they have experienced at least one concussion related to sports or physical activity over a 1-year period. That prevalence, equating to 2.5 million children, is higher than what’s …
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Family physicians and psychiatrists are the most in-demand physicians and healthcare providers overall when it comes to recruiting assignments, but nurse practitioners are now third on the list, according to a report from MerrittHawkins, a subsidiary of AMN Healthcare. The authors attribute the sharp rise of nurse practitioners among recruiters seeking to fill positions to the growing number of retail clinics—and the ongoing growth of urgent care. In fact, “urgent care” was used as a …
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Visits to emergency rooms continue to go up as hospital admissions drop in southern California, suggesting that either many of those flocking to the ED don’t need to be there or patients who need beds aren’t getting them, according to a new series of articles published in the Whittier Daily News. Either way, it would seem wider, acuity-appropriate use of urgent care resources would reduce the volume while increasing efficiency of care. Another solution being …
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Membership fee-based medical practices are proving to be an attractive option for patients and families that are uninsured, according to an article just published in the Chicago Tribune. Such practices don’t take insurance at all, but charge their “members” a monthly fee for unlimited office visits, some related services, and discounts on medications and lab tests. At MedLogic, one practice cited in the article as an example, that fee is roughly $140 a month. Fees …
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Violations of the Health Insurance Accountability and Portability Act are serious business, but they may not be sufficient grounds to sue violators, absent other circumstances, according to a decision just reached by a federal judge. A plaintiff in Washington, DC had charged that LabCorp left her protected health information (PHI) in plain sight at a local hospital, where it could be viewed by others not authorized to see it. That has been accepted as fact …
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Patients who get nervous around clinicians, even to the point of having a fast heart rate or elevated blood pressure, are said to be experiencing “white coat anxiety.” Don’t let that fool you. A professional image, including those white coats (and scrubs, as well) goes a long way toward helping patients feel they’re going to get excellent care, according to a new study published in BMJ Open. More than half of the 4,000+ patients who …
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Urgent care, by nature, is a fast-paced practice setting; patients come to your practice because they don’t feel like they can wait to see a primary care provider, after all. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the pace can take its toll, especially on the clinical staff. Providers can reach the point of burnout if they’re not careful. Now, Practice Velocity has a few suggestions that might help, put forth in a blog …
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The emergency room presents bit of a paradox for many cancer patients, according to a new article published in the journal Oncology Nurse Advisor: A trip to the ED is risky for anyone with a compromised immune system—which would apply to many oncology patients—but at the same time cancer and related treatment can cause a seemingly endless list of complications that require immediate attention. “Visiting the ED is often a portal to hospitalization for these …
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Far too many prescriptions are being written for patients with acute respiratory infections, including influenza, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As many as 41% of antibiotic prescriptions for ARIs were deemed “inappropriate” by the CDC. In addition, despite published guidelines, vigorous public awareness campaigns, and missives to prescribers, nearly 30% of patients who tested positive for viral flu infection were prescribed antibiotics. The data, published in JAMA …
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