Tanj
That means "There Ain't No Justice." It's a kind of epithet that is common in Larry Niven's Ringworld universe. Anyway, it's true.Dick Cheney and the guys he hired to shove stuff up prisoners' rectums in order to inflict pain and humiliation are walking around rich and happy.St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch knowingly presented testimony from a witness who he knew was lying -- had her appear twice, and did nothing to impugn her testimony, even though he knew she wasn't even present and was making up her entire story, which was crafted to exonerate a murderer who McCulloch wanted to get away with it. He has now s...
Source: Stayin' Alive - December 24, 2014 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The Medical School as Hereditary Plutocracy - Retiring Board Chair Sanford Weill of Cornell Weill Medical School Names His Own Daughter as New Chair
As I have written before, sometimes you just could not have made this stuff up.The Retiring Board Chairman Appoints His Own Daughter to Succeed Him The most even handed reporting on this story was in Inside Higher Ed,Leadership of the board that oversees Cornell University’s medical college is passing from father to daughter, an unusual transition of power for a higher education board.Weill Cornell Medical College’s Board of Overseers has been chaired for the past two decades by its namesake and major donor, Sandy Weill, the former CEO of Citigroup.His daughter, Jessica Bibliowicz, is now set to take over Weil...
Source: Health Care Renewal - December 17, 2014 Category: Health Management Tags: boards of trustees Citigroup finance medical schools Weill Cornell Medical College You heard it here first Source Type: blogs
Healthcare Update Satellite — 12-16-2014
Answering the important questions … why does the flu vaccine suck this year? Keep a lookout for next month’s issue of EP Monthly which will tell you everything you need to know about influenza diagnosis and treatment.
Of course, if you had read the backboard article in EP Monthly’s November issue, you’d already be doing this … Florida fire department abandons use of backboards for most trauma patients.
4 year old boy develops carotid artery dissection and left sided hemiparesis after riding a roller coaster. Fortunately, he had made significant recovery by six months. How scary is that, though...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - December 17, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: WhiteCoat Tags: Healthcare Update Source Type: blogs
Again, the Hospital CEO as Scrooge - Erlanger CEO and Other Top Hired Managers Get Bonuses Months After They Froze Employees' Paid Time Off
Less than two weeks ago, we discussed a series of cases in which there was a marked contrast between how well top hired managers of non-profit hospitals were doing, and how their institutions were doing. Now another vivid example of this problem as appeared, affecting Erlanger Health System, a non-profit hospital system in Tennessee that has recently seen hard times.Freezing Paid Time OffIn March, 2014, as reported by the (Chattanooga, TN) Time Free Press,Erlanger Health System's latest strategy to staunch financial losses has hit its most personal note yet, as hospital executives have decided to freeze the p...
Source: Health Care Renewal - December 12, 2014 Category: Health Management Tags: Erlanger Health System executive compensation perverse incentives Source Type: blogs
A Small Island Next to a Hulking Continent; A Parable
There once was was a kind humble physician who worked for years in an office building across the street from the hospital, toiling day to day to take exceptional care of his patients. He was open and deliberate, calm and thoughtful. He himself hired every secretary and medical assistant, every nurse and biller. His staff formed a protective family who fiercely advocated for both patient and doctor.And he prospered. For a time.The winds of change were slowly gaining force in his small town. His beloved hospital joined a larger medical Goliath. His fellow practitioners abandoned thei...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - December 9, 2014 Category: Primary Care Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
The Hospital CEO as Scrooge - Hired Managers Get Raises While Presiding Over Deficits, Layoffs and Pay Cuts
Million dollar plus managers of non-profit hospitals and health systems are now -forgive me - a dime a dozen. Payments to top managers continue to rise, faster than inflation, and faster than the pay given to other people in the health care field.Top Hired Managers' Pay Increases Far Faster than Pay of Other Employees For example, last August, Modern Healthcare published a summary article which includedTotal cash compensation grew an average of 24.2% from 2011 to 2012 for the 147 chief executives included in Modern Healthcare's analysis of the most recent public information available for not-for-profit compensation. Of ...
Source: Health Care Renewal - December 1, 2014 Category: Health Management Tags: executive compensation imperial CEO Novant Health UMass Medical Center Source Type: blogs
Hospital Closes for Thanksgiving Weekend. Doctors and Nurses Rejoice!
Denver, CO -- The parking lot was empty at Piedmont Hospital today after security locked the doors, turned off the lights and erected 'No Smoking or Trespassing' signs throughout the campus. Administrators made good on their promise to close the hospital for the extended Thanksgiving holiday weekend allowing all doctors and nurses a rare vacation at home with their families, a strategy in direct competition with Black Friday Hospital Deals. The idea was born after Nurse Jenny, a new graduate who was upset nobody ever told her before she went to nursing school that she'd have to work most holidays for the rest of her...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - November 27, 2014 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: Tamer Mahrous Source Type: blogs
Reporting physician quality: The dangerous game the government plays
We have heard ad nauseum that the data collection mandated by Medicare and Medicaid is to improve quality of care. Significant taxpayer dollars have been expended as bonuses in the name of PQRS (Physician Quality Reporting System). With all this investment and mandating, one would assume that the PQRS must be highly indicative of better quality of patient care, right? Not so fast.
Continue reading ...
Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 25, 2014 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Arvind Cavale, MD Tags: Policy Medical school Medicare Source Type: blogs
Grand-Aides And Health Policy: Reducing Readmissions Cost-Effectively
Hospital readmissions for the same condition within 30 days likely should not occur, and most often indicate system failure. Readmitted patients are either discharged too early, should be placed into palliative care or hospice, or most often are victims of a failure in transition of care from hospital to home. Most hospitals and physicians would like to eliminate such readmissions, particularly now that payers like Medicare are penalizing hospitals for high rates of readmission. Numerous approaches have been tried to reduce readmissions, with recent published improvements between a 2 percent and 26 percent reduction.
The G...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - October 29, 2014 Category: Health Management Authors: Arthur Garson Tags: Access All Categories Health Care Costs Health Care Delivery Hospitals Payment Quality Workforce Source Type: blogs
The Payment Reform Landscape: Value-Oriented Payment Jumps, And Yet …
Today, Catalyst for Payment Reform (CPR) unveiled some potentially exciting news: Our 2014 National Scorecard on Payment Reform tells us 40 percent of commercial sector payments to doctors and hospitals now flow through value-oriented payment methods, defined as payment methods designed to improve quality and reduce waste. This is a dramatic increase since 2013 when the figure was just 11 percent.
Traditional fee-for-service, where we pay for every test and procedure regardless of its value, may rapidly be becoming a relic. While the Scorecard findings are not wholly representative of health plans across the United St...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 30, 2014 Category: Health Management Authors: Suzanne Delbanco Tags: All Categories Employer-Sponsored Insurance Health Care Costs Health Reform Hospitals Innovation Payment Physicians Policy Quality Source Type: blogs
Value Extractors, "Super-Managers," Vampires and the Decline of the US and US Health Care
Appearing during the last few weeks were a series of articles that tied the decline of the US economy to huge systemic problems with leadership and governance of large organizations. While the articles were not focused on health care, they included some health care relevant examples, and were clearly applicable to health care as part of the larger political, social, and economic system. The articles reiterated concerns we have expressed, about leadership of health care by generic managers, perverse executive compensation, the financialization of health care, in part enabled by regulatory capture, and the abando...
Source: Health Care Renewal - September 18, 2014 Category: Health Management Tags: boards of directors executive compensation financialization generic managers Pfizer regulatory capture Renaissance Technologies Source Type: blogs
Patent and Trademark Employees Cheat on Bonuses
Nicole Kaeding
Two years after whistleblowers submitted tips to the Commerce Department Inspector General’s office, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is acknowledging extensive timekeeping fraud among its employees. Many employees have reported working more hours and achieving higher levels of production than they actually did in order to secure overtime pay and bonuses.
The Washington Post has the details:
For example, patent examiners are allowed to submit incomplete reviews in order to meet productivity deadlines that ensure their work will be rewarded with bonuses. But the work is not always...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 18, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Nicole Kaeding Source Type: blogs
Five Things That Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) Can Learn From Social Media
As a physician who openly despises many aspects of current EMRs (see “How An EMR Gave My Patient Syphilis” or “The Medical Chart: Ground Zero For The Deterioration Of Patient Care” ) I recognize that they are here to stay. And so, since we’re all stuck with these digital middlemen, I have some suggestions (based on popular social media platform functionality) for making them better.
1. Likes. Healthcare providers should be able to “vote up” an excellent note in the medical record. Let’s face it, not all doctors are equally good at documentation. Untold hours of our time are s...
Source: Better Health - September 5, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Dr. Val Jones Tags: Health Policy Opinion Confidentiality Electronic Medical Records EMR Facebook Like Privacy Search Social Media Tagging Twitter Source Type: blogs
Celgene Faces Off-Label Promotion Lawsuit Over Successful Cancer Drugs Thalomid and Revlimid
Since 2006, Celgene Corporation has earned $20.9 billion from the sales of two of its drugs—Thalomid and Revlimid. The drugs are used for patients suffering from multiple myeloma. This year, Celgene has posting amazing sales of Revlimid in particular—doctors are prescribing the drug as an effective cancer treatment with limited side effects. However, 2014 has also given rise to both an off-label suit stemming from before FDA recognized the drugs and antitrust allegations.
In February 2014, Celgene was accused of promoting its cancer drug Thalomid and related compound Revlimid for unapproved purposes. The accusations c...
Source: Policy and Medicine - August 14, 2014 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
Why do Indian companies take such poor care of their employees’ health ?
Companies all over the word proclaim that their employees are their most precious asset. This should be especially true of Indian IT companies such as TCS , for example , which depend upon the knowledge of their employees in order to be able to provide outsourced services cost effectively .However , the problem is that even though they pay lip service to the fact that they value their employees, the reality that there is very little they do in real life to demonstrate this , as a result of which most employees treat such statements as window-dressing. These platitudes look good in the Chairman’s speech which is published...
Source: The Patient's Doctor - August 13, 2014 Category: Obstetricians and Gynecologists Tags: Corporation Health insurance India Job Growth Max Bupa Public liability United States Source Type: blogs
