ACR: Presidents FY 2015 Budget Would Curtail Imaging and Radiation Oncology Self-Referral
Prior Authorization Provision Would Burden Providers and Restrict Access
The American College of Radiology applauds steps to reign in medical imaging and radiation oncology self-referral included in the President’s Fiscal Year 2015 budget.[1] However, prior authorization for imaging services, also included the FY 2015 budget, is unnecessary and will ultimately raise costs, interfere in the doctor-patient relationship and restrict ready access to imaging care.
Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports have examined self-referral of medical imaging andradiation oncology services and found significant and in...
Source: radRounds - March 7, 2014 Category: Radiologists Authors: radRounds Radiology Network Source Type: blogs
NHS waiting times for elective care in England
This report highlights the increasing challenge to the NHS of sustaining the 18-week waiting time standard for elective care and the importance for trusts of having reliable performance information and shared good practice. It concludes that value for money is being undermined by the problems with the completeness, consistency and accuracy of patient waiting time data; and by inconsistencies in the way that patient referrals to hospitals are managed.
Report
NAO - press release (Source: Health Management Specialist Library)
Source: Health Management Specialist Library - January 23, 2014 Category: UK Health Authors: The King's Fund Information & Knowledge Service Tags: NHS measurement and performance Source Type: blogs
P2Y12 Inhbitors in the ED for NonSTEMI. Criticisms of the ACCOAST-ed trial of Upstream vs. Delayed Prasugrel
Rick Body had a nice piece in St. Emlyn's about the ACCOAST-ed trial, a study recently published in the NEJM on the use of Prasugrel in NonSTEMI: should it be given "upstream" in the ED, or should it be delayed until the anatomy is defined by angiography? The study found no difference between upstream and waiting.Here is Rick's piece.I have these criticisms of the trial, and am still using Clopidogrel 600 mg for NonSTEMI:Patients planned for intervention within 2-48 hours, but they do not break down the data on whether their was efficacy for those whose intervention was closer to 48 hours. Sitting on these pati...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - January 22, 2014 Category: Cardiology Authors: Steve Smith Source Type: blogs
Healthcare Update Satellite — 12-30-2013
More updates on my other blog at DrWhiteCoat.com
North Las Vegas VA Hospital emergency department repeatedly “disrespected and mistreated” a 78 year old diabetic volunteer with more than 5,000 hours of service at local VA facilities. A few weeks after two visits for a colon problem, the patient died in a hospice. When the patient’s friend went to get video of the events from the emergency department, the footage had been erased.
What types of things do Australian emergency departments see on Christmas? Stonefish stings, jet ski accidents, inhaled foreign bodies … not that different from the US, although I had no id...
Source: WhiteCoat's Call Room - December 30, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: WhiteCoat Tags: Healthcare Update Source Type: blogs
Our IVF success story - a test of determination, love and professional support
It was the 3rd year of our marriage -2011. We lost our first baby girl at full term due to meconium aspiration. Just 2 days before this fatal day I had lost my mother to another doctors’ negligence. As a precaution, I had insisted our ob-gynaecologist on the next day of my moms’ death to perform C-section on my wife and then I could also break the news to my wife. She ignored my request despite my in-laws visiting her on the same day with my request to her clinic. All along she kept telling us that it was a precious pregnancy , a successful IUI outcome after diagnosis of mild endometriosis. A well planned c-section was...
Source: The Patient's Doctor - December 25, 2013 Category: Obstetricians and Gynecologists Source Type: blogs
Hearing Voices? It’s OK, It’s Part Of Who We Are
In my 30′s my life was turned upside down by a huge psychotic breakdown. I was terrorised by auditory and visual hallucinations. The voices I heard provided a relentless commentary on what was happening in my mind. I link my psychotic episode to traumatic events during my dysfunctional childhood and first, abusive marriage. I am in no doubt about this and challenge those who say “it would have happened anyway” because in no way was it biological in origin. I first heard voices at 14, just after the death of my grandmother. I was anxious and depressed and my parents took me, without telling me,...
Source: Dawn Willis sharing the News and Views of the Mentally Wealthy - November 27, 2013 Category: Mental Illness Authors: judithhaire Tags: *Special Guest Writers* Hallucination Hearing Voices Movement Member of Parliament Mental disorder National Health Service NHS Psychosis Rufus May Source Type: blogs
Anticipation of pain can be worse than pain itself - health - 22 November 2013 - New Scientist
This study demonstrates that the fear of anticipation is so strong it can reverse the usual pattern of time discounting," says George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "It's probably not an exaggeration to say that as much, or more, of the pains of life come from anticipation and memory than from actual experience."The study could well have implications for medicine and health policy, because an understanding of how people judge pain is important for presenting them with options about potentially painful treatments."You should avoid emphasis...
Source: Psychology of Pain - November 24, 2013 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
A normal day at the NHS
Those of us in the US who have been overwhelmed lately by overly excited health care stories in the media look fondly across the Pond. We are confident that we can find a much calmer discourse about these issues in the UK. After all, a single payer system, well established, and held in fond regard by the populace can’t be very controversial. Well maybe. Here’s a synopsis of one day’s news coverage about the NHS from The Times and The Daily Telegraph. Make sure you read all the way to the last one. My head is spinning.•A hospital trust whose staff were allegedly forced to alter waiting times...
Source: Running a hospital - November 17, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
Focus on ambulatory care on WIHI
Madge Kaplan writes:The next WIHI broadcast — Improving Safety and Satisfaction in Ambulatory Care — will take place on Thursday, November 7, from 2 to 3 PM ET, and I hope you'll tune in.Our guests will include:Gordon Schiff, MD, Associate Director, Brigham Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice, Brigham and Women's Hospital Nicholas Leydon, MPH, Director, PROMISES Project, Massachusetts Department of Public Health Frank Federico, RPh, Executive Director, Strategic Partners, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Damian Folch, MD, Family Practice and Lifestyle Medicine (Chelmsford, MA) ...
Source: Running a hospital - November 7, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
Do veterans have timely access to mental health care?
A front page USA Today article declares Many veterans face frustrating delays for mental health care, and reports that the Department of Veterans Affairs “failed to meet its 14-day goal in 34% of new mental health appointments.” I agree that it’s a problem if veterans aren’t being accommodated in a timely fashion and am happy that statistics like this are being publicly reported because they increase accountability in the system.
But access to mental health services is a challenge in this country in general. Try to book an appointment as a new patient with a mental health professional and see how lo...
Source: Health Business Blog - November 5, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: dewe67 Tags: International Policy and politics Research Source Type: blogs
It may have been a flawed #OpenAccess "Sting" but WE ROCKED IT so submit to our journal ...
I suppose I knew this was coming ... but did not expect it so soon ... see the email I received below. Focus in particular on the part highlighted in yellow ....
Dear Colleague,
British Biotechnology Journal (BBJ) is an OPEN peer-reviewed, OPEN access, INTERNATIONAL journal, inspired from the great OPEN Access Movement. We offer both Online publication as well as Reprints (Hard copy) options. Article Processing Charge is only 50 US$ as per present offer. This journal is at present publishing Volume 4 (i.e. Fourth year of operation).
2. Transparent and High standard Peer review:
In order to maint...
Source: The Tree of Life - October 6, 2013 Category: Medical Scientists Authors: Jonathan Eisen Source Type: blogs
Is the health system really a system at all?
We call it a health system, and there are times when it works with an incredible life changing, interconnected fluency.
But far too often what it is….is a complex bundle of separate silo-systems.
Every day there are hundreds of episodes of asynchrony within the patients journey as discrete silo-systems bump and scrape and snag up against each other. Some are minor annoyances that test a patients, well…..patience.
Others are truly exasperating experiences for everyone, demonstrating poor design, a lack of respect for our patients and a lack of advocacy by, well …….us.
Here is one very simple example of the healt...
Source: impactEDnurse - October 2, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: piss and vinegar Source Type: blogs
Could crowd funding be the next step to get drugs to market?
Pure Transplant Solutions, a biotech from Austin, Texas, has taken a new step in order to get funding for their medial device.
They're looking for funding for the ARC device:
The ARC device works by removing a donor recipient’s antibodies that causes the rejection of organs that aren’t biological matches. If successful, the device will make any available organ viable for transplant into a patient in need and reduce the typical waiting time for a transplant from seven years to less than two years.
Its use will also help to lengthen the usefulness of donated organs for their recipient since all bodies eventually attack...
Source: ePharma Summit - September 9, 2013 Category: Medical Marketing and PR Tags: Organ donation education Investors for biotechs crowd sourcing Pure Transplant Solutions Medical Device Funding Source Type: blogs
How would this play in the US?
The Telegraph reports about the NHS:The number of patients waiting to be admitted for operations or other treatment in June was a quarter of a million higher than in the same month last year, official figures show. The figures come after a report by Monitor, the NHS regulator, which warned that some trusts were cancelling non-emergency procedures to deal with a higher load of emergency cases, resulting in longer waiting times.The "referral to treatment" data reveals that waiting lists, which have hovered around 2.5 million patients in recent years, reached 2.88 million in June, the highest level sinc...
Source: Running a hospital - August 18, 2013 Category: Health Managers Source Type: blogs
hardcore nursing. putting my care where my mouth is.
Yesterday was yet another very bad shift.
Why bad?
Not enough available hospital beds led to an overflow of patients in our emergency department that were waiting to be admitted. This is referred to as access block and it quickly leads to a dangerous overcrowding of our department.
Why dangerous?
Overcrowding of emergency departments has been shown to result in an increased morbidity and mortality of patients. It also results in an increased likelihood of medical errors, a decreased capacity to manage emergencies, unacceptable waiting times, more incidents of violence, high levels of stress, poor morale, and a pernicious ...
Source: impactEDnurse - August 15, 2013 Category: Nurses Authors: impactEDnurse Tags: piss and vinegar Source Type: blogs
