Diagnostic errors produce the vast majority of medical malpractice suits related to primary-care practice, and it's harder to successfully defend such cases than other types of malpractice suits, according to a report in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Using health information technology to prevent these errors should be a priority, the authors said.
Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and other Massachusetts organizations examined malpractice cases handled and closed by the state's two largest medical liability insurers from January 2005 through December 2009. They found 551 (7.7%) cases were primary-care related and, of these, 397 (72.1%) were associated with diagnosis errors.
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The key to effective health information technology in a small, office-based medical practice is to properly install the newly purchased electronic health-record system, according to a new report from KLAS Enterprises.
KLAS's review of 27 vendors' products found that unhappiness with an EHR vendor's installation effort leads to practices switching to another vendor. It also found that such flipping is on the rise. KLAS did not quantify, in aggregate, the percentage of practices committed to changing systems.
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Keehan
Ascension Health, Bon Secours Health System, the American Hospital Association, the Catholic Health Association and the Federation of American Hospitals are among more than 900 organizations, providers and businesses helping Americans learn about the healthcare reform law and sign up for health insurance coverage, HHS announced one day before open enrollment begins on the law's health insurance exchanges.
Called “Champions for Coverage,” these volunteers—which include faith-based organizations, community health centers and bloggers—will use digital and print materials from the CMS to educate people about their options in the state health insurance exchanges that were created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Open enrollment on the exchanges will last from October through March, and those who enroll by Dec. 15 will have coverage starting on Jan. 1, 2014.
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Wachter
At the sixth International Conference on Diagnostic Error in Medicine on Wednesday, Dr. Robert Wachter gave a quick history of patient safety and quality improvement but noted that activity to reduce diagnostic errors was noticeably absent from the movement's timeline.
“There's still not a lot of action promoting this agenda,” said Wachter, professor and associate chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. He made the remark after describing events that took place after the Institute of Medicine published “To Err is Human,” its report on medical errors, in 1999.
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The Service Employees International Union today unveiled a Spanish-language video featuring two Latino doctors aimed at encouraging Latinos to enroll in a health plan through the new state insurance exchanges.
Two Latino physicians, Dr. Say Salomón and Dr. Michelle Espinoza, recorded videos in English and Spanish and talked about the benefits of signing up once state insurance exchanges become active Tuesday.
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The humble stretcher used for transporting patients has gone high-tech and high-cost. The average price paid for stretchers jumped 20% over the past year as more hospitals purchased costlier models that have complex features, such as motorized drives or compatibility with X-ray imaging devices, according to the Modern Healthcare/ECRI Institute Technology Price Index. But one expert raised questions about whether the technological advances are worth the price.
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Alexander
Seventeen Senate Republicans are asking HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to again delay the looming implementation of more stringent criteria for the federal electronic health record incentive payment program. Their request follows a plea to providers from a leading EHR vendor to ask the government for more time.
Their call came in a letter Tuesday to Sebelius requesting an extension of the Stage 2 meaningful-use requirements by one year “for providers who need extra time to meet the new requirements. Providers who are ready to attest to Stage 2 in 2014 should be able to do so with current policy,” the senators said.
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HHS is searching for the best idea for a system that captures essential data from durable medical equipment, such as loss of power, GPS location and privacy-protected user information during emergencies.
Thousands of people in the U.S. rely on electrically powered durable medical equipment to meet their medical needs at home and often have to find help in shelters or emergency rooms during extended power outages, according to HHS.
The department's office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, or ASPR, kicked off the Ideation Challenge, a contest to find ideas for determining the location and the status of durable medical equipment—such as oxygen concentrators and portable ventilators—to help users in emergencies. The system should also gather the power level and battery life of the equipment and the time and date. HHS envisions a network that's accessible to all those who use durable medical equipment in their homes and sends data securely to other secure information systems.
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The American College of Physicians released a Web-based clinical decision support tool for internal medicine physicians known as ACP Smart Medicine.
Accessible from desktops, smartphones and tablets, the online tool includes 500 modules with evidence-based content and recommendations for a variety of conditions and diseases.
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McDermott
Responding to criticism that Medicare is not paying for enough seniors' skilled-nursing care following serious hospitalizations, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) has introduced a bill that would eliminate a barrier to rehab care known as the “three-day rule.”
As it stands, the three-day rule says Medicare will not pay for the time that seniors spend in a nursing home recovering from a hospital stay unless they were hospitalized as an inpatient for three days. McDermott's bill, the “Fairness for Beneficiaries Act,” would eliminate the three-day requirement and replace it with a provision that says seniors would need a physician to certify their need for skilled-nursing, regardless of time spent as an inpatient.
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McDermott
Responding to criticism that Medicare is not paying for enough seniors' skilled-nursing care following serious hospitalizations, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) has introduced a bill that would eliminate a barrier to rehab care known as the “three-day rule.”
As it stands, the three-day rule says Medicare will not pay for the time that seniors spend in a nursing home recovering from a hospital stay unless they were hospitalized as an inpatient for three days. McDermott's bill, the “Fairness for Beneficiaries Act,” would eliminate the three-day requirement and replace it with a provision that says seniors would need a physician to certify their need for skilled-nursing, regardless of time spent as an inpatient.
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