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Patient-safety issues raised by the critics of limits on resident duty hours have not materialized. But concerns about doctors-in-training spending less time with patients appear to be valid, according to two new studies in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education set an 80-hour weekly work limit (averaged over four weeks) in 2003. Further limits, including restricting first-year residents to 16-hour shifts went into effect in 2011. The movement to limit resident work hours was originally driven by Sidney Zion, a journalist, prosecutor and novelist, whose 18-year-old daughter Libby died a few hours after being admitted to New York Hospital on the night of March 4, 1984. His fight led to New York state limiting residents to an 80-hour workweek and 24-hour shifts in 1989.
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A number of major medical specialty medical societies are preparing to release new lists of tests and procedures they deem to be unnecessary or potentially harmful, as the third installment of the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation's “Choosing Wisely” campaign, the foundation announced Wednesday.
Beginning in September and continuing through March, more than 30 national specialty
physicians' groups will release lists of services they consider overused.
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Physicians believe electronic health records can improve patient outcomes but feel that EHR costs outweigh any financial benefits they might have, according to the fourth annual athenahealth Physician Sentiment Index.
The survey also found that doctors see receiving third-party payments as increasingly complex but are getting less frustrated with the process. Similarly, physicians doubt government involvement can have a positive impact on healthcare, “but the passion surrounding it seems to have lessened,” according to the survey.
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The high cost of excessive drinking can be tallied in billions of dollars for health costs, lost productivity, criminal justice expenses and property damage, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found.
Nationwide the cost of binge drinking was $223.5 billion in 2006, according to the study, with a median cost of $2.9 billion to each state and the District of Columbia.
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As healthcare reform expands coverage, nonphysician providers are seeking to expand their portfolio of licensed services and are facing intense opposition from doctors to their efforts.
In California, three bills before the Legislature propose to expand the scope of practice for nurse practitioners, optometrists and pharmacists, with one bill advancing and two bills being stalled.
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Does the federally sponsored Direct messaging protocol pose an existential threat to vendors of health information exchange software? Time will tell, according to the author of a new market research report on health information exchanges.
Time will tell, according to the author of a new market research report on health information exchanges. But Direct is definitely producing anxiety among firms selling software that's designed to be used in more complex types of health information exchange—the long-sought “query-and-response” style of information swapping that has yet to achieve widespread adoption through the industry despite extended federal efforts.
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A new analysis suggests that smart design of the websites used for the new state insurance exchanges to enroll consumers in health plans could save consumers and the government more than $9 billion a year.
It highlights the difficulty for consumers of choosing a health plan that best fits their healthcare and financial circumstances even in the new reform environment where they can more easily make apples-to-apples comparisons.
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Lee
Some of California’s top insurers, including Kaiser Permanente, are protesting the state’s plans to drop quality ratings from insurance listings when its exchange goes public on Oct. 1.
Covered California executive director Peter Lee told the Los Angeles Times that the data behind existing quality ratings were too out of date. He also fears the plans sold on the exchanges will be very different from the individual policies that formed the basis for the star-based grades (this is movie-land).
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The not-for-profit group responsible for educating Americans about the healthcare reform law's coverage options provided a status check of its efforts on Monday, but remained vague about how much it is spending on the massive endeavor.
Throughout 2014, Enroll America will spend “tens of millions” of dollars on the “Get Covered” campaign that it launched in late June, Anne Filipic, the group's president, told reporters in a phone call.
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An investment advisory firm has dealt a blow to Health Management Associates in recommending that shareholders vote to replace its current board of directors with eight new members.
The recommendation comes days after the Naples, Fla.-based hospital chain seemed to make a concession to activist shareholder Glenview Capital Management, which is pushing for an entirely new board. Late Tuesday, HMA said it was prepared to invite some of the hedge fund's nominees to join its board, including as chairman.
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It's more those smoking breaks than healthcare costs that make smokers more expensive employees.
A new analysis by researchers at Ohio State University found that employees who smoke cost private employers $5,816 more a year than nonsmoking employees. Much of the cost, about $3,077, came in lost time from smoking breaks.
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