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States struggle with enrollment data, outreach to minority populations

News outlets report on state health exchange developments in Colorado, Maryland, California and Minnesota.

30 Oct 2013

Hand hygiene compliance improves to 89%, study finds

How often do you clean your hands? A study at Rhode Island Hospital observed staff on 161,526 occasions to monitor how often they cleaned their hands (ie, hand hygiene) between July 2008 to December 2012 and found that hand hygiene compliance improved from 60 percent to 89 percent. The study is published online in advance of print in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

30 Oct 2013

New Dementia Service Center established as pilot project

In Germany, approximately 1.3 million people currently suffer from dementia. About 250,000 incident cases are estimated per year. Dementia is the leading cause of dependency and disability among older persons.

30 Oct 2013

Common birth defect in male infants weakly linked to commercial pesticides

A study of several hundred chemicals used in commercial pesticides has found only weak evidence that any of them are associated with a common birth defect in male infants.

30 Oct 2013

MRSA cases continue to decline in VA medical centers

Five years after implementing a national initiative to reduce methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) rates in Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers, MRSA cases have continued to decline, according to a study in the November issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

30 Oct 2013

Identifying gaps in infection prevention practices may help improve patient safety, shows study

Identifying gaps in infection prevention practices may yield opportunities for improved patient safety, according to a survey published in the November issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

30 Oct 2013

Obama's labor allies sitting on sidelines of health care rollout, other advocates wait for website fix before marketing campaigns

Unions, which were disappointed in an administration decision to keep a tax on their group health plans, are not jumping in to help the White House in the battle to get the public signed on to the law. Meanwhile advocates and insurers are spending time with general messaging about the health care law until the marketplace website is working.

30 Oct 2013

Unrealistic pessimists less likely to take preventive action after receiving good news

Patients who are unrealistically optimistic about their personal health risks are more likely to take preventive action when confronted with news that is worse than expected, while unrealistic pessimists are less likely to change their behavior after receiving feedback that is better than expected, according to researchers at the University of California, Riverside and Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Mich.

30 Oct 2013

Medicare Part B premium costs will hold steady in 2014

For the upcoming year, premiums will be $104.90 a month. In 2013, beneficiaries experienced a $5-per-month increase.

30 Oct 2013

Penn Medicine-led panel reports that noise exposure is a serious public health threat

The combined toll of occupational, recreational and environmental noise exposure poses a serious public health threat going far beyond hearing damage, according to an international team of researchers writing today in The Lancet.

30 Oct 2013

Health plan cancellations create White House's next set of challenges

News coverage is focusing on the notion that a large percentage of people who currently have individual health coverage are receiving cancellation notices because their plans don't meet the standards created by the health law. Many of these people, according to reports, will face "sticker shock" with their new insurance. A critical emerging question is whether the Obama administration expected this scenario.

30 Oct 2013

New ex-smokers across Cheshire and Merseyside celebrate first steps towards a smokefree life

Over 9,000 people across Cheshire and Merseyside joined a quarter of a million people in the UK choosing to turn their back on cigarettes this month in the mass 28-day stop smoking challenge, Stoptober. In Merseyside, 7187 people signed up along with 1,288 people in Cheshire West and Chester.

30 Oct 2013

New pulmonary medicine list includes five recommendations to improve patient care and outcomes

A list released today identified five commonly performed tests and procedures in pulmonary medicine that may not always be necessary. The list, part of the ABIM Foundation’s Choosing Wisely campaign, was produced by a collaborative task force assembled by the American Thoracic Society and the American College of Chest Physicians.

30 Oct 2013

COMMONWELL project established to support health and social care services

Across Europe, providing health and social care services is becoming increasingly complex and costly. An aging population, a multitude of public, private and informal actors, together with a myriad of e-health systems and technologies create numerous hurdles to offering efficient and cost-effective care.

30 Oct 2013

As mandate delay talk continues, examining what it means for insurers, larger health law

As talk continues over possibly putting off parts of the health law, news outlets look at what delaying the mandate that nearly all Americans have health insurance could do to insurers and just how smart the move really would be -- despite the seemingly good politics of a delay.

30 Oct 2013

All in family: Dinner tables linked to less fat

Beyond plate size and calorie count, the war against obesity may have a new leader - the dinner table. Families that eat together without the television on and stay seated until everyone's finished have children with lower weights and body mass index (BMI), reports a Cornell behavioral economist in the October issue of Obesity.

30 Oct 2013

The Joint Commission names HNMC as ‘Top Performer on Key Quality Measures for 2012’

Holy Name Medical Center (HNMC) was named one of the nation's Top Performers on Key Quality Measures for 2012 by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of healthcare organizations in America.

30 Oct 2013

C2 Health launches interactive portal to educate consumers on healthcare law

C2 Health, a division of C2 Technologies, Inc., announced today the launch of its Health Exchange Learning Portal (HELP) at C2-Health.com, a complete suite of classroom, eLearning courses, and resources for nationwide education of Navigators/Consumer Assistors, Consumers, Brokers, Call Center Representatives (CSRs), Health Workers and Volunteers tasked with helping consumers enroll for healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA).

30 Oct 2013

Administration officially extends deadline for health insurance sign-up

The AP reports that "previously you had to sign up by the middle of February, guaranteeing that your coverage would take effect March 1, in order to avoid fines for being uninsured."

30 Oct 2013

Exercise programs reduce rate of severe falls in old adults

Exercise programmes designed to prevent falls in older adults also appear to prevent injuries caused by falls, suggests a paper published today on bmj.com.

30 Oct 2013

Healthcare News

States struggle with enrollment data, outreach to minority populations

Hand hygiene compliance improves to 89%, study finds

New Dementia Service Center established as pilot project

Common birth defect in male infants weakly linked to commercial pesticides

MRSA cases continue to decline in VA medical centers

Identifying gaps in infection prevention practices may help improve patient safety, shows study

Obama's labor allies sitting on sidelines of health care rollout, other advocates wait for website fix before marketing campaigns

Unrealistic pessimists less likely to take preventive action after receiving good news

Medicare Part B premium costs will hold steady in 2014

Penn Medicine-led panel reports that noise exposure is a serious public health threat

Health plan cancellations create White House's next set of challenges

New ex-smokers across Cheshire and Merseyside celebrate first steps towards a smokefree life

New pulmonary medicine list includes five recommendations to improve patient care and outcomes

COMMONWELL project established to support health and social care services

As mandate delay talk continues, examining what it means for insurers, larger health law

All in family: Dinner tables linked to less fat

The Joint Commission names HNMC as ‘Top Performer on Key Quality Measures for 2012’

C2 Health launches interactive portal to educate consumers on healthcare law

Administration officially extends deadline for health insurance sign-up

Exercise programs reduce rate of severe falls in old adults

Managing vibration in IVF laboratories

Improving healthcare sustainability through carbon data

A New Approach to Preventing Bladder Cancer Recurrence

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