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Health care savings, coverage for all could lower spending $1.5 trillion over 10 years

Guaranteed health insurance for all combined with several federal policy options to achieve health care system savings could result in $1.5 trillion in reduced spending over 10 years, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report prepared by Fund staff and the Lewin Group for study by the Fund's Commission on a High Performance Health System.

20 Dec 2007

How doctors deal with the risk embedded in the medical system

Risk is an inherent element of the hospital system and the resulting dangers are often normalised by medical staff to allow them to do their job, according to research by a University of Nottingham academic.

18 Dec 2007

Patient satisfaction benchmarking program makes list of top 10

The American Medical Group Association announced that its Patient Satisfaction Benchmarking Program was recently recognized among the largest patient-satisfaction firms in 2006 by Modern Healthcare.

17 Dec 2007

HHS releases new tools with aim to make health care safer

An array of toolkits designed to help doctors, nurses, hospital managers, patients and others reduce medical errors was released by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

17 Dec 2007

U.S. hospitals charged $873 billion in 2005

U.S. hospitals charged $873 billion in 2005 – a nearly 90 percent increase from the $462 billion charged in 1997 – according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research.

17 Dec 2007

CDC uses new technical approach to enable hospital reporting of healthcare-associated infections

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with timely assistance from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), is developing a standards-based solution for transmission of healthcare-associated infection (HAI) data from existing commercial software systems to the agency's National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).

14 Dec 2007

Improving health care for older adults

Most older adults obtain their health care in the offices of busy primary care physicians or, in the case of those without physicians, in even busier hospital emergency departments.

13 Dec 2007

With obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease on the rise, more comprehensive guidelines needed

According to new survey results, when 2007 Cardiometabolic Health Congress participants were asked what guidelines they follow for treating patients with multiple cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors, the largest group of respondents indicated that they didn't follow any particular set of guidelines and that better guidelines are needed.

12 Dec 2007

Better health outcomes in hospitals using information technology

Patients are more likely to have better health outcomes if they are treated at hospitals using information technology (IT) systems, according to a comprehensive new Florida State University study.

12 Dec 2007

Ambulance plans trigger alarm

Plans to send out more one-person ambulances in response to 999 calls could put lives at risk, UNISON warns.

12 Dec 2007

Labor market work and home care's unpaid caregivers

People who provide intensive and time-consuming care to others at home - such as assisting with feeding, bathing and toileting - are the caregivers who are most vulnerable to dropping out of the labor force, according to a new systematic review of studies on unpaid caregivers.

10 Dec 2007

Concept of patients' charters 'inadequate'

The concept of patients' charters is inadequate and should be replaced with charters of health responsibilities, argues an expert in this week's British Medical Journal.

10 Dec 2007

Gap in health rates between socioeconomic classes unchanged

Over the past century, the United States has witnessed historic advances in public health and medicine that have contributed to improved health and a significant increase in life expectancy for all socioeconomic groups.

5 Dec 2007

Research institutes from Finland and Singapore develop remote healthcare services

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and A*STAR Agency for Science, Technology and Research from Singapore have developed remote healthcare services that allow patients to be treated globally independent of time and location and irrespective of the solutions provided by hardware and data system suppliers. In Finland, the first trial services for treating cardiac patients and patients suffering from chronic illnesses have been promising.

5 Dec 2007

New recommendations provide evidence-based solutions to America's many health care problems

In a new evidence-based paper, the American College of Physicians (ACP) analyzes health care in the United States and 12 other industrialized countries and identifies lessons that could be applied to the particular political and social culture of the United States to achieve a high performing health care system, including achieving universal health insurance coverage for all Americans.

4 Dec 2007