Healthcare News

RSS

Pay-for-performance project to improve cardiovascular care

Thousands of heart patients in the Greater New York region will receive top quality, comprehensive cardiac care in an innovative cardiovascular program in which physicians at a major academic medical center will receive incentive payments based on 60 performance measures for outpatient and inpatient care.

8 Oct 2007

Guidance for public health planners on people living with advanced cancer

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released its first guide on planning palliative care services for people living with advanced stages of cancer.

8 Oct 2007

Nurses play valuable role in assessing people held in police custody

Nurses are now playing a valuable role in assessing people held in police custody, complementing the traditional role of the police doctor and improving response times, according to research published in the latest Journal of Advanced Nursing.

4 Oct 2007

Federal jury in Miami convicts company owner of Direct Nursing Assistance Inc

A federal jury in Miami has convicted the owner and operator of Direct Nursing Assistance Inc. of Medicare fraud, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida announced today.

4 Oct 2007

$4 million nursing grant for premature infants

The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing has received a $4.1 million federal grant to develop ways to improve the early growth and development of premature infants who have two or more social-environmental risks such as poverty or minority status.

4 Oct 2007

$1.2 million grant for Geropsychiatric Nursing Collaborative

The Hartford Center for Geriatric Nursing Excellence in the University of Iowa College of Nursing, and two other Hartford centers in the nation, have been funded for a four-year $1.2 million grant to ensure that nurses have the most recent evidence-based guidelines for caring for elders with mental health issues.

4 Oct 2007

American College of Physicians recommends annual influenza vaccine for health-care workers

The American College of Physicians (ACP) recommends that an annual influenza vaccine should be required for every health care worker with direct patient care activities.

4 Oct 2007

Americans strongly desire a well-coordinated trauma system

Americans may be sharply divided in their views on many aspects of health care in the United States, but they are in strong agreement when it comes to one of the most important but overlooked elements - a nationwide trauma system.

4 Oct 2007

Default options for medicine, healthcare

Anyone who has ever tried to set up an internet account or wants to make a purchase on a company's website, has experienced the ‘default option,' an event or condition that will be set in place if no alternative is actively chosen.

3 Oct 2007

Michigan Senate approves Medicaid estate recovery bill

The Michigan Senate on Thursday approved legislation that would require the state Department of Community Health to develop a program to recoup costs paid by Medicaid for people who lived in nursing homes or received in-home care services before their death, the Detroit News reports.

2 Oct 2007

Medicare part B premiums to increase by 3.1% in 2008 to $96.40 per month

CMS on Monday announced that the standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B, which covers physician visits and outpatient hospital care, will increase by $2.90, or 3.1%, to $96.40 in 2008 -- the smallest increase since 2000, when the premium remained the same, the New York Times reports.

2 Oct 2007

New York announces funds for hospitals to be closed or merged

The 23 hospitals and seven nursing homes in New York state that will be closed or merged with other facilities will receive more than $360 million to pay for legal costs associated with the closures and to pay debts, state health officials said, the New York Times reports (Kershaw, New York Times, 9/29).

2 Oct 2007

Caribbean health authorities promise to reduce healthcare-associated infections

Health authorities from the Caribbean say they will work to reduce healthcare-associated infections through a series of actions that include getting healthcare providers to improve hand hygiene.

2 Oct 2007

Wilmot Cancer Center adds gastrointestinal, brain cancer experts

Three specialists in gastrointestinal and brain cancers recently joined the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center to meet the growing need in the Rochester and Upstate New York region.

1 Oct 2007

Nursing - the best job in the world!

As the University of Hertfordshire welcomed its new cohort of just under 300 nursing students, an academic at the School of Nursing and Midwifery deems that nursing is the best job in the world.

1 Oct 2007

Health care interventions that tackle health disparities

Studies show that minority patients generally receive a lower quality of health care compared to white patients.

29 Sep 2007

Polyclinics not the answer to improving care in London

Although there is a case for changing how some NHS services are provided in London, Government proposals do not build on the best aspects of the NHS, could result in damaging fragmentation and may not produce the predicted cost savings, or improvements in patient care, that the Government envisages, the BMA warns today (27/9/07) in its response to Lord Ara Darzi’s review of healthcare in London.

27 Sep 2007

Agfa HealthCare finalizes implementation of fully integrated cardiology suite at Belgian Hospital

Agfa HealthCare, a leading provider of IT-enabled clinical workflow and diagnostic imaging solutions, announces today that it has completed the installation of its IMPAX(TM) Cardiovascular Suite at the AZ Imelda hospital in Bonheiden, Belgium.

27 Sep 2007

Lean manufacturing principles boost efficiency at rural hospital

The emergency department at Meadows Regional Medical Center in rural Vidalia, Ga., has achieved what would make most hospitals across the nation envious: a 44 percent reduction in average length of stay per patient, a 10 percent boost in patients served and a 92 percent patient satisfaction rate.

26 Sep 2007

WHO essential emergency training to save lives and prevent disability

WHO is expanding its programme to train health care staff in low- and middle-income countries in essential emergency, basic surgery and anaesthesia skills.

25 Sep 2007