January 22nd, 2010 by JessicaBerthold in Better Health Network, News
Tags: Camden, Hospital Readmission Rates, How To Reduce, Internal Medicine, Primary Care
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The Philadelphia Inquirer had an interesting piece Monday about a successful initiative in Camden, NJ (one of the poorest cities in the U.S.) that has dramatically reduced ED visits and readmissions. Among other things, a coalition of primary care providers has banded together to get more patients to see PCPs instead of going straight to the ED. (Appropriate patients are referred from the ED to these providers, for eg). Open-access scheduling, electronic prescribing and chronic disease registries also further the goal of preventive medicine that keeps patients from getting to the point where they need to go to the ED, or need to be admitted to the hospital.
The result? Monthly ED visits down by 32%, hospital admissions–and charges–down by 56%. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*
January 22nd, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Research
Tags: Australia, Cardiology, Heart Disease, Internal Medicine, Lifestyle Choices, Risk of Death, Sedentary Lifestyles, Television, TV
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If you’ve spent anytime on The Happy Hospitalist in the last two years, you know I am a strong believer in lifestyle as the only solution to an economic disaster we find ourselves in. One recently reported television health statistic confirms, once again, the strong correlation between lifestyle and early death.
I blogged previously about studies showing an 80% reduction in heart disease, strokes, cancer and diabetes by adhering to lifestyle choices proven to save lives. America is a nation of couch potatoes. Everyday I see families, doctors and nurses taking the elevator up on story to the next floor above. What ever happened to using the stairs for a little self sacrifice?
The television health statistics in this country are alarming. How many hours a week do Americans spend watching television? 1 How does 31 hours a week sound. That’s amazing. I have one or two shows a week that I watch, if I’m lucky. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
January 21st, 2010 by Debra Gordon in Better Health Network, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Biomedical Ethics, Death, End Of Life Care, Geriatrics, Journalism, Mortality, Nursing, Palliative Care, Taboo
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Back in the day when I was a newspaper reporter I completed a biomedical ethics fellowship at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, VA. In addition to sitting in on the hospital’s bioethics committee discussions, I spent much of the week shadowing a nurse in the ICU.
They called her the Death Nurse because her job was to intervene with doctors, nurses, patients and families when the time came for a patient to move from the ICU to hospice. While her title was Supportive Care, she flat out told her me her job was to help people die; not actively, but from behind the scenes by helping patients and those caring for them understand when the time had come to move from curative care to supportive care (email me if you’d like a copy of the article I wrote about her). Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Debra Gordon on Medical Writing (and other medical topics of interest)*
January 21st, 2010 by Jon LaPook, M.D. in Better Health Network, Expert Interviews, Video
Tags: CBS, Haiti, Humanitarian Aid, Jon LaPook, Media Attention, Media Coverage, Missions, Relief, Volunteers, What Next
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Watch CBS News Videos Online
Nine days after the devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti, media attention is beginning to wane. What will happen next, when the cameras are off? Read more »
January 21st, 2010 by PhilBaumannRN in Better Health Network, Opinion
Tags: Features, Nursing, Social Media, Technology, Twitter, Wish List
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- Image via CrunchBase
After returning to Twitter after a week-long break, I’ve had the chance to look at the service with a freshened perspective. Twitter needs to stay simple – that’s what drives its success. Nevertheless, I believe Twitter needs to mature and provide exploits of its service. While the basics of Twitter aught to remain, Twitter, Inc. can build a wider ecosystem around those basics which could make it a true contender as an important part of the Web.
Services like Posterous and Friendfeed offer features such as replying via email. Although third-parties could develop similar features via Twitter’s API, it’s time that Twitter mature a bit. If Twitter plays its cards right, it could offer itself as much more than just as the modern equivalent of a telecommunications utility (which it is).
- Email content, replies, DMs. We should have an option to respond to replies & DMs via email. There are services out there such as Topify but they don’t provide the most secure methods. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Phil Baumann*
