January 22nd, 2010 by JessicaBerthold in Better Health Network, News
Tags: Camden, Hospital Readmission Rates, How To Reduce, Internal Medicine, Primary Care
No Comments »
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 20th, 2010 by JessicaBerthold in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Emergency Medicine, Hospital, Mortality Rate, Neurology, Stroke, tPA, Weekend, Weekend Effect
No Comments »
In early 2008, researchers at the International Stroke conference unveiled two studies showing a “weekend effect” in stroke– ie, mortality from stroke was higher on the weekends (and at night) than weekdays. We explored this topic in the June 2008 ACP Hospitalist.
Now, a new Archives of Neurology study has found no difference in stroke death rates based on weekend/weekday arrival. What’s more, stroke patients admitted on weekends were more likely to get tPA. This flies in the face of one of the main theories about the weekend effect–namely, that stroke rates may be higher on weekends because there is often a shortage of staff and resources, which leads to less aggressive treatment. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*
January 17th, 2010 by Berci in Better Health Network, News
Tags: Doctors, Gifts, give aways, Pharma, Pharmaceuticals, small gifts, tchotchkes
No Comments »
In many countries, prescription drug advertising is banned, but pharma companies can still give little gifts to doctors. Now a Spanish blog covers, as reported by Advertising in Health, a lot of gadgets and gifts which sometimes are quite weird or have no functionality.
And if you think doctors are fed up with these, just take a look at the two videos below. The first one becomes interesting at 0:35.
Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
January 14th, 2010 by StaceyButterfield in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News
Tags: Calorie Counts, Class Differences, Eating Behaviors, Menus, Nutritional Information, NY, Obesity, Poverty, Primary Care, Socioeconomics, Washington Post
No Comments »
It may still be a little fuzzy how health care reform will affect insurance coverage, but there is one area where it’s already having a clear impact, according to the Washington Post: menus.
A lesser-known aspect of the proposed legislation is that it will mandate calorie posting of the sort currently done in New York City for restaurants with more than 20 locations nationwide. The WashPo story reports on the positive impacts that publicization of calories has public health–apparently restaurants offer more healthy dishes, and diners swarm to them. Which is interesting, because the last time we discussed this issue, researchers were reporting that people actually consumed more calories after the stats were posted. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
January 14th, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News
Tags: Age In Place, Geriatrics, Intel, Internal Medicine, NHS, Philips, Philips Motiva, Technology, Telemonitoring
No Comments »
The perpetually struggling British National Health Service (NHS) is testing a telemonitoring system from Philips in hopes that it will help moderate the cost of providing care to the elderly. The Philips Motiva is a device that hooks up to a television and displays interactive prompts for patients to perform certain tasks, like measuring blood sugar. Via a broadband connection, readings are then sent out to the clinic for overview by a healthcare professional. NHS is hoping that the system will help it reduce the number of in-person patient visits to the hospital, freeing up time for more pressing issues to get their turn.
From The Times of London:
Some 400 patients are being monitored in Newham. Each is provided with diagnostic equipment, such as an SPO2 meter for blood oxygen, which clips on the patient’s finger. The meter is attached to a set-top box linked to the patient’s television. The readings are sent to healthcare staff of the Primary Health Trust, who contact the patient if the readings cause concern.
The Newham trial includes patients with diabetes, heart disease or breathing problems, known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, a condition affecting a million Britons. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
