September 4th, 2011 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Opinion, Research
Tags: Canadian Medical Association Journal, CMS, Discharge, Hospital Stay, Medicare, Out-patient care, Quality Care, Re-admissions, Research, Study, Waste
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Hospitals across the country are working on quality initiatives to reduce re-admissions to hospitals. There are consultants, conferences, forums, meetings, physicians, nurses and administrators who are spending hours upon hours (and lots of $$$) to find ways to keep patients who have been discharged from being readmitted within 30 days. Why all of this activity? It is one of the quality measures that is being tracked by Medicare and Medical (CMS) and decreased reimbursement will be next if a patient is readmitted to any hospital within 30 days of a discharge. The diagnosis doesn’t matter.
A new study shows all of this focus and cost may not be worth it. Readmission after a hospital discharge may not be an indication of poor care.
The study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal looked at 4,812 patients and had medical experts review the cases of the 649 who needed urgent readmission within 6 months. (Not one month as we are measuring). They found that Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
September 3rd, 2011 by GarySchwitzer in Opinion
Tags: Cause-And-Effect, Enthusiastic Language, Experimental, Health News Stories, Los Angeles Times, low Omega-3 levels, Military Suicides, Misconception, Observational Study, San Diego Union-Tribune, Therapeutic, Treatment Benefits
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A story in the San Diego Union-Tribune describes testing of “an experimental therapeutic filtering device being developed.”
Think about it. It hasn’t been proven therapeutic yet if it’s still experimental.
Lawyers use a term, “therapeutic misconception,” which is important for everyone to know about and think about. It refers to study participants perhaps having the misconception that the purpose of the trial is, indeed, therapeutic – when that hasn’t been established yet.
I see news stories commit this error all the time. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
September 3rd, 2011 by Michael Kirsch, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Bedside Manner, Billing Issues, Cleanliness of facilities, Compassion, Courtesy of hospital staff, High Death Rates, Hospitals, Medical Care, Medical Quality, Medicare, On Time, Optimistic, Patient Opinion, Pay For Performance, Reimbursements, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Surveys
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There was an extremely popular game show where several times each episode the emcee would shout out, “Survey Said!”. Of course, this was just a game, not real life. Now, several times each week I am asked to respond to surveys. They pop up uninvited on the internet and are often veiled advertisements for products and services. They are on the back of receipts from coffee houses and doughnut shops. Is it worth 10 minutes of my time clicking through the doughnut survey for either a free chocolate frosted doughnut or the chance to be entered into the grand prize drawing months later? Hotels I stay at routinely follow-up with e-mail surveys for my feedback. I suspect most folks delete these instantly, which skews the customer base to those who do respond. (Remember, disatisfied folks are often more motivated to give feedback than the rest of us are.) How often do we call a restaurant, a retail store, a bank or even a doctor’s office to offer hosannas about great service?
Medicare recently released fascinating patient-survey data that raises interesting issues. In over 120 hospitals, patients rated the hospitals very highly, despite high death rates for heart disease and pneumonia. So, who do we believe here, the patients or the death rates? I wonder if the patients’ survey results were more optimistic since only the live ones were available to complete them.
Surveys are now serious bu$ine$$. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at MD Whistleblower*
September 3rd, 2011 by John Di Saia, M.D. in Opinion
Tags: Collagen Injections, Cosmetic Surgery, crow's feet, Dermal Fillers, Face Lift, Forbes, hyaluronic acid, Marionette Lines, Non-surgical, Plastic Surgery, Prevelle, Problem, Safety, Thinning Lips
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From Forbes:
But today, a range of dermal fillers can be injected into those crow’s feet, marionette lines, thinning lips and furrows between the brows, taking years off the face–and all can be done during your lunch hour, with no invasive surgery and little recovery time.
Source: forbes.com/2009/05/26/dermal-filler-cosmetic-forbes-woman-well-being-facelift.html
I love how the press tends to make it seem like Dermal Fillers are the solution for which we have all been waiting. They make it an issue of just “choosing the right one.”
The issue here is that dermal fillers Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Truth in Cosmetic Surgery*
September 1st, 2011 by StevenWilkinsMPH in Health Policy, Opinion
Tags: Communication habits, Communication surveys, Doctor-Patient Communication, Paternalistic style speech, Patient Engagement, Patient Experience, Patient-Centered Care, Physician Surveys, Physician-directed talk, Primary Care Physicians
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The first experience patients are likely to have with your hospital is not in an ER visit or inpatient stay. A patient’s first experience will most likely be in one of your primary-care physician offices. That because a person is 10 times more likely during a year to end up in the physician’s office for a routine visit than they are to require an overnight hospital stay.
As a hospital marketer or patient experience officer this should raise an interesting question. How well do your physicians–particularly your primary-care physicians–represent your brand?
Take “patient-centeredness.” Lots of hospitals these days are promoting themselves as providing patient-centered care. You know … when the hospital and its staff try where possible to be sensitive to and honor the wishes of patients. But when it comes to patient-centeredness, “walking the talk” is hard in physician offices and even tougher in the hospital.
The fact is that most physicians, with some exceptions, are Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Mind The Gap*
Hospitals across the country are working on quality initiatives to reduce re-admissions to hospitals. There are consultants, conferences, forums, meetings, physicians, nurses and administrators who are spending hours upon hours (and lots of $$$) to find ways to keep patients who have been discharged from being readmitted within 30 days. Why all of this activity? It is one of the quality measures that is being tracked by Medicare and Medical (CMS) and decreased reimbursement will be next if a patient is readmitted to any hospital within 30 days of a discharge. The diagnosis doesn’t matter.
