September 4th, 2011 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Opinion, Research
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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 2nd, 2011 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Research
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I am often asked by elder persons whether or not they should take the herpes zoster (“shingles”) vaccine. Up until this point, I have been answering “yes” based on my own experience, but now there is some data to support this recommendation.
In the article, “Herpes Zoster Vaccine in Older Adults and the Risk of Subsequent Herpes Zoster Disease,” Hung Fu Tseng and his colleagues reported their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA 2011;305[2]:160-161). They evaluated the risk of herpes zoster after persons received the vaccine in a general practice setting.
In a retrospective (looking back at a cohort of patients from medical records) study, the researchers compared Read more »
This post, Article Recommends Herpes Zoster Vaccine For Adults Over 60, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
August 29th, 2011 by Harriet Hall, M.D. in Opinion, Research
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During the early days of the 2009 H1N1 influenza A pandemic, the popular herbal formula maxingshigan–yinqiaosan was used widely by TCM practitioners to reduce symptoms. (It’s hard to pronounce and spell, so I’ll refer to it as M-Y.) A new study was done to test whether M-Y worked and to compare it to the prescription drug oseltamivir. It showed that M-Y did not work for the purpose it was being used for: it did not reduce symptoms, although it did reduce the duration of one sign, fever, allowing researchers to claim they had proved that it works as well as oseltamivir.
“Oseltamivir Compared With the Chinese Traditional Therapy: Maxingshigan–Yinqiaosan in the Treatment of H1N1 Influenza” by Wang et al. was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine earlier this month. The study was done in China, which is notorious for only publishing positive studies. Even if it were an impeccable study, we would have to wonder if other studies with unfavorable results had been “file-drawered.” It’s not impeccable; it’s seriously peccable.
It was randomized, prospective, and controlled; but not placebo controlled, because they couldn’t figure out how to prepare an adequate placebo control. They considered that including Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
October 21st, 2009 by DrRich in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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This past weekend, AHIP – the American Health Insurance Plan trade group – seemed to turn at last against healthcare reform. For nearly a year the AHIP stood silently by, and indeed often made noises in support of the administration’s reform efforts, despite being cast by reformers as the chief villains of American healthcare. Then suddenly, a few days ago AHIP released a study produced for them by Price Waterhouse Cooper which concluded that healthcare reform (at least as advanced by the Baucus Senate Finance Committee) would result in massive increases in insurance premiums for Americans.
Becoming an apostate has always been far worse than being a mere infidel, and the AHIP action (seen as a act of betrayal and not merely an expression of opposition) has invoked the wrath of the powers that be. Democrats and progressives everywhere have quickly responded. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Covert Rationing Blog*
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.
