|
Blake Medical Center in Bradenton, Fla., offers a “Back to Nursing” program as a way for retired RNs or those who left the profession for other careers to return to patient care. The hospital sees it as a way to help reduce nurse vacancies and get mature, experienced staff. The program includes 120 hours of online course material from St. Petersburg College and a paid 96-hour clinical orientation
Blood pressure is better controlled when family doctors are given a simplified, four-step antihypertensive algorithm to follow, employing low-dose fixed combination therapies, as opposed to the usual treatment guidelines, which can be complex.
A program in which pharmacists helped patients with diabetes manage their disease resulted in a cost savings of almost $1,100 per patient, or 7.2 percent, over one year, according to study results released by the American Pharmacists Association Foundation. The “Diabetes Ten City Challenge” included 30 companies that set up a voluntary health benefit for employees, dependents and retirees with diabetes.
Patient-safety events accounted for 97,755 in-hospital deaths between 2005 and 2007, according to an annual HealthGrades study of Medicare patients. The report said that there were 913,215 events overall during the period and that Medicare patients experienced a safety event every 1.7 minutes. The errors cost more than $6.9 billion over the two-year period.
Patients looking to cut expenses amid the recession did not purchase 6.8 percent of brand-name drugs that their physicians prescribed in the fourth quarter of 2008, marking a 22 percent jump from the first quarter of 2007, according to a study from Wolters Kluwer Health. The report also states that patients did not fill 4.1 percent of generic prescriptions.
The Obama administration is revving up the U.S. attack on HIV/AIDS with the first media blitz in two decades aimed at the epidemic. The administration hopes to emphasize that someone in the U.S. contracts HIV every 9.5 minutes, resulting in 56,300 new cases each year. The CDC is planning a $45 million multimedia ad campaign over five years in both English and Spanish.
Some 6 million Americans go outside the U.S. for health care each year, and insurers are starting to cover more of those services. Companion Global Healthcare, a Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina subsidiary, includes 13 hospitals around the world in its network, and BlueShield of California offers the Access Baja health plan covering medical care in northern Mexico. The Joint Commission International has given its stamp of approval to more than 170 hospitals outside of the U.S.
To help layoff survivors cope with a new social dilemma — how to talk to friends who have lost their jobs — The Emily Post Institute’s Peter Post offers an etiquette quiz to help raise sensitivity levels. One tip: It may not be such a good idea any more to start conversations with that old standby, “So how's the job going?”
Good leaders, like good comedians, look at life from a different perspective, writes John Baldoni. He thinks leaders in difficult times should follow the example Jay Leno set during a visit to hard-hit Detroit: Point out absurdity, lampoon hypocrisy and cut the high and mighty down a notch. |
Stay Informed 
