Keeping Fungi at Bay

Some strains of Candida auris (C. auris) fungusre resistant to all three classes of antifungal drugs. Its spores are extremely durable and can survive on skin and surfaces (such as doorknobs and bedrails) for weeks. Fungal infection can cause a gamut of effects, from mild (runny nose) to severe (death).

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Improve Quality Outcomes in Managed Care: Back to Basics

“The more things change, the more they remain the same.” Technology and pharmacology are advancing rapidly. Reimbursement systems for healthcare services are in flux, and the sites for delivering healthcare are expanding to pharmacies and grocery stores. What remains the same is that people need healthcare and healthcare professionals provide it.

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The Multifaceted Roles of the Physician Advisor and Influence in Health Care Organizations

We are in the midst of tremendous change in healthcare, and physician advisors are needed to be the lighthouse guiding our physician colleagues in the turbulent waters. The notion that a physician advisor only needs to know how to determine a proper level of care is well past us at this point, because organizations have realized that physician advisors can, and are, impacting healthcare organizations in many other equally important ways.

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You’ve Got Harm

For 11 months, two AHS hospitals tried out an automated system called the Automated All-Cause Harm Trigger System (ACHTS). The system’s software uses 41 algorithms to monitor electronic medical records (EMR) for signs that harm has befallen a patient, with flagged charts sent to a reviewer to examine. By the end of the study, the ACHTS caught 2,696 cases of patient harm, compared to the 132 harms caught using the old sampling method.

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Right Dose, Right Drug: WHO Challenges Hospitals To Cut Med Errors In Half

Worldwide, medication errors cause at least one death per day and cost an estimated $43 billion annually (1% of global health expenditures). In the U.S. alone, 1.3 million people are injured annually due to medication errors. All these errors are potentially avoidable, says the WHO, so long as the right systems and procedures are put into action.

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Q & A: How To Respond To The WHO’s Top 12 Superbugs List

This list is a new tool to ensure R&D responds to urgent public health needs,” said Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO’s assistant director-general for health systems and innovation. Antibiotic resistance is growing, and we are fast running out of treatment options. If we leave it to market forces alone, the new antibiotics we most urgently need are not going to be developed in time.

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