Survey Finds Chronic, Widespread Shortages of Allied Care Professionals
A survey of 1,005 healthcare venues by the Dallas-based healthcare staffing recruiter found that 85% of respondents say they are experiencing a shortage of allied healthcare professionals “a great deal,” “a lot” or “a moderate amount,” while 82% report hiring new graduates over the last 12 months to address ongoing staffing shortages. Only 15% responded “a little” or “not at all.”
Executive Briefing: Medication Orders, Crash Carts, and Food Storage Lead Top Clinical Problems
Check patient units to ensure breast milk and other patient foods are stored correctly, encourage staff to reach out to providers if medication orders are not clear, and check crash carts for expired or missing items. Those are among some of the highest scored problems not associated with infection control or suicide prevention, according to findings by surveyors with The Joint Commission in the 12 months ending August 31.
Male Physicians Receive Higher Payments from Medical Companies than Female Physicians
The new research article, which was published by JAMA Surgery, features data from the Open Payments Database for female and male physicians who received the most payments from the 15 highest-grossing U.S. medical supply companies from January 2013 to January 2019.
Telehealth Diagnoses Match In-Person Clinical Visit Diagnoses in 86.9% of Cases, Study Finds
The recent research article, which was published by JAMA Network Open, examines data collected from more than 2,000 Mayo Clinic patients who had telehealth diagnoses followed by an in-person visit diagnosis for the same clinical concern in the same specialty within 90 days.
Blood Clot Prevention: Who Needs to Wear an SCD and for How Long?
The CDC estimates that almost 1 million Americans suffer from venous thromboembolism (VTE), also known as blood clots. VTE is a term that is comprised of two medical conditions: deep vein thrombosis, which is a blood clot in one or more of the deep veins in the body (usually in the legs), and pulmonary embolism, which is a blood clot in a pulmonary artery in the lungs.
Poor Patient Data Signals an Alarm in Healthcare Safety
While many of the above factors are monitored by medical boards, state and federal certification organizations, and even patients on social media, patient safety also is heavily tied to the quality of data used to make clinical decisions—an important but well-hidden variable. And the quality of patient data largely depends on how accurately patients are identified. Poorly identified patients are one of the main causes of safety issues in healthcare.
Partnership Successful at Weaning Patients Off Ventilators
Ventilator-dependent patients are medically complex and often have multiple morbidities. Providing care for these patients is costly, and they have extended lengths of stay compared to many hospitalized patients. In a partnership with Boca Raton, Florida-based Special Care Unit, Tampa General Hospital operates a Progressive Care Unit to wean patients off ventilators.
Follow 7 Principles for Disease and Risk Factor Screening in Emergency Departments
There is a tremendous opportunity to conduct screening in emergency departments. Research has shown that about half of U.S. adults over age 35 have not received screening for common health risk factors such as tobacco use and depression. The new journal article, which was published by Annals of Emergency Medicine, identifies seven principles for conducting disease and health risk screening in emergency departments.
Can Tattoos Accurately Measure Blood Pressure?
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University have created an electronic tattoo that can be worn on the wrist comfortably for hours while providing accurate, continuous blood pressure measurements.
Cutting Through the Noise Among Digital Health Solutions
Digital health technology has become a huge market—and an overwhelming one. With all of the new options to bring patients online through portals, apps, and other touchpoints, it’s easy for health systems to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices. This may be contributing to the dissatisfaction healthcare leaders report with their digital health strategy, at least according to the Hospital Digital Health Technology Report: 2022 from Panda Health.