RedScrubs
The Resource for Medical Professionals

Third party payers such as Medicare and Medicaid as well as privately based insurers need to refocus their attention on what is in the best interest of the patient. In an attempt to force industry change payers have restricted their reimbursement rates, increased premium costs for patients and employers, and developed lists of medical conditions that they [payers] feel are avoidable and thus will not provide any remuneration for.

A new level of healthcare transparency is being implemented in Ohio at Alliance Community Hospital where it is paying patients $100 for their hospital bills and explanation of benefits (EOB). The information is put on their web site comparing themselves with other hospitals for patients to view. The goal as reported in amednews is to provide prospective patients that typically use competing hospitals for healthcare services to come over and use Alliance’s healthcare system.

Wal-Mart jumped into the healthcare arena with their retail clinic program called Convenient Clinics to provide improved access to care earlier this year and towards the end of last year when many media headlines broke the story of retail clinics. There was an immediate flurry of activity with store chains such as CVS in the Boston, MA area where some 2000 of these clinics were to be established over the coming months and year (2008).

From the New York Times published on May 6th 2008 comes a report that emergency departments (ED) are busy but fewer patients seen in the ED are uninsured. Data was collected from a study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine (AEM) and published on line on the 14th of April 2008. The AEM study specifically looked at a rise in ED use over an eight year period from 1996 through 2004 to see if the rise in ED use was associated with insurance status. Their conclusions showed that while there was a rise in ED usage nationally during the study period it could not be solely attributed to medical indigence.

For years the idea of visiting hours ruled family members and patient visits. Tight controls over times when people could visit friends and families was strictly adhered to like rules of the local community pool - general swim, adult swim. Over the years the rules have become a bit softer, and in some cases the rules i.e. visiting hours hardly exist at all.

A butcher, a baker, a candle stick maker, and finally into nursing we shall go, or at least for some of us that are board, frustrated, or need a change from our current line of work. The Boston Globe has a brief article regarding mid-career changes that many are looking into. Several articles about switching careers for nursing have peppered that media in recent months outlining people’s concerns with the growing poor economy and general dissatisfaction in their work. The news of the continued nursing shortage and availability of steady stable employment has been somewhat magnetizing.

Women who eat a diet low in animal protein, moderate in low-fat dairy products and high in plant proteins, fruits and vegetables, or a typical DASH diet, tend to show a lower rate of coronary heart disease and stroke according to a recent JAMA article. The DASH diet stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. The DASH diet has formed the basis for the new Food Pyramid and is supported by The National Heart, Lung, Blood, Institute, the American Heart Association, US guidelines for the treatment of high blood pressure and the USDA MyPyramid.

About one in four people who take prescription medication also use such products as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs and/or related ingredients. Despite the therapeutic nature of some of these supplements, they may also either enhance or antagonize the effects of prescription drugs.

If only we knew what makes people behave the way that they do, we’d be able to solve many of the health-related crises facing our world today: obesity, teenage pregnancy, inactivity, type 2 diabetes, and the list goes on.