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Though the CDC鈥檚 new prescribing guidelines follow a theme of less is more, another federal agency鈥檚 patient satisfaction surveys include questions about pain management that some say encourage doctors to prescribe the highly addictive medicines.
Electronic health records increasingly include automated alert systems pegged to patients鈥 health information. In some cases, though, the sheer volume of these messages has become unmanageable.
Medical residents at George Washington University spend three weeks examining and diagnosing the nation鈥檚 health care system.
A Berkeley doctor begins an unusual practice as a law takes effect this week permitting doctors to prescribe lethal medications to terminally ill patients who request them.
The proposal would have required physicians and other medical clinicians to tell their patients if they were on probation for serious offenses.
Dr. Abraham Nussbaum, author of a new book examining the drive toward quality metrics such as checklists, says he fears medicine could become just another job and not a 鈥渃alling.鈥
With 鈥渟hared appointments,鈥 patients can get more time with less-harried providers, enjoy mutual support and see better outcomes. But the approach has its skeptics.
In June, California will become the fifth state to allow terminally ill patients to end their lives with prescriptions from their doctors, but getting those prescriptions will require serious effort.
The effort, which will replace a controversial reimbursement schedule that began in 1997, is designed to move away from paying for quantity of services and focus instead on quality.
The prestigious facilities are seeking to improve patient safety by getting surgeons and hospitals to pledge to meet minimum thresholds for 10 high-risk procedures.
Private insurers that administer Medicaid for the poor also face limits on profits and requirements to provide sufficient doctors.
Nearly half of academic medical centers will be penalized by the government this year for high rates of infections and other avoidable complications, but the hospitals say it shows they screen better for problems.
Researchers found that the facility fees hospitals and their clinics routinely add to the bill helps drive the price increases.
They recognize the responsibility, but some may need training.
A survey conducted by the Leapfrog Group finds that though many hospitals have computer-based medication systems in place to protect against errors, many still fall short in highlighting possible problems.
As medicine moves to a patient-centered model, doctors and other health providers are slowly adding patients鈥 self-reports to the other tests and exams they use to determine care.
Harken Health, a new UnitedHealthcare subsidiary, offers members free unlimited doctor visits and health coaches at 10 clinics in Chicago and Atlanta.聽
Physicians were less likely to use 鈥渃are management processes鈥 with patients who have depression than with those who had other chronic conditions, the researchers found.
The novel expansion model is testing how far a state can go under Obamacare in making poor people share responsibility for the cost of health care.聽
Some experts say this opportunity has not been realized, but advocates and policymakers are focusing on fixes that would make the digital versions of end-of-life planning documents easy for health professionals to locate.
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