Health system executives are finding it difficult to stay ahead of the multiple trends culminating at once—reimbursement pressures, rising drug costs, regulatory complexity (340B), and the central role of pharmacy in value-based care.   Ed Francis, a senior director of life sciences at West Monroe Partners, says changes in drug pricing represents a particularly important issue that health executives will need to watch out for in the coming year, starting with optimizing the drug rebate system. […]

This post, We Could All Learn a Lot From ‘HIPAA 101’, first appeared on https://www.workforce.com. by Andie Burjek The Edelman Trust Barometer for 2019 revealed some interesting points about trust in health care.   Lynn Hanessian, chief strategist at Edelman, shared some major takeaways for employers at the recent Midwest Business Group on Health annual conference in Chicago.   She shared some interesting findings about what sources people trust for information. Key findings were that […]

This post, Three Key Recommendations to Improve HIPAA Compliance, first appeared on https://thedoctorweighsin.com. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandates industry-wide standards for proper management of health care information and electronic billing. HIPAA compliance requires protection as well as the confidential handling of all protected health information (PHI). According to HIPAA rules, any company that deals with protected information must have a physical network and security measures that are followed to ensure compliance. […]

This post, Safety first: Protecting health care workers and patients, first appeared on https://www.devex.com. Needlestick injuries, or NSIs, among health care workers remain a global burden. Accurate data is difficult to ascertain as injuries often go unreported even to this date. The World Health Organization estimated that among the 35 million health care workers worldwide, about 3 million receive percutaneous exposures to bloodborne pathogens each year; 2 million of those to hepatitis B, 0.9 million to hepatitis […]

This post, Is texting at work acceptable for nurses?, first appeared on https://www.nurse.com/. A nurse reader asked what she should do about a personal text message she sent to her husband’s ex-wife. The reader did not include what she sent the ex-wife, but whatever the message, her employer charged her with “improper telephone communication” for texting at work. The reader’s supervisor told her the ex-wife personally came to the hospital to complain about the text […]

This post, Facing Escalating Workplace Violence, Hospital Employees Have Had Enough, first appeared on https://www.npr.org/. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, incidents of serious workplace violence are four times more common in health care than in private industry. Most assaults come from patients and patients’ families.   Across the U.S., many doctors, nurses and other health care workers have remained silent about what is being called an epidemic of violence against them.   The […]

This post, Designing a Better Ambulance, first appeared on https://www.emsworld.com. Today’s ambulances are far from perfect. For instance, “the cab area is filled with operational distractions and frequently too crowded for comfort or safety,” says Tracey Loscar, EMS operations chief for the Mat-Su Borough Department of Emergency Services in Wasilla, Alaska. “Meanwhile, the patient compartment has limited ability to protect the crew from impact injuries, specifically closed head injuries.” But what if ambulances could be […]

This post, A Secure Healthcare Prescription, first appeared on https://securitytoday.com. Hospitals are improving security, operational efficiencies, and patient safety By Courtney Dillon   Pedersen Hospitals and other healthcare facilities face unique security and surveillance challenges. These often large, multi-building/multi-level facilities operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, year-round—there is no downtime allowed for their operation.   In most cases, these environments are fairly open with staff members, patients and their families, vendors, emergency […]

This post, Four ways to manage healthcare waste sustainably, first appeared on https://www.eco-business.com. The progress of modern medicine in the recent years has been astounding. A wearable pancreas is already increasingly common, continuously monitoring blood sugar levels and dispensing insulin as needed. Soon, we may even be able to finely edit our DNA, using molecular scissors to snip out genetic defects. But as global healthcare charges forward, it leaves behind a waste crisis waiting to explode. […]