The growth of medical scribes and what it means for healthcare
Their numbers will reach 100,000 by 2020,
Biotech is booming for everyone but the employees
Here’s some advice: If you’re going to work for a biotech, ask for more stock options. The Timmerman Report is among those who recently put into focus what a few analysts have been saying: Most biotech worker bees aren’t seeing the benefits of the biotech boom (or bubble) in their paychecks. Why the stagnation? There are a […]
California nurses brace to fight expected staffing, wage cuts at Kaiser Permanente
Going to a nurses union meeting is a little bit like going to an evangelical church service. “We all have to stand up, and it’s a struggle,” says Veronica Cambra, a nurse reporting a grievance at Kaiser Hospital in Fremont, Calif., as though she’s giving testimony. “And we will overcome this, OK?” The rest of […]
Nurse practitioners continue their battle for autonomy in Texas Medicaid programs
Rose Okoro, a nurse practitioner who specializes in family medicine, opened the Daystar Family Clinic in Katy, Texas, last October. Seven months later, she has only enough patients to work there part time. It is not because of demand but beca...
Pennsylvania’s alternative to Medicaid expansion would require 700+ new workers
Pennsylvania’s ambitious alternative to expanding Medicaid — a private-market initiative that Gov. Tom Corbett says is designed to save money — would require 723 new state workers, about one percent of the current workforce. The projected number of hires, detailed by state officials, is far higher than most states have needed and surprised some public-policy […]
Inspira Health Network experiments with using emergency medical technicians to do follow-up home visits
Hospitals and health systems responding to Obamacare’s reimbursement pressure are increasingly experimenting with new ways to reduce readmissions for patients less than 30 days after they were discharged. To that end, they’re reviewing the best ways to follow up with patients that not only produce feedback and data on their health and adherence to medical […]
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Tech to the future for medical hiring: 4 new tools
Tech to the Future for Medical Hiring: 4 New Tools Hiring for the healthcare and medical fields this year is going to be difficult. This should shock no one, since the Affordable Care Act is dumping somewhere close to 32 million new patients into the American healthcare system. These new patients will need doctors, nurses, […]
L.A. County nursing home inspections chief reassigned following critical audit
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health supervisor in charge of nursing home inspections has been moved to another job days after the release of a highly critical audit of his division. Ernest Poolean, who has been a county employee since 1968 and became the head of the Health Facilities Inspection Division in 2011, […]
Today’s healthcare CIO job goes way beyond managing information technology (infographic)
The healthcare CIO has a lot more on his plate today than he did four years ago, and the work is going to keep piling up, according to nearly 200 CIOs who contributed to a new report by executive search firm SSi-Search. More than two-thirds of CIOs who responded to the firm’s survey said their […]
What’s behind the spike in the hospital CEO turnover rate: Age? Stress? Consolidation?
Hospital CEOs are leaving their posts at an unprecedented rate, according to the American College of Healthcare Executives, potentially adding more stress to health systems already under pressure. ACHE’s annual report on CEO turnover looks at data reported by more than 4,500 hospitals to the American Hospital Association. Turnover rose to 20 percent in 2013, […]
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
How much do doctors really earn? (Infographic)
I found this infographic (see below) interesting for several reasons. The information puts the high US physician salary touted by the mainstream media and political policy makers in perspective with other countries when time spent providing care is considered. However, the data presented in this infographic also address the important issue of training debt that […]
Healthcare union workers in California want to cap CEO salaries at nonprofit hospitals
SACRAMENTO – A California health care workers’ union is collecting signatures to get two measures onto the ballot that it says would lower health care costs. United Health Care Workers West, or SEIU-UHW, wants to cap what hospitals can charge to 25 percent above the actual cost of services. SEIU-UHW says on average, hospitals charge […]
Doctors and social media: It’s time to embrace change
I recently took on a position of medical journal editor. It is with the Journal of Kentucky Medical Association. It’s been a good learning experience. Part of the job of editorial board members is to write an opinion column. (Check, I’ve done that before.) What follows below was published in this month’s journal. The editorial […]
Survey: Quality metrics make their way into more physician compensation packages
As reimbursement moves toward value-based payments, so are healthcare organizations slowly adjusting their physician compensation plans to factor in quality metrics. A new report from healthcare human resources firm SullivanCotter found that most organizations still base physician compensation on productivity. But a third of organizations the firm surveyed said they also used performance-based metrics, like […]
The problem with testing students and doctors is what gets truncated
For me, maybe you too, the best part about science is how it disrupts the status quo. A belief, a way of doing something, a paradigm if you will, becomes entrenched. Humans love patterns. We get attached. I call this the way-it’s-always-been-done philosophy. It’s endemic in medicine, and, from what I can see, in education […]