Bringing Prescribing and Fulfillment of Specialty Medications Into the 21st Century

Often, to prescribe the specialty drug, the physician must write a letter requesting the health plan to cover it and provide lab and/or test results to verify medical necessity. Meanwhile, the patient, who typically has a complex, difficult-to-manage health condition, waits needlessly for a drug that they hope will improve their health and quality of life.

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Joint Commission Targets Maternal Health Crisis

This week, TJC released a Sentinel Event Alert and Quick Safety advisory on maternal mortality and morbidity. “We must address the maternal health crisis immediately, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated racial disparities in pregnancy-related outcomes,” Ana Pujols McKee, MD, executive vice president, chief medical officer, and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer of TJC, said in a prepared statement.

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Three Ways to Ensure Healthcare Technology Design Focuses on the End User

Today’s technology solutions can help stem the tide of burnout—but to do so, their design must incorporate direct input from the end user. With informatics solutions that span care settings and are easy to use, clinicians and nurses can spend more time on patient care rather than grappling with disparate technologies that don’t fit into their workflows.

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The Exec: Coronavirus Pandemic Remains a Top Challenge

Marjorie Bessel, MD, has been with Banner Health for more than a decade. She has  held many physician leadership roles at the health system, including serving as chief medical officer for several hospitals and working as chief medical officer of Banner Health’s Arizona Division. Before taking on the chief clinical officer role, she served as vice president and chief medical officer of community delivery.

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The Joint Commission Elevates Health Equity to National Patient Safety Goal

The Joint Commission (TJC) —which last year issued new hospital Leadership standards to encourage health equity, effective January 1, 2023—has now elevated health equity to a National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG).
There are no new requirements for NPSG.16.10.01, which echo the Leadership standards except to identify all six elements of performance (EPs) as risk areas.

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AAMC: Diversity in Medical Schools Increased in 2022

Lack of diversity in the healthcare workforce risks undermining trust and patient health, according to the Urban Institute. An Urban Institute report published last year found that only 22.2% of Black adults reported being of the same race as their healthcare providers compared to 73.8% of White adults and only 23.1% of Hispanic/Latinx adults reported racial, ethnic, and language concordance with their usual healthcare provider.

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Nurse Practitioners Have the Best Job in Healthcare

Besides ranking No. 1 in healthcare jobs, NP ranked No. 2 in the top 100 Best Jobs by U.S. News, the global authority in rankings. And though nearly 40% of the best jobs are in healthcare, a technology job—software developer—captured the top spot this year because of the “rising number of products and services that leverage software,” says Janica Ingram, careers editor at U.S. News.

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