AMA Survey Cites Patient Concerns With Data Security
Almost 75% of those surveyed are concerned about protecting the privacy of personal health data. Only 20% of patients said they know how many companies and individuals have access to their data. The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling over abortion rights is heightening these concerns, the AMA says, since a lack of data privacy may put patients and physicians in legal jeopardy where states are restricting reproductive health services.
Establish Monkeypox Infection Control Team, Monitor Community Outbreaks
The World Health Organization declared the contagion a global health emergency July 23 and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said the declaration “is a call to action for the global health community,” and that his agency and others will be accelerating plans to make “to make vaccines, testing, and treatments available to people in need.”
CMS Revises Methodology for Calculating Staffing Star Rating
These measures, which have been posted on the CMS website for more than a decade, are used to calculate each nursing home’s star rating for the staffing section of the Nursing Home Five-Star Quality Rating System.
Researchers Find Decreased In-Hospital Adverse Events from 2010 to 2019
The new research article, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is based on data collected from more than 244,000 adult patients hospitalized in 3,256 hospitals from 2010 to 2019.
PSQH: The Podcast Episode 58 – Using Technology to Bridge the Behavioral Health Gap for Children
On episode 58 of PSQH: The Podcast, Dr. Anthony Sossong, chief medical director of behavioral health at Amwell, talks about how technology can help improve behavioral health services for children.
CDC Updates Enhanced Barrier Precautions for Nursing Home Residents
Nursing home residents are at increased risk of developing infection with multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), so the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated Enhanced Barrier Precautions (EBPs) for nursing facilities to protect residents.
CMS Proposes to Cut Audio-Only Telehealth Coverage
The proposal imperils a service that had become popular during the pandemic, when health systems shifted in-person care to virtual channels to cut down on hospital traffic and reduce the spread of the virus. Thanks to federal and state waivers tied to the pandemic, healthcare providers were allowed to connect with patients on a telephone or other non-video platform for some healthcare services and be reimbursed for those services.
How to Map Out an Effective and Sustainable Remote Patient Monitoring Program
HealthLeaders recently conducted a round-table with three health system executives to talk about their RPM programs and strategies. This panel featured Carrie Stover, MSN, NP-C, national senior director of virtual care for Ascension; Sarah Pletcher, MD, MHCDS, system vice president and executive medical director for strategic innovation at Houston Methodist; and Kathryn King, MD, MHS, associate executive medical director at the Center for Telehealth at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).
CMS Strengthens Guidance on EMTALA and Emergency Abortions
The reminder comes more than two weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion nationwide. The memo also includes a note that hospitals and physicians may face civil financial penalty for denying patients emergency care.
Extensive Patient Candidate Evaluation Key Element of New Long COVID Clinic
AdventHealth opened the health system’s Post-COVID Clinic in March. Determining whether patients have long COVID and characterizing their symptomology requires an exhaustive evaluation process, says Dwayne Gordon, MD, an AdventHealth Medical Group internal medicine physician and lead physician of the Post-COVID Clinic, which is based at AdventHealth Orlando.