Despite a recent movement to increase primary care physicians’ ability to identify mental health problems in their patients, many may still struggle to get their patients access to psychiatric care, according to a study published online earlier this week by Psychiatric Services. For the...
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced last week that its national telehealth programs served more than 690,000 veterans during fiscal year 2014. That total represents approximately 12% of the overall veteran population enrolled for VA healthcare, and accounted for more than 2...
Are physicians less well trained as a result of work-hour reforms that cap residents’ work hours at 80 hours per week? An article in the October issue of HealthAffairs suggests duty-hour limits haven’t adversely affected hospital mortality and length-of-stay. Authors Anupam B. Jena, MD, PhD...
One quarter of the hospitals around the country have been left out of some of the biggest shifts in U.S. healthcare initiated by the Affordable Care Act. The Department of Health and Human Services has not yet incorporated the 1,256 primarily rural, “critical access” hospitals into Medicare’...
This is the second of two columns investigating the issues surrounding credentialing and policies for autopsies. In Part 1, Patricia A. Furci, RN, MA, Esq., and Samuel J. Furci, MPA, provided some background and the reasons this procedure should not be considered...
Simulation training is not a new concept in healthcare, but as medical education and practices become more metrics-based, this kind of training is taking on new roles in competence assessment. Teaching hospitals and medical schools on the front lines report expanding interest from physicians...
