byline goes here
By Scott Hensley
A simple sounding phrase--meaningful use--is the key that could open a vault of federal bonus bucks for doctors and hospitals.
Late Wednesday, Health and Human Services officials unveiled more than 500 pages of proposed rules on what doctors and hospitals have to do to collect billions of dollars in stimulus money for switching from paper medical files to computerized health records. Basically, they have to show they're using electronic systems to meaningfully improve care.
Less than 20 percent of doctors use electronic medical records now. They could get more than $40,000 by hopping on board. Most hospitals have some computerized systems, but they need to go a lot further in reporting on quality and sharing important data, advocates say.
So what do they have to do to collect the dough?
Continue reading "Feds Unveil Incentive Plan For Electronic Medical Records" >
categories: Doctors, Electronic medical records, Hospitals, Quality
byline goes here
By Scott Hensley
So where are we today on the question of screening for cancer?
The white arrow points out cancer in this mammogram. (NIH via Wikimedia Commons)
Well, the American Cancer Society is emphatically saying it's not changing its stance on the risks and benefits of screening, contrary to a front-page story in Wednesday's New York Times that said the group is "quietly working" on changes to its Web site that would emphasize "a real risk of overtreating" breast, prostate and some other cancers.
Putting a point on it, Dr. J. Leonard Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer at the group, wrote on his blog:
The American Cancer Society is not working on any stealth project to change commentary on our website to emphasize the shortcomings and risks of screening. If we are, I would know about it, and I haven't heard anything about such a plan. We don't have to. You see, we already discuss these issues right there in plain view, including on this blog.
Continue reading "Cancer Group Affirms Course On Screening " >
categories: Prevention, Public Health, Quality
byline goes here
By Scott Hensley
The big challenge in health care isn't always finding a new cure but instead getting doctors to use the ones already out there.
Take, for instance, a generic drug to help patients with serious heart failure. Despite advice issued by two leading professional societies for heart doctors in 2005, two years later less than a third of hospitalized heart failure patients who could benefit from drugs called aldosterone antagonists were on them when leaving the hospital. In Europe, about half of such patients are taking the drugs at discharge.
The findings, published in the current issue of JAMA, underscore the continuing challenge of getting doctors to incorporate evidence-based treatments into everyday practice.
Continue reading "Doctors Often Ignore Recommended Heart Failure Drug " >
categories: Doctors, Heart disease, Quality
byline goes here
By Scott Hensley
Scan highway billboards, flick on your TV or listen very long to the radio and you'll probably come across an ad from a hospital touting robot-assisted surgery as the way to go for treating prostate cancer.
A surgeon hunches over the console of a surgical robot. ( Intuitive Surgical)
The main selling point boils down to a promise of precision. An unflappable robot allows a surgeon to operate through tiny incisions and make such careful work of prostate removal that dreaded side effects--impotence and incontinence--are vastly reduced compared with a surgeon operating alone. Right? Wrong, say researchers who analyzed years of data on experience with the gee-whiz technology.
A study just published by JAMA suggests older men whose prostates were removed with a robot's help actually have greater chances of being impotent or incontinent than if they had the surgery done the relatively old-fashioned way. After adjusting for all sorts of factors, the researchers found a diagnosis of incontinence after surgery was 30 percent more likely in the robot group and impotence was 40 percent more likely.
Continue reading "Humans Beat Robots On Prostate Surgery Side Effects" >
categories: Cancer, Doctors, Quality
byline goes here
By Scott Hensley
Nobody will make much progress in taming health-care spending in this country without getting doctors on board.
A medical mystery unraveled in Lewiston, Maine. (NPR/John W. Poole)
In the first installment of a series on escalating health costs, NPR's Alix Spiegel takes a look at the curious case of Lewiston, Maine, where back in the 1970s so many women were getting hysterectomies that 70 percent of female residents were likely to have had one by the time they reached 70. In a nearby town the hysterectomy rate was more like 25 percent.
How come? The big difference wasn't the patients, it was the doctors. The ones in Lewiston recommended hysterectomies far more often than their peers elsewhere.
Continue reading "Maine Town Sheds Light On Doctors' Role In Cost Problem" >
categories: Doctors, Health Overhaul, Quality
byline goes here
By Scott Hensley
In the end, all health care is local. Where you live continues to makes a big difference in your health status, access to care and how much that care costs.
Click on the image for an interactive map. (Commonwealth Fund)
In a state-by-state scorecard put together by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, Vermont comes out at the top of the heap. The Green Mountain state was the only one to score in the top quartile on five key measures: access to care, prevention and treatment, avoidable hospital use and cost, fairness, and health status.
Bottom of the list? Mississippi, which scored in the lowest quartiles across the board.
Continue reading "State Variations In Health Remain Wide" >
categories: Health Overhaul, Quality
