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Texas may lift requirement that hospitals have an ER doctor on site Fort Worth Star Telegram Share     State health officials are considering lifting a requirement that Texas emergency rooms have a physician on site at all times -- as long as a doctor can get there within 30 minutes. The proposed change is designed to ease financial strain on small specialty hospitals, which are required to have emergency rooms but see very few emergency patients. These hospitals say they shouldn’t have to pay to have an ER doctor there 24 hours a day, particularly when there's a large community hospital or major trauma center nearby. More
Will Senate Democrats' health care reform tradeoffs seal the deal? Christian Science Monitor Share
With a breakthrough in negotiations announced Tuesday night, Senate Democrats are closing in on a historic overhaul of U.S. health care – even if no Republicans join them. The agreement dropped plans for a big government role in the health insurance market (aka, the public option), which had been a deal-breaker for a handful of centrist Democrats, but in exchange for that compromise it expands access to healthcare through Medicare to workers as young as 55. Other issues remain to be resolved, notably on cost-cutting and public funding of abortion services, but the public option had been a show-stopper in the Senate. More Obama backs Senate health care compromise USA Today Share
President Obama has endorsed the proposed Senate health care compromise, even if it lacks a public insurance option. "The Senate made critical progress last night with a creative new framework that I believe will help pave the way for final passage and a historic achievement on behalf of the American people," Obama said at a health care event on the White House grounds. More Providers should get used to hand hygiene demands Health Leaders Media Share
To increase hand hygiene, a nurse at Massachusetts General created a rap music video to promote the use of sanitizer. At hospitals in Maryland, employees are masquerading as "secret shopper" observers to mark who washes and who doesn't. Every week, it seems, there's another story about a creative way to promote self-disinfection. Now the federal government is getting more involved with a video that urges hospital patients and their visitors to make sure they witness doctors and nurses—and anybody else who touches them--washing their hands at the bedside. More Survey: Health costs, reform a source of stress for Americans Health Leaders Media Share
A new survey conducted by Misericordia University and Braun Research found that two in five Americans plan to spend less this holiday season as a result of rising health costs, and three in 10 said health care costs have led to arguments and tension with friends and family members. More Primary care physicians spending longer time with patients American Medical News Share
The number of adult visits to primary care physicians increased between 1997 and 2005, and the visits lasted longer, according to a Nov. 9 Archives of Internal Medicine study. The study examined whether a 10 percent decline in physicians' net income from 1995 to 2003 might have produced shorter visits as physicians tried to make up for lost revenue by seeing more patients. The reverse was true. More Cash flow squeeze: 2012 IRS rule will withhold some Medicare pay American Medical News Share
With health system and payment reform issues dominating discussion this year, physicians might be forgiven if they overlooked yet another planned decrease to Medicare pay. A little-known provision tucked into a 2005 tax bill requires the Internal Revenue Service, starting in 2012 at the earliest, to withhold 3 percent of payments to any contractor doing work for federal, state or local governments. The Medicaid program is excluded because it provides services based primarily on patient need. But Medicare, which is age-based, is not exempt. More Sick this holiday season? CBS News Share
What should you do if you get sick on Christmas Eve? Should you go to the emergency room? CBS News correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton says you shouldn't go the emergency room unless it is actually an emergency. The average emergency department patient spent more than four hours there last year, according to a nationwide survey. Although that was an improvement of two minutes from 2007, time spent in the ER -- including waiting and treatment -- is still about half an hour more than it was in 2002, according to the 2009 Emergency Department Pulse Report by Press Ganey, a hospital consulting firm. More |
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