Card-carrying Patients
from Des Moines Register
Keeping track of your own medical records might just save your life. In an emergency, patients carrying a personal health record may get the treatment they need more quickly. But even in non-emergency situations where patients are seeing multiple physicians, they can avoid any drug interactions by presenting a list of their medications. Until there is one clearinghouse to maintain all health records, patients need to take responsibility for "their own big picture," and keep a record in any format, says Julie Weldon, nursing education coordinator for Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines. More

Cultural Compassion Offers the Key to Fighting AIDS and Other Illnesses
from Medill Reports
A 17-year-old girl from Mexico is ill with AIDS. She works to provide for her mother and brothers as well as finish high school and deal with her illness. And she struggles to find help.As the program director of community health program Project Vida, meaning “Life” in Spanish, Olivia Sanchez sees a lot of misery while trying to help patients of all ages with HIV-AIDS and a host of other illnesses. While mentoring the young woman, Sanchez campaigns to reduce health disparities among the Latino minority in Chicago. More

Disability Perspective: MUNI T.E.P. -- Lack of Thought on Health Impacts
from Beyond Chron
Another Holiday Season analysis about the lumps of coal (and pessimism) that city agencies bestow on people with disabilities at year's end. We all are aware of lots of cuts in all sorts of social service programs and health programs. Meaning the poor, seniors, people with disabilities, single parents, and many newcomers to this country are targeted to suffer the most. That's too broad, though, to get a feel for how poorly done is the thinking and work done by city staff and policy-makers. More

Doctor Shortage May Hamper Health Care Reforms
from Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One morning during Pauline Chen’s medical residency many years ago, one of the senior doctors pulled her aside after rounds, as was his routine, to review the status of patients in the intensive care unit. A few had single-organ failure — their lungs weren’t doing well, or their hearts weren’t beating efficiently. A few struggled with double-organ failure. But the majority of patients were battling multisystem organ failure, and their prognoses were not good. “People can survive one organ system failing and even two,” the senior doctor said to me after we were finished. “But when that third one goes …” He leaned forward and looked her in the eye. “Three strikes, and the game is over.” More

Medicare Assures Patients about Access to Oxygen
from The Seattle Times
Medicare officials tried on Monday to quell growing worry by the elderly that they could lose access to lifesaving oxygen supplies with the start of the new year.The concerns are unfounded and stem in many cases from misleading representations from medical equipment companies, which are unhappy with a change in federal law that kicks in Jan. 1, said Laurence Wilson of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Out of concern that Medicare overpaid for oxygen, lawmakers capped at three years the length of time the government will pay a rental fee for oxygen concentrators. However, the supplier is required to continue to maintain the equipment for up to five years. With the start of the new year, the three-year cap will kick in for some patients. More

Pushing More Doctors to Ditch the Prescription Pad
from The New York Times
The push for paperless prescriptions is about to get a boost: Starting in January, doctors who e-prescribe can get bonus pay from Medicare. For patients, the benefits are obvious -- from shorter drugstore waits to increased safety, as pharmacists no longer squint to decipher doctors' messy handwriting. But persuading U.S. doctors to ditch their prescription pads for electronic prescribing so far has been a long, uphill battle. Only about 10 percent of doctors are taking the plunge like Dr. Ted Epperly in Boise, Idaho, who's adopting the technology now. Still, the movement is gaining steam as Medicare warns that its bonus payments are for a short time only: Holdouts still sticking to paper in 2012 will find their Medicare payments cut. More

The Society for Healthcare Consumer Advocacy Presents: Managing Risk As A Patient Advocate: Partnering With Others For Quality Care - Webinar
Wednesday, January 21, 2009, 1:00 p.m. CST
Join Judi Cranberg, RN, JD as she defines the roles of a patient advocate and risk manager and how these roles complement each other within a hospital setting. Learn best practices for patient advocates and risk managers, including tips on communicating effectively and appropriately in a variety of patient situations. More