August 30, 2009 |  10
Much has been made of the superior performance – on both cost and quality – of integrated healthcare organizations like the Mayo and Geisinger Clinics. But since the defining characteristic of these standout systems is at least 50 years of integrated history, few believe that the rest of us – namely the docs and hospitals […]
August 28, 2009 |  0
In this before-after study of ventilated patients, an oral care protocol (q4 hours) reduced the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia from 12.6 to 1.3 cases / 1000 ventilator days. This adds to the literature that evidence-based protocols can improve quality (abstract).
August 25, 2009 |  0
In this cross sectional analysis of salmonella typhi samples submitted to the Centers for Disease Control, 79% of patients had traveled within 30 days, and 73% were hospitalized (mean age 22). Susceptibility testing showed that 13% were multi-drug resistant, and 97% had decreased susceptibility to ciprofloxacin. Multi-drug resistance was more common in travelers to the […]
August 21, 2009 |  0
John Nelson writes… Compensation and production surveys generally set the standard on physician compensation and production.  The longer I spend looking at survey methodologies and results, the more I’m convinced that there are a lot of devils in the details that may misled many people who rely on these surveys.  As an example, I’ve adapted […]
August 21, 2009 |  0
There are now expected to only be 45 million vaccine dose available by October (short of the initial 120 million expected), but the full 195 million are expected to be available by December (full story)
August 21, 2009 |  0
In this population-based cohort, researchers found 70% of K.pneumonia was either nosocomial or health-care associated, with an overall mortality rate of 20%. Higher mortality was associated with advance age, co-morbid conditions, nosocomial acquisition, and non-urinary/non-biliary source. K.pneumonia bacteremia is commonly health-care associated and carries a poor prognosis (abstract).