SHM & Hospital Medicine in the News: September 29 – October 13, 2016
Check out the latest hospital medicine and SHM-related stories in mainstream and healthcare-centric news. For the full stories, click on the links below:
- Some physicians fear that the upcoming MACRA rule, which will soon be released, will be too narrow and complex to achieve its goal of boosting value over volume.
- diff remains a challenge at top hospitals nationwide, despite efforts to promote more judicious antibiotic prescribing practices.
- Former Journal of Hospital Medicine research was cited in a recent story discussing the similarities between hospitalists and residents in their perception of post-discharge responsibility.
- Hospitals are feeling the pinch of increased drug prices that often have no correlation with improving patient health, according to a new report.
- A blog post from Brigham and Women’s Hospital highlights the recent implementation of SHM’s RADEO toolkit to guide them in safer opioid prescribing and symptom management.
- Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals plans to install speakers in patient rooms that connect to IBM Watson’s Internet of Things platform to leverage technology to improve patient satisfaction.
With Final MACRA Rule Looming, Fears Remain
In interviews with MedPage Today, physicians and their advocates said the government’s new Medicare payment rule is too narrow and too complex to achieve its overarching goal of boosting value of care over volume.
October 13, 2016
MedPage Today
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C. diff Remains a Challenge Even for Nation’s Top Hospitals
Some of the nation’s largest and most prestigious teaching hospitals now have a more dubious distinction: rates of Clostridium difficile infection that fall short of the national benchmark, according to a new survey published online September 27 in Consumer Reports. The survey evaluated 3100 hospitals, of which more than one third got low marks for C. difficile infection control.
September 30, 2016
Medscape
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Residents’ Views on Duties after Discharge Vary Widely
Just more than one fourth (26.1%) of internal medicine residents in a nationwide survey said responsibility for patients ends at hospital discharge. A slightly smaller number (19.3%) said their responsibility extended 15 to 30 days postdischarge. The researchers note that previous studies have found that attending hospitalists report variable perceptions of postdischarge responsibility “that are strikingly similar to the attitudes reported by residents in this study.”
September 30, 2016
Medscape
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Hospitals Say They’re Being Slammed by Drug Price Hikes
Hospitals are getting slammed by drug price hikes that often have nothing to do with improving patient health, a new report has found. Inpatient drug spending increased by 23.4 percent annually from 2013 to 2015, compared with 9.9 percent annual increases on retail drug spending during the same period, according to a new report.
October 11, 2016
Kaiser Health News
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BWHers Team Up to Respond to Opioid Crisis
Scott Weiner, MD, MPH, began to notice two trends emerge over the past decade in emergency departments around Boston: The number of opioid prescriptions was increasing and, more troubling, so was the frequency of patients who had overdosed on prescribed or illegally obtained opioids. BWH hospitalists Elizabeth Harry, MD, and Raj Patel, MD, are working with B-CORE to implement a framework developed by the Society of Hospital Medicine called RADEO (Reducing Adverse Drug Events Related to Opioids), which provides guidelines for safer opioid prescribing and symptom management.
September 30, 2016
BWH Bulletin
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Thomas Jefferson, IBM Watson Effort Focuses on Patient Satisfaction
Patient satisfaction continues to be a top priority for hospital executives, and one hospital hopes the technology can give it an even greater edge. Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals this week announced plans to install speakers in 10 patient rooms by the end of the year that will connect to IBM Watson’s Internet of Things Platform. The technology will enable patients to get instant feedback to questions about their physician and the facility.
October 5, 2016
Fierce Healthcare
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