Hospital research, maintenance of certification, pain management and the roles of nurse practitioners and physician assistants in legislation discussions appear in the latest media highlights.
On Friday morning, Philadelphia’s local NPR affiliate, WHYY Radio, aired a story about alarm fatigue in hospitals that featured research by pediatric hospitalist (and SHM member) Chris Bonafide and medical student Mimi Zander. Mimi Zander is one of SHM’s three first-ever Student Hospitalist Scholars and the WHYY story was sparked by one of her blog posts on The Hospital Leader. The online version of the story mentions SHM and the Student Hospitalist Scholarship Program, which is part of SHM’s Future of Hospital Medicine campaign.
National news outlets The New York Times, The Washington Post and CBS News each ran a story on topics front and center in the hospital medicine movement. The Times explored how Dr. Vivian Lee and her team at the University of Utah Health Care are accurately assessing hospital costs – an idea once deemed nearly impossible. The Post reported the professional society representing anesthesiologists is trading in the maintenance of certification system for weekly online quizzes to ensure its board-certified members remain at the top of their game. Concerning the introduction of ICD-10, CBS News explained what it could mean for hospitalized patients as health systems adjust to the upcoming change.
Regional publication The Portland Tribune reviewed the positive impacts hospitalists have on patient care at a local Portland hospital, citing relief of pressure on clinic practices and increase in patient satisfaction due to the additional time hospitalists spend with hospitalized patients during their stays.
Penned by SHM member Tracy Cardin, ACNP, a post from The Hospital Leader was republished in Kevin M.D., highlighting the importance of including nurse practitioners and physician assistants in conversations about legislation. And, palliative care physician Eric Roeland, MD, who has spoken at previous SHM annual meetings, shared advice with Medscape on how to balance risks of abuse and misuse of opioids as hospitalists try to manage patients’ pain.
Media Highlights: August 27 – September 11, 2015
Beep, beep, beep – hospital alarms sound mostly without real cause
“Ninety-nine percent of the alarms that we saw were not actionable, meaning that a true alarm, an alarm that you needed to run in the door and save a patient, that was like a needle in a haystack,” said Chris Bonafide, a pediatrician and researcher at the The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. For his research, Bonafide captured hours and hours of video in patient care rooms, to find out when and why alarms go off and how quickly nurses get there. Medical student Mimi Zander reviewed this footage for the study, as part of her Society of Hospital Medicine’s student hospitalist scholarship.
September 11, 2015
WHYY Radio (Philadelphia NPR affiliate) – reaches approximately 400,000 listeners
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/thepulse/item/85964-beep-beep-beep-hospital-alarms-sound-mostly-without-real-cause
What Are a Hospital’s Costs? Utah System Is Trying to Learn
Only in the world of medicine would Dr. Vivian Lee’s question have seemed radical. She wanted to know: What do the goods and services provided by the hospital system where she is chief executive actually cost? But now, thanks to a project Dr. Lee set in motion after that initial query several years ago, the hospital is getting answers, information that is not only saving money but also improving care.
September 7, 2015
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/08/health/what-are-a-hospitals-costs-utah-system-is-trying-to-learn.html
Doctors’ group will scrap 10-year re-certification exam
The professional group that represents anesthesiologists will become the first medical board to scrap a widely criticized test that most physicians take every 10 years to demonstrate that they are up to date in their specialties, officials said Wednesday. Beginning next year, the American Board of Anesthesiology instead will offer its 50,000 “board-certified” members the opportunity to show their mastery — and brush up if they fall short — through weekly online quizzes that they can take at will, coupled with educational material.
September 9, 2015
The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/doctors-group-will-scrap-10-year-re-certification-exam/2015/09/09/23154a48-571f-11e5-abe9-27d53f250b11_story.html?wprss=rss_health-science
Hospitalists provide a key healthcare service
Doctors struggle each day to spend an adequate amount of time with each patient. When a patient is sent to the hospital, an ongoing doctor-patient relationship becomes critical. That’s when the hospitalist performs a valuable healthcare service. It’s an occupation that has become more common in recent years. Dr. Kjell Benson serves as hospitalist medical director at Adventist Medical Center in Portland. “It does make it more efficient for the patients,” Benson said. “We can see a patient three or four times during the day, if we need to.”
September 3, 2015
Portland Tribune
http://www.pamplinmedia.com/pt/244-health/271504-146266-hospitalists-provide-a-key-healthcare-service
Hold nurse practitioners accountable by including them in the conversation
“[NPs and PAs] have to have the same level of accountability and responsibility for our prescribing, our treatment, and our behavior, but we can’t do that if we are not included in the conversation. The implications of us not being seen or included in decision making and legislation on the national level are clear. Start thinking about using the word “provider” instead of physician. Hold all providers accountable. First, see us.” – Tracy Cardin, ACNP
August 28, 2015
Kevin M.D.
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2015/08/hold-nurse-practitioners-accountable-by-including-them-in-the-conversation.html
Tips for Treating Pain in Hospitalized Patients
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently highlighted an alarming rise in heroin addiction and death, with prescription opioid analgesics named as the greatest risk factor driving this epidemic. Add to that an accompanying epidemic of overdose deaths from prescription analgesics, which has quadrupled over the course of the decade ending in 2012, hospitalists, like all clinicians, are challenged to heed the risks of abuse, misuse, and diversion of opioids as they try to address the pain that many of their patients suffer.
September 3, 2015
Medscape
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/850361
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