SHM & Hospital Medicine in the News: September 15 – 29, 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:
- A Journal of Hospital Medicine study on the correlation between readmission rates and quality was highlighted in HealthLeaders Media.
- The Sacramento Business Journal ran a story highlighting hospital medicine’s continued growth and innovative contributions to healthcare, leading to a decrease in skepticism about the specialty.
- The Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS) recently released the second part of its two-part interview series with the lead author of SHM’s RADEO (Reducing Adverse Events Related to Opioids) Guide, Thomas W. Frederickson, MD, MBA, SFHM.
- Joseph Brogan, who attended SHM’s Academic Hospitalist Academy, praised the program and its faculty on a blog for the Duke University School of Medicine.
- As antibiotic resistance continues to be an issue, a CDC study found more widespread use by U.S. hospitals of powerful antibiotics designed to fight infections when less robust antibiotics fail.
- Technology-enabled food services, like those recently deployed at a New Jersey hospital, can contribute to decreased food waste and increased patient satisfaction.
- A new study suggests that physician employment by hospitals, which continues to increase, does not improve the quality of patient care.
Hospital Readmissions Are Not the Enemy
Researchers and physicians at The Johns Hopkins Hospital are challenging the notion that readmissions are an accurate measure of quality. In a study this month in Journal of Hospital Medicine, hospitalist Daniel J. Brotman, MD, and his colleagues examined nearly 4,500 acute-care hospitals’ hospital-wide readmission rates and compared them with those hospitals’ mortality rates in six areas used by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: heart attack, pneumonia, heart failure, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and coronary artery bypass.
September 19, 2016
HealthLeaders Media
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Hospitalists Are Winning Over Their Skeptics
In 1996, a few local physicians at Kaiser Permanente and Catholic Healthcare West started experimenting with using hospital-based internal-medicine doctors to manage care for hospital patients. Fast-forward to 2016, these so-called “hospitalists” are ubiquitous in Sacramento and beyond. Their numbers have skyrocketed from zero to more than 50,000 in two decades, making hospitalist the fastest-growing medical specialty in the nation.
September 16, 2016
Sacramento Business Journal
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Importance of Monitoring Patients Receiving Opioids: Interview with Dr. Thomas Frederickson
This is a 2-part interview about the Society of Hospital Medicine comprehensive guide, “Reducing Adverse Drug Events Related to Opioids” (otherwise known as the RADEO guide). In the first part, which can be found at https://youtu.be/cAEhjSkPkKM, Thomas W. Frederickson MD, FACP, SFHM, MBA discusses assessing patients for risk of respiratory compromise. In this second part, Dr. Frederickson talks about monitoring patients receiving opioids.
September 26, 2016
Physician-Patient Alliance for Health and Safety on YouTube
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Brogan Reports on Academic Hospitalist Academy
Set in on the outskirts of Austin, Texas on the serene Lake Travis was where I found myself for the annual Academic Hospitalist Academy this past week. The meeting is jointly sponsored by the Society of Hospital Medicine, Society of General Internal Medicine, and the Association of Chiefs and Leaders of General Internal Medicine, and is best described as a four -day “boot camp” for junior academic hospitalists.
September 19, 2016
MedicineNews, Duke University School of Medicine
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CDC Study Finds Increased Use of Powerful Antibiotics at U.S. Hospitals
A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found more widespread use by U.S. hospitals of powerful antibiotics designed to fight infections when less-robust antibiotics fail, a “worrisome” development as bacteria grow increasingly immune to treatment, the researchers said. Medical experts said the study, which examined prescribing between 2006 and 2012, appeared to be the first national, multiyear estimate of U.S. hospital antibiotic use.
September 19, 2016
The Wall Street Journal
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How Tech-Enabled Food Service Can Make Patients Happier
Until last year, Shore Medical Center in Somers Point, N.J., relied on paper menus and scheduled delivery times to deliver meals to patients. That system often caused unnecessary food waste, and it also dragged down patient-satisfaction scores. Those issues largely disappeared when Shore Medical began using tablet technology to provide food service.
September 24, 2016
Modern Healthcare
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Physician Employment by Hospitals Does Not Improve Quality
The percentage of hospitals hiring physicians climbed from 29% in 2003 to 42% in 2012, but physician employment alone probably won’t improve hospital care, authors of a new study suggest. Kirstin W. Scott, MPhil, a PhD student in health policy at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and colleagues, published their findings online September 19 in Annals of Internal Medicine.
September 19, 2016
Medscape
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