Featured News
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One Quarter Of Doctors Not Prepared To Coordinate Complex Care
12/31/2015
A Commonwealth Fund survey finds physicians are ill-prepared to effectively manage and coordinate care for patients. By Christine Kern, contributing writer
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AHRQ Introduces First Nationwide Readmission Database
12/21/2015
Database will be valuable for healthcare analyses and decision-making. By Christine Kern, contributing writer
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Keys To Building A Fortified Staffing Process Ahead Of The Nurse Retirement Surge
12/18/2015
AMN Healthcare recently released its 2015 Survey of Registered Nurses. This research included input from nearly 9,000 RNs on topics ranging from retirement, education, and emerging roles. A number of the findings struck me, the following two especially:
- 62 percent of RNs over 54 are thinking about retirement and most say they plan to retire within three years
- RNs love their career choice, but have mixed feelings about their job, citing not having adequate time with their patients, feeling their job negatively affects their health, and so on
That leaves us with the most experienced nurses nearing retirement and the majority of remaining nurses not feeling overjoyed with their jobs, although they love nursing. This points to an overwhelming need to improve conditions for care staff. Typically, the top dissatisfier for staff are staffing/scheduling issues, e.g., being short, having to float, having shifts cancelled, and being recruited constantly to pick up additional shifts. One of the solutions to this critical concern is a combination of technology and workforce strategies that can provide more certainty with staffing, greater work-life balance, and increased time with patients. By Chris Fox, president, Avantas
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80% Of Patients Open To Telemedicine
12/16/2015
According to a PricewaterhouseCooper’s Health Research Institute report, 80 percent of patients are open to telemedicine in primary care. By Katie Wike, contributing writer
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Most Family Docs Don’t Use Telehealth
12/15/2015
In a recent survey, only 15 percent of family doctors reported using telehealth services. By Katie Wike, contributing writer
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Care Managers Improve Patient Outcomes
12/15/2015
Care navigators can play a crucial role in getting patients involved in their care. By Christine Kern, contributing writer
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An App A Day Keeps The Doctor Away?
11/9/2015
From the Apple Watch to the FitBit, wearable technology is revolutionizing how we manage our health. We track steps, count calories, and monitor sleep cycles. But what about older Americans who are unlikely to own a smartphone, much less feel comfortable using a piece of wearable technology — will the digital healthcare revolution leave seniors behind?
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Patients See More Data Sharing Than Docs
10/28/2015
According to an ONC brief, more than half of physicians share information with their patients while data sharing between providers has only increased slightly. By Katie Wike, contributing writer
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Technology Will Help Senior Care Facilities Manage The Tide Of The Growing Elder Population
10/26/2015
Despite the uptick in technology adoption by the healthcare industry overall, the implementation of health IT (HIT) in the senior care market is lagging behind in comparison to the rest of the healthcare market sectors. Long-term and skilled nursing facilities with EHR systems are seeing their benefits such as smoother transitions of care, staffing efficiencies and exchanging data between hospitals and physicians. So, despite the need for sophisticated health IT software to handle patient data generated by senior patients, why is the senior care industry slower to adopt these new capabilities? We can trace this to misconceptions about many things, most commonly concerns around cost and the belief that implementing an EHR will be disruptive to business. By Dave Wessinger, CTO, PointClickCare
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Healthcare Added More Than 40,000 Jobs In August
9/22/2015
Healthcare comprises more than 10 percent of all jobs in the U.S. economy. By Christine Kern, contributing writer