Featured News

31. 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

32. AHRQ Introduces First Nationwide Readmission Database 12/21/2015

    Database will be valuable for healthcare analyses and decision-making. By Christine Kern, contributing writer

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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?

38. 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

39. 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

40. 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