With Room Service and More, Hospitals Borrow From Hotels

At the Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital outside Detroit, patients arrive to uniformed valets and professional greeters. Read More   

Remote Heart Monitoring Can Help Detect Emergencies

Instead of having heart monitors with noisy alarms near patients' beds in the hospital, it might be better to have off-site technicians do the heart monitoring remotely, a recent study suggests. Read More  

The Night Doctor is in: Why 'Nocturnalists' Are Replacing Some On-Call Physicians

More hospitals are hiring experienced "nocturnalists" to improve patient safety and prevent calls to tired on-call physicians, according to an article in the Boston Globe. Read More  

Healthcare Hiring Momentum Leads to another 38,500 Jobs in June

Healthcare added 38,500 jobs in June and a total of 234,600 jobs in the first six months of 2016, according to initial seasonally adjusted figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Read More  

Family Caregivers Become More Crucial as Elderly Population Grows

Strain on family caregivers is alarming many lawmakers and social-service providers. Read More   

Anti-depressants Carry Much Higher Fall Risk than Anti-psychotics, Study Finds

Nursing home residents with dementia who take antidepressants are at significantly higher risk of falls and fractures than those on anti-psychotics, new research shows. Read More  

Nursing Homes Starting to Offer More Individualized Menus

On a recent Thursday, the staff at Sunny Vista Living Center in Colorado Springs bustled in the kitchen.  

AHRQ Reports Continued Gains in Health Care Quality

Health care quality is improving overall, especially in hospitals, and more people have health care coverage and a usual source of medical care since the Affordable Care Act took effect, according to a new report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Read more.  

The story of Dr. Al Sindi is a remarkable narrative of perseverance, support and recovery. His wife, Dr. Eman, shared it with us on the day before her husband was to be discharged.

"My husband had spinal surgery in April of 2015. After the procedure, he was highly functional and everything looked like it was going well, until he had an embolic stroke not long afterwards. He lost all function and developed serious complications, including sepsis" said Dr. Eman. "He was admitted to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where he had extensive surgical treatment to stabilize his condition - which couldn't have been more serious as he was completely disabled by the stroke."

AHA Issues Guide for Improving the Patient Experience through the Physical Environment

One way for hospitals to improve patient satisfaction is to focus on their physical environment, according to a new guide by the AHA's Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence initiative and American Society for Healthcare Engineering. Read More    

Hospitals Eye Community Health Workers to Cultivate Patients' Successes

Donnie Missouri, 58, doesn't have medical training. He started his health career in the linens department in Johns Hopkins Hospital. Read More

Number of Seniors Who Need Personal Care Help Increasing, CDC Says

A "significantly" increasing number of adults over age 65 need help with personal care, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read More 

AHA Urges Congress to Remove Legal Barriers to Value-Based Payment Arrangements

Congress should adopt a single broad exception to federal fraud and abuse laws for financial relationships designed to foster collaboration, efficiencies and improvements in health care, AHA told leaders of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees today. Read More   

How a New Payment Stream Could Come to Senior Care

As baby boomers age over the next several decades, the demand for senior care options will increase-and there currently are limited ways for middle-income earners to pay for these services. Read More  

Federal Agency Offers $15 Million to Support Aging In Place

In yet another move signaling the federal government's intention to increase home health services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is making $15 million available to test a new model to help seniors age in place. Read More    

States Find It Hard and Expensive to Coordinate Care for Duals

States say it's harder and more expensive than initially predicted to coordinate care for the roughly 9 million people who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Read More  

Are Dual-Eligible Demos Succeeding? GAO Says it Will Be Hard to Tell

The CMS needs to do a better job overseeing the 12 state-administered demonstration programs intended to improve care of people who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Read More   

AHA Issue Brief Looks at Bundled Payment Initiatives

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Bundled Payment for Care Improvement and Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement initiatives will be important tests of how well Medicare bundled payment efforts can encourage hospitals, physicians, and post-acute care providers to coordinate care to lower spending and improve quality and the patient experience, according to an issue brief released today by the AHA. Read More