Virtual Doctor Visits Are Getting More Popular, But Questions Remain About Who Pays

Provisions within the federal budget law Congress passed this year expands the use of telemedicine, which could go mainstream within 5 to 10 years. Read more

Study: More Practices Employing Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants 

According to a study reported in JAMA Internal Medicine, more practices are employing nurse practitioners or physician assistants. Read more

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ICD-10 One Year Later: The Terror is Over, the Rewards Yet to Materialize

It's been a year since the big lift of converting the entire claim stream for the healthcare industry to the larger and more granular ICD-10 family of diagnostic and procedural codes. Read More   

Hospitals Add Nearly 7,000 Jobs in September

Employment at the nation's hospitals rose by 0.1% in September to a seasonally adjusted 5,110,200 people, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Read More  

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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  

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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.  

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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

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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 

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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  

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On October 9th, I was handed an envelope. In it was a story - a patient's story.

"Life is a celebration of that which we can do, not a requiem for which we cannot do," the story began. "Goals are the results toward which our efforts are directed."

The letter, handwritten by former patient Gayle, continued…

Gayle tells the full story of her recovery, beginning with the moment her left arm started to lose feeling. She went through a multitude of tests, x-rays and MRIs which culminated in a cervical surgery the day before her daughter's birthday. The surgery, although successful, was painful for Gayle, and she went home after spending three days in the intensive care unit. 

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Location, Location, Location May Impact Hospital Readmission Rates

The socio-economic status of patients in a given community may explain some of the variation in hospital 30-day readmission rates. Read More

At the Hospital, Better Responses to Those Beeping Alarms

In hospitals, alarms on patient-monitoring devices create a cacophony of noise day and night-beeping, pinging and ringing so often that doctors and nurses ignore them, turn them off or just stop hearing them. Read More

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Jeanine Hess is an 86 year old woman who was referred by her Primary Care Physician to Gentiva Home Health due to generalized decline in lower extremity strength and functional mobility. She was evaluated by physical therapy and was placed in our 'Safe Strides' balance program.

 

She was also evaluated by occupational therapy. During the evaluation, Jeanine disclosed that she missed her dog terribly.  Her family had taken the dog out of her apartment as they felt that Jeanine was at a risk of falling.  Each morning Jeanine would take her dog outside to do it's 'business' and was often rushing to accomplish this task.  

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