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  

For infection control nurses, the little things make a difference - from the microscopic germs seeking to wreak havoc to the incremental steps taken to prevent or contain them.

That's why Anna Lagahit, a nurse and Infection Control Practitioner at Kindred Hospital Santa Ana, goes out of her way to recognize hospital staff for doing the little things to prevent hospital-acquired infections. Staff might receive a "you made a difference today" card from Anna for something as routine as wiping a patient's table or IV machine, keeping catheter lines off the floor or ensuring the cleanliness of everything from the patient to the bed to the area between the bed and bathroom.

"I am a resource to remind nurses and staff that they are protecting not only the patients but themselves and their families when they go home," she said.

Hospice Care Improves Patient Experience

A new study adds to evidence that hospice care during the last six months of life is associated with better overall experiences for patients and a lower likelihood of dying in a hospital. Read More   

Study Finds Benefits When Seniors Call Shots to Help Them

A federally funded project that researchers say has potential to promote aging in place began by asking low-income seniors with disabilities how their lives at home could be better, according to a study released Wednesday. Read More  

David and his wife, Linducia, were visiting a friend in Las Vegas. When they returned to their hotel she noticed his breathing didn't seem right. This is his story.

"It wasn't long after we got back to our hotel that David began having trouble breathing. I called the front desk and the paramedics arrived very quickly" Linducia said. "He was rushed to the hospital and we later found out it was only a matter of minutes before he would have died from a heart attack. He had emergency heart surgery and had three stents put in. During the surgery he also suffered from three strokes and his doctors had to induce a coma."

After surgery his outlook was very poor. David also began suffering from massive kidney failure and had to have dialysis. "His condition actually worsened" Linducia recalled. "He was on every kind of medication imaginable, completely unconscious and immobile. None of the doctors thought he would survive. Then four weeks into this ordeal I asked his doctors to run an MRI brain scan as he had said that if he was ever brain dead he wouldn't want to 'live' hooked up to a machine."

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  

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 

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