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NHS needs an independent regulator

The NHS should have an independent regulator like other public utilities in the UK, argues a senior doctor in this week’s British Medical Journal.

20 Oct 2005

Health insurers are turning to a new approach to get doctors and hospitals to do better

In this approach, insurers offer financial rewards for better or more efficient care and sometimes create penalties for poor performance. Even though it has become commonplace, there is little evidence about its impact on care, says R. Adams Dudley, MD, MBA, a professor in the UCSF Institute for Health Policy Studies and the Department of Medicine.

18 Oct 2005

Controlling antibiotic-prescribing practices in hospitals

Plenty of promising strategies exist to control antibiotic-prescribing practices, but no single method emerges as the best for hospital patients, according to a new review of studies.

18 Oct 2005

Scottish hospitals to issue 'red cards' to violent patients

Medical staff in hospitals and health clinics in Glasgow, Scotland, have been given the power to refuse to treat patients who submit them to physical or verbal attacks.

17 Oct 2005

Tool to help vulnerable people to manage their medicines

Dr Karen Rosenbloom from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Hertfordshire and Ruth Goldstein from the Midlands have won first prize in the regional Health and Social Care Awards awarded by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement. Their research now goes forward to the national awards final which will take place on 13 December.

13 Oct 2005

Complementary medicine represents an additional cost to usual care with questionable clinical benefit

The cost-effectiveness of using complementary treatments in the United Kingdom has been the subject of much speculation and controversy.

13 Oct 2005

Liver services in the United Kingdom need better funding and better staffing

Mortality from liver disease is increasing in the UK. In 2000 liver disease killed more men than Parkinson's disease and more women than cancer of the cervix. Deaths from alcoholic liver disease has doubled in the past 10 years, while liver disease arising from hepatitis C infection is expected to treble by 2020.

13 Oct 2005

Hospitals alter billing and collection practices for uninsured patients

Many hospitals have adopted more generous charity-care guidelines for uninsured patients after a barrage of publicity about aggressive hospital billing and collection practices and a spate of lawsuits alleging hospitals overcharged uninsured patients, according to a study released today by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC).

12 Oct 2005

Changes in health care services related to changes in PLI premiums

Florida physicians reportedly continued to decrease or eliminate important health services in 2004 in response to difficulties in finding or paying for professional liability insurance, according to a study in the October 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

10 Oct 2005

Britain's Naional Heath Service is being taken over by big business

Britain's Naional Heath Service is being taken over by big business so that money that could go towards clinical care is diverted to corporations and their shareholders, warn two senior doctors in this week's British Medical Journal.

9 Oct 2005

Recent shelving of a flagship PFI venture in West London may herald the end for the PFI healthcare experiment in the UK

Government enthusiasm for the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in the health service - private sector investment in hospital building projects - may be dropping because of its high cost, says an editorial in this week's British Medical Journal.

9 Oct 2005

Day surgery rates continue to rise - still room for improvement

New figures published by Dr Foster in the British Medical Journal show that day surgery rates continue to rise, yet there is still considerable scope for improvement. These findings support a recent Healthcare Commission report showing that day surgery units are not being used to their maximum capacity.

9 Oct 2005

Expanded physician and residency training in telephone medicine is needed

To prevent medical mishaps with patients caused by telephone communication failures, researchers at Yale School of Medicine and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System report in the October issue of Journal of General Internal Medicine that expanded physician and residency training in telephone medicine is needed.

4 Oct 2005

First conference focusing on assessing and improving the organizational environment and culture of academic medical centers

Rigorous course work, state of the art laboratories, relevant textbooks and demanding clinical rotations produce technically competent physicians. But surveys say that in addition to highly qualified care givers, we want doctors who are compassionate and know how to communicate well when caring for us and our loved ones

4 Oct 2005

Grant for private, secure, electronic medical records search system

A Boston consortium has been awarded one of two national grants to form a CDC Center of Excellence in Public Health Informatics.

28 Sep 2005

Quality-improvement improves mortality in hospital

Heart attack death rates dropped significantly at hospitals that participated in a quality-improvement process that increased the use of evidence-based therapies, according to a new study in the Oct. 4, 2005, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

28 Sep 2005

Training at risk in market-led NHS new junior doctors' leader says

Increased competition in the NHS in the UK could jeopardise the quality of doctors’ training, the new leader of the UK’s 49,000 junior doctors warns today (Thursday 29 September, 2005).

28 Sep 2005

Longer hospital stays do not mean better care

Physicians at The Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) have disproved the notion that longer hospital stays mean better care. They have successfully cut back on wait times across one dozen hospital departments and, as a result, reduced to well below six the average number of days patients with congestive heart failure, a need for dialysis or surgery, and many other conditions must spend in the hospital.

27 Sep 2005

Recommendations for fellowship training in pediatric cardiology

The American College of Cardiology Foundation (ACCF), the American Heart Association (AHA), and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have joined forces to develop important first-ever recommendations for fellowship training in pediatric cardiology.

27 Sep 2005

Changes in the way illness is dealt with in the community are putting undue pressure on emergency care services

The changing patient profile of emergency care medicine in the UK has increased waiting times for seriously ill patients needing urgent treatment, finds a study in Emergency Medicine Journal.

27 Sep 2005