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Meet our Health Care Providers – Elizabeth B. Roberts, M.D., Ph.D. – Video

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Meet our Health Care Providers - Elizabeth B. Roberts, M.D., Ph.D.
Get to know Dr. Elizabeth Roberts, OB-GYN at Virginia Women #39;s Center in Richmond, Virginia. Learn more: http://www.virginiawomenscenter.com/staff-Elizabeth-B-Roberts-MD-PhD.html.

By: Virginia Women #39;s Center

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Meet our Health Care Providers - Elizabeth B. Roberts, M.D., Ph.D. - Video

Complex health care system for Californias elderly and poor explained

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Sourcewise gathered experts and advocates to explain the new California health plan initiative (fifth from left Amber Cutler and (rightmost) Marcelo Espiritu. PHOTO BY HARVEY BARKIN/INQUIRER.net

SANTA CLARA, California Now that about eight million have enrolled in health care plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare), what happens to those who do have Medicare, Medicaid, Medi-Cal, Kaiser, other health care plans or combinations of plans?

Sourcewise (formerly Council on Aging Silicon Valley) recently invited the public to its third session in explaining the Coordinated Care Initiative (CCI), a somewhat confusing and involved process. Sourcewise has made it easier for close to 2,000 attendees to understand CCI.

California took the lead in implementing a health care program that may soon become the nationwide model depending on its progress in the selected eight counties.

Californias CCI passed in July 2012. This year, the goal is to fully implement it in Alameda, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties

In Santa Clara County, residents with Medi-Cal number about 210,000. Residents with both Medicare and Medi-Cal are about 35,000. No estimate was given on residents with Kaiser or other work-related health care plans.

Approximately 5,700 Asian seniors live in poverty (in the county), said Marcelo Espiritu, Sourcewise Health Insurance product analyst. Seventy-six percent of Asian seniors struggle to meet basic needs. About 15 percent of the 77,000 Asian seniors are Filipino in Santa Clara.

Medicare beneficiaries possess the white card with red and blue stripes on top. They are 65 years or older or under 65 with certain disabilities such as End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD).

Medi-Cal beneficiaries possess the plain white card with the states seal on the front. They are usually low-income Californians.

What CCI offers

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Complex health care system for Californias elderly and poor explained

Health-care worker fired after refusing flu shot, mask

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More health-care workers got the flu vaccine this past season than ever before after controversial rules were aggressively enforced, prompting the firing of one worker who refused to comply.

Health Minister Terry Lake confirmed Wednesday the worker was terminated in December after declining to get a shot or wear a mask in patient-care areas.

Arnold Hoekstra, who worked as a nurses aide at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital in Grand Forks, said he was let go after various disciplinary meetings with officials with the Interior Health Authority.

Mr. Hoekstra, 49, said he doesnt believe vaccines are medically viable.

I refused anything to do with that policy because it wasnt based on the truth, he said an interview.

Were introducing very harmful products, chemicals and neurotoxins and what have you, into our bodies which actually make us sicker and develop various diseases because of it.

Mr. Lake said 80 per cent of health-care workers in B.C. were vaccinated, a 10-per-cent increase from the previous flu season. The remaining health-care workers chose to wear masks.

Some people have concerns about vaccines, Mr. Lake said, when asked why some health-care workers are not getting vaccinations.

Our primary concern is the patient. So by being immunized youre protecting the patient, but also by wearing a mask we feel that that is efficacious in protecting the patient as well, Mr. Lake said.

He said the goal next year is to further increase the rate of vaccination among health-care workers beyond the 80 per cent.

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Health-care worker fired after refusing flu shot, mask

B.C. health care worker fired for refusing vaccination, mask

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VICTORIA Health Minister Terry Lake says one health care worker was fired during the flu season for failing to follow new protocols that require staff to either get vaccinated or wear a mask when treating patients.

Lake said the worker from B.C.s interior went through a progressive disciplinary approach and was given opportunity to comply with the requirement to either be vaccinated or wear a mask, and through that disciplinary approach finally was terminated.

He would not reveal any details about the firing, or why the employee refused to comply, saying that it is a personnel matter.

The employee is believed to be the first person fired since the province brought in the controversial policy requiring vaccinations or masks for all health care professionals last year.

B.C. is the only province to implement such a flu-prevention policy, and received a backlash from various health care unions that threatened legal action because they believed the move violated workers rights and wasnt justified by scientific evidence.

The government argued it would help protect vulnerable patients against contracting influenza from caregivers.

Some people have concerns about vaccines, said Lake. Our concern is the patient, obviously. We want to keep the health care workers healthy, but our primary concern is the patient. And so by being immunized we are protecting the patient but also by wearing a mask we feel that is efficacious in protecting the patient as well.

The government said Wednesday that 80 per cent of health care workers ultimately did get vaccinated, which was a 10 per cent increase from the previous flu season.

A record 1.4 million British Columbians were vaccinated since November 2013 and the years vaccine was 74 per cent effective in protecting against the most predominant H1N1 strain this season, the Health Ministry said.

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B.C. health care worker fired for refusing vaccination, mask

Changes in the health care system driven by self-service and DIY health

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Health care is migrating from the bricks-and-mortar doctors office or care clinic to the person him or herself at home and on-the-gowhere people live, work, play, and pray. As people take on more do-it-yourself (DIY) approaches to everyday lifeinvesting money on financial services websites, booking airline tickets and hotel rooms online, and securing dinner reservations via OpenTablemany also ask why they cant have more convenient access to health care, like emailing doctors and looking into lab test results in digital personal health records.

85% of U.S. health consumers say that email, text messages, and voicemail are at least as helpful as in-person or phone conversations with health providers, according to the Healthy World study,Technology Beyond the Exam Room by TeleVox. Furthermore, one in three consumers admits to being more honest when talking about medical needs via automated voice response systems, emails, or texts than face-to-face with a health provider.

And three in ten consumers believe that receiving digital health care communications from providerssuch as texts, voicemail, or emailwould build trust with their providers. Half of people also say theyd feel more valued as a patient via digital health communications. When people look to engage in health with an organization, the most important enabling factors are trust and authenticity.

All consumers, from Gen X and Gen Y to Baby Boomers, welcome the era of personalized medicine via digital communications, looking for these messages to be personally tailored. That 1 in 2 consumers (49%) say theyre open to receiving medical care between visits via email testifies to consumers demand for telehealth services.

Figure 1 reveals the popularity of email among patients for their interactions with the medical establishment, and other media show up strong as well.

Figure 1. Relative popularity of various channels for doctor/patient communication

Most consumers spend time throughout the year seeking health information onlineabout an hour a week on average. Time with a doctor? An hour a year. That 52:1 ratio of hours spent on health, outside versus inside the doctors office, raises the question: what can the health care field do in the interstices of time to enhance peoples health and experience with the health care system?

The answer is in the cloud and mobile technology platforms, combined with the already-well-used Internet. People have been maturing in their use of the Internet for health, with about 1 in 3 people moving beyond Web 1.0 into Health 2.0s era of blogs, wikis, and social networks ofpeer-to-peer support, theWisdom of Patientskicking in. AHarris poll found that at least one-third of peoplewho participate in online activities are keen to use smartphones or tablets to do health online: to ask doctors questions, make appointments, and receive medical test results, for example.

Clinical Management Apps: Creating Partnerships Between Providers and Patients, fromThe Commonwealth Fund, posits that apps can help to transform health care delivery across all populationseven hard-to-reach lower-income people who often fall through both the health care safety net and the digital divide. The authors of the report look into the 40-60,000 health and wellness apps in the market, and believe that these may be beneficial for low-income and minority patients disproportionately affected by chronic disease. Because these people often face barriers to accessing health care, self-managed apps when adopted and used can address this challenge. The researchers point to data from thePew Internet & American Life Projectshowing that African-Americans and Hispanics are more likely than white people to own a smartphone and that among cell phone owners, minorities are also more likely to use their phones for accessing health information.

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Changes in the health care system driven by self-service and DIY health

University of Utah Health Care Online Physician Reviews Continue to Lead Transparency Efforts in Academic Medicine

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Newswise (Salt Lake City) As other health care systems around the country prepare to follow in the footsteps of University of Utah Health Care the first hospital system in the country to post online physician reviews and comments Utahs only academic medical center is reporting new data about the innovative venture it launched in December 2012.

University of Utah Health Care watched web traffic to its online physician profiles skyrocket after implementing online physician reviews, analytics show. In March 2014, page views to University of Utah Health Care physician profiles totaled 122,072 a dramatic increase from the 32,144 page reviews tallied before the systems effort to publish online physician reviews and comments had been fully adopted. The surge in web traffic is a strong indicator that patients and consumers appreciate the transparency and additional information that online reviews can bring, said Thomas Miller, M.D., chief medical officer at University of Utah Health Care.

University of Utah Health Care uses data from more than 40,000 patient surveys to rate its physicians on nine measures using a five-star system. Patients are e-mailed an electronic survey within a few days following their medical appointment and are asked to complete questions about the care they received. Feedback is posted to the web site, but is also used to improve all areas of patients clinical experiences.

Other health care systems have consulted with the university while adapting their own respective models of online physician reviews, said Brian Gresh, senior director of interactive marketing and web at University of Utah Health Care.

There are many systems out there looking at how to do this, said Gresh. Were pleased that weve set the bar high and can serve as a model in the U.S. for how to post physician reviews online successfully.

Elsewhere in the U.S., Piedmont Health Care recently went live with online physician reviews and Wake Forest Baptist Health soon will be experimenting with the idea.

More information can be found at: http://healthcare.utah.edu/fad/pressganey.php#patient%20survey

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University of Utah Health Care Online Physician Reviews Continue to Lead Transparency Efforts in Academic Medicine

Video Conferencing Delivers Education and Mental Health Care to the Arctic Circle – Video

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Video Conferencing Delivers Education and Mental Health Care to the Arctic Circle
This post was written by Willa Black, Director of Corporate Affairs for Cisco Canada, and was originally published on the Huffington Post. The territory of N...

By: Justmeans

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Video Conferencing Delivers Education and Mental Health Care to the Arctic Circle - Video


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