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Category Archives: Health Care

Former health secretary tapped to carry out president's health care reform effort

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -

Shortly after Kathleen Sebelius was tapped to carry out President Barack Obama's signature health care reform effort, the head of Health and Human Services found herself in the crosshairs of Republicans determined to repeal the law.

The two-term Kansas governor-turned-Obamacare-chief-defender is resigning as health secretary. She's leaving after a problem-plagued rollout of HealthCare.gov, the federal website portal critical to the law's implementation, but with the administration taking a victory lap after unexpectedly reaching and then exceeding its sign-up target of 7 million.

A tweet by David Axelrod, former senior adviser to Obama, perhaps best sums up the tension Sebelius faced as she tried to navigate implementing the controversial law familiar as Obamacare.

"When all is said and done, Sebelius has lots to be proud of including the surprisingly strong finish on exchange signups after a rocky start," Axelrod wrote.

That sentiment is "a little passive aggressive," said Ryan Lizza, a CNN political commentator.

"They want the message to be: blame Sebelius with the problems with Obamacare especially as they go into a midterm election where this is going to be a big issue. I think that's a little unfair to her."

It wasn't always this way.

She once was seen as a Democratic Party rising star when she was tapped to deliver the Democratic response to President George W. Bush's final State of the Union address.

She was the Midwestern girl whose political blood ran blue but flourished in a red state. Her father was a former Democratic governor of Ohio.

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Former health secretary tapped to carry out president's health care reform effort

Port – Pre-operative Evaluation: When to Order a Stress Test and When to Consult Cardiology – Video

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Port - Pre-operative Evaluation: When to Order a Stress Test and When to Consult Cardiology
Pre-operative evaluation: when to order a stress test and when to consult cardiology, presented by Steven C. Port, MD, Medical Director of Noninvasive Cardio...

By: Aurora Health Care

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Port - Pre-operative Evaluation: When to Order a Stress Test and When to Consult Cardiology - Video

Health Care Workers Wash Hands More When Patients Watching

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Latest Prevention & Wellness News

TUESDAY, April 8, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Next time you're in the hospital, keep an eye out for hygiene practices: Health care workers are more likely to wash their hands if patients are asked to monitor them, according to a new study.

It details an 11-month pilot project at the Family Practice Health Center at Women's College Hospital in Toronto. Patients were asked to observe and record the hand hygiene habits of their health care providers, who were aware that they were being watched.

During the project, nearly 97 percent of the health care workers washed their hands before direct contact with their patients, according to the study in the April issue of the American Journal of Infection Control.

The researchers also found that 58 percent of health care providers said they changed their hand hygiene practices, 88 percent said they were more motivated to wash their hands and 33 percent said they had more conversations with patients about infection prevention and control.

"Involving patients as the monitors of their health care providers' hand hygiene seems like an obvious, simple choice, and yet most hospitals in Canada don't use this method -- many opt for the often costly and time-consuming alternatives such as having their colleagues monitor and audit," study co-lead author Jessica Ng, manager of infection prevention and control at Women's College Hospital, said in a hospital news release.

The pilot project -- adapted from an approach used at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore -- was so successful that it is being implemented in other areas of the hospital, which is believed to be the first Canadian hospital with this type of program.

"The patient-as-observer approach is a practical, accurate and cost-saving alternative to the time- and resource-intensive direct observations by a paid hospital employee," study senior author Dr. Michael Gardam, the hospital's director of infection prevention and control, said in the news release.

"It's a promising tool for championing patient safety and quality improvement, because it supports education, engagement and empowerment of patients to play a more active role in their own health care," he added.

-- Robert Preidt

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Health Care Workers Wash Hands More When Patients Watching

Health care workers wash hands more when patients are watching

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(CBS) - Next time you're in the hospital, keep an eye out for hygiene practices: Health care workers are more likely to wash their hands if patients are asked to monitor them, according to a new study. It details an 11-month pilot project at the Family Practice Health Center at Women's College Hospital in Toronto. Patients were asked to observe and record the hand hygiene habits of their health care providers, who were aware that they were being watched.

During the project, nearly 97 percent of the health care workers washed their hands before direct contact with their patients, according to the study in the April issue of the American Journal of Infection Control.

The researchers also found that 58 percent of health care providers said they changed their hand hygiene practices, 88 percent said they were more motivated to wash their hands and 33 percent said they had more conversations with patients about infection prevention and control.

"Involving patients as the monitors of their health care providers' hand hygiene seems like an obvious, simple choice, and yet most hospitals in Canada don't use this method -- many opt for the often costly and time-consuming alternatives such as having their colleagues monitor and audit," study co-lead author Jessica Ng, manager of infection prevention and control at Women's College Hospital, said in a hospital news release.

The pilot project -- adapted from an approach used at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore -- was so successful that it is being implemented in other areas of the hospital, which is believed to be the first Canadian hospital with this type of program.

"The patient-as-observer approach is a practical, accurate and cost-saving alternative to the time- and resource-intensive direct observations by a paid hospital employee," study senior author Dr. Michael Gardam, the hospital's director of infection prevention and control, said in the news release.

"It's a promising tool for championing patient safety and quality improvement, because it supports education, engagement and empowerment of patients to play a more active role in their own health care," he added.

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Health care workers wash hands more when patients are watching

Report finds health care failing elderly

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KEMPTVILLE-

KEMPTVILLE Ontarios health care system is failing patients and has systemic discrimination against the elderly, according to a recently released report on the state of provincial health service.

Pushed Out of Hospital, Abandoned at Home, a joint project between the Ontario Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists and the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, published the report after conducting more than 600 interviews with people who had experiences with the provincial health care system.

The interviews took place after patients and family members called a hotline the organizations had set up in 2011 and which was active for 15 months. In the 60-page report, a number of stories recount patients unfavourable experiences with the system.

Unfortunately, theres hundreds of these stories, said Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions of CUPE.

The commonality of these narratives is that primarily elderly patients are getting the short shift from the health care system.

Hurley said his group is consulting with a legal firm to find a way to charge the province with some sort of systemic discrimination on the basis of age.

This isnt so the courts will step in, but so that we can keep talking about this issue, he said.

The individual cases cited in the report detail harrowing encounters with the health care system, including an 86-year-old woman being sent home from the hospital with a cracked rib, an 87-year-old woman suffering a heart attack while in a waiting room for three hours, and multiple families threatened with huge fees by the hospital if their loved ones werent moved from the hospital to a long-term care facility.

Eighty-seven per cent of respondents said they felt seniors had been sent home from the hospital while still acutely ill. As well, the report found more and more acutely ill patients were in long-term care homes instead of in hospitals, where they would have been before the province cut 19,000 acute care beds.

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Report finds health care failing elderly

Hopes for a renewed focus on health care

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MONTREAL The election of a majority Liberal government in Quebec headed by a brain surgeon with two cabinet hopefuls who also trained as doctors raises hopes of a renewed focus on health care.

Philippe Couillards election as Quebec premier also coincides with the expiration of the 10-year federal Health Accord, which greatly benefited the province when Couillard served as health minister from 2003 to 2008.

Since the Harper government has already gone on record as stating it will not renew the accord, Couillard will likely play a leading role as the provinces press Ottawa for adequate funding on health, observers say. For Couillard, the stakes are high, since he campaigned on improving access to health care, with costly promises to hire 2,000 nurse practitioners and create 50 super clinics across Quebec, open 24/7.

Quebec will join the voices of the other provinces, including Ontario, for a more collaborative approach to health-care reform, said Michael McBane, coordinator for the Canadian Health Coalition in Ottawa.

And I think Mr. Couillard has a good opportunity and a lot of credibility to be raising these issues for co-operation with Ottawa and the need for better planning.

Antonia Maioni, a health-policy expert at McGill University, noted that former Quebec premier Jean Charest played a major role in the Council of the Federation, the group representing the territorial and provincial premiers, in negotiating the health accord. And it was Charest who recruited Couillard to the Quebec Liberal Party.

Well see whether Couillard plays that role as well, as health is one of the top issues on the agenda of the Council of the Federation, Maioni said.

As far as bilateral relations are concerned, Quebec versus Ottawa, he may try and may get a hearing from Ottawa, because the Liberals are a federalist party, because Mr. Couillard is not seen to be someone on the left, but rather someone more to the centre-right.

Indeed, Harper, who phoned Couillard to congratulate him on the Liberal rout of the Parti Qubcois, had appointed him to the Security Intelligence Review Committee, the countrys spy watchdog, in 2010.

The 10-year health accord infused the provinces with $41 billion in extra transfers from Ottawa. The Conservative government has pledged to keep the health transfers rising by six per cent annually until 2017, after which any increases will be tied to the performance of the economy.

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Hopes for a renewed focus on health care

Omnibus health care bills headed to House floor

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A House committee approved two health care bills today that now include various member priorities whose sponsors worry don't have the traction to gain passage in the Senate on their own.

For example, HB 7113, initially only focused on grandfathering in three HCA-trauma centers under court challenge. Now it also includes requirements that doctors consult the state's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, authorization allowing highly trained nurses to practice independently, regulations for virtual doctor visits for certain types of medical providers and a statewide medical tourism marketing plan

All of those measures are found in various bills that are still making their way through the House committee process, but time is running out. And then there is one topic added to the bill that isn't in any bills currently under review: a provision to allowsafety net hospitals to open new locations without going through the normal review hospitals.

A second omnibus bill, HB 573, also passed overwhelming.It took a Senate priority -- assisted-living facilities regulations -- and added on a limited grandparent visitation laws and changes to the types of post-operation recovery centers that can attend to patients outside of hospitals.

Rep. Matt Hudson, the House's health care budget chief, said the size and scope of the revised trauma bill should not scare off support since the various proposals have been individually vetted.

"For those that say we tacked too much on this bill and whats not good or what is good: You know what, Im sorry," Hudson, R-Naples, said.

The Health and Human Services Committee approved the new omnibus version of HB 7113 overwhelming, with two Republican members voting no. Rep. John Wood of Winter Haven and Rep. Gayle Harrell, of Port St. Lucie said there were too many provisions they disagreed with.

"I think that the bad outweighs the good on this bill," Harrell said.

The Senate Appropriations Committee will take up its version of the trauma bill, SB 1276, this afternoon and there are not any amendments filed that would make it an omnibus proposal like the house version.

The ALF reform bill passed with dissent from two Democrats, Rep. Mia Jones of Jacksonville and Rep. Joe Gibbons of Hallandale Beach.

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Omnibus health care bills headed to House floor

Health Care Ethics Internship: Why Should Students Participate? Briana Britton Reflects – Video

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Health Care Ethics Internship: Why Should Students Participate? Briana Britton Reflects
Briana Britton, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics Health Care Ethics Intern 2012-13, reflects on her experiences as an intern, in light of Santa Clara Unive...

By: Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University

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Health Care Ethics Internship: Why Should Students Participate? Briana Britton Reflects - Video

Special Treatment: The President’s Unlawful Health Care Handout to Congress – Video

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Special Treatment: The President #39;s Unlawful Health Care Handout to Congress
Due to the hurried nature of its drafting and passage, Obamacare contains a number of provisions which -- had Congress read the bill more carefully -- might have been rejected. For example,...

By: The Heritage Foundation

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Special Treatment: The President's Unlawful Health Care Handout to Congress - Video

Ministry intensifies Patients First program

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Government hospitals have been urged to improve patient care, particularly through regular feedback from in-house patients. The request was made at a workshop on management skills for hospital directors, concluded in Riyadh on Sunday. Some 26 hospital directors from 12 health regions attended the workshop, held at the Institute of Public Administration. Abdulaziz Al-Humeithi, undersecretary to the Ministry of Health for Hospital Affairs, said hospital staff are responsible for implementing the Patients First program, introduced last year by Health Minister Abdullah Al-Rabeeah. Al-Humeithi said the workshop was being conducted to increase awareness among health officials on their obligations toward their patients. We are expected to be friendly with patients and treat them with warmth and generosity, he said. The training program is being implemented in line with the ministry, whose services are focused on offering the best healthcare services across the Kingdom. The focus of the Health Ministry is patient-centric, he said. Our programs are aimed at ensuring the patients satisfaction. A central department was formed to achieve the ministrys objective, which is linked to the highest authority at the ministry. The department had previously been tasked with communicating with patients, but has since taken on the responsibility of ensuring their rights, he said. Health services in Saudi Arabia are provided at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels both in government and private sectors.

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Ministry intensifies Patients First program


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