Johns Hopkins personal protective equipment prototype for Ebola – Video


Johns Hopkins personal protective equipment prototype for Ebola
Read about it at: http://hub.jhu.edu/2014/12/12/ebola-suit-design-funding An advanced protective suit for health care workers who treat Ebola patients, devised by a Johns Hopkins team, is...

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Johns Hopkins personal protective equipment prototype for Ebola - Video

Home Health Care Agency Receive Tribute & Free Discount Cards By Charles Myrick – Video


Home Health Care Agency Receive Tribute Free Discount Cards By Charles Myrick
http://www.2healthhelp.com -Enjoy a brief recap of this great organization doing a fantastic service in the community!" -Charles Myrick - President and CEO of American Consultants Rx...

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Home Health Care Agency Receive Tribute & Free Discount Cards By Charles Myrick - Video

Health care services gap narrows between whites and African-Americans

Nationwide disparities in the quality of hospital care between whites and minorities have deceased for those with acute myocardial infarction, heart failure and pneumonia, a University of Pittsburgh study has found, but an accompanying Harvard-based study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine found that differences persist in the control of blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose among the various racial and ethnic groups of Medicare enrollees, which might contribute to persistent disparities in health outcomes in most regions of the country.

The Pitt study, Quality and Equity of Care in U.S. Hospitals, published last week online, showed progress from 2005 to 2010 with increased racial and ethnic equity for hospitalized African-American and Hispanic adults, as compared with white patients.

Reductions in disparities between race and ethnic groups resulted from more equitable care for white patients and minority patients treated in the same hospital, and greater performance improvements among hospitals that disproportionately serve minority patients, states the study, led by Michael J. Fine, a professor of medicine at the Pitt School of Medicine. The study also involved researchers from Brown University, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and various veteran health centers.

Previous studies found elderly African-American and Hispanic patients to be concentrated in a relatively small number of hospitals with poor performance ratings. That raised concern that pay-for-performance plans, which reward hospitals for good health outcomes and publicly reported results, penalize hospitals that disproportionately serve minority patients and reward hospitals that avoid minority patients.

Equity is a key dimension of health care quality, the Pitt study states. Therefore, efforts to gauge progress in quality of care must include explicit considerations of whether gains have also occurred in health care equity.

The study focused on 17 procedures to improve outcomes, including providing aspirin to heart-attack patients and influenza vaccinations to pneumonia patients, and clearing blood clots from the arteries of heart-attack patients within 90 minutes of arrival. In 2005, nine metrics had gaps between whites and minorities greater than 5 percent. By 2010, all gaps had narrowed significantly, the study shows.

Our study provides support for the notion that efforts to improve the overall quality of care may also reduce racial and ethnic disparities, the study states. Disparities reflect care that is not rendered according to patients clinical needs or their informed preferences.

Marshall Chin, a University of Chicago physician and health care ethicist whose editorial on the topic appeared in the same journal edition, said the Pitt study was well done but limited by not addressing disparities in patient outcomes.

He said that eliminating disparities requires addressing the realities of the persons life, including access to healthy food, medications and safe places to exercise. Disparities in care should motivate efforts to eliminate them, with a focus on prevention and underlying cultural, social and economic factors affecting each patient.

Improving the quality of care helps, but we need patient-centered care that looks at each person as an individual and tailors care to that person, Dr. Chin said. One-size-fits-all doesnt work.

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Health care services gap narrows between whites and African-Americans

Billings' health care system a significant part of the local economy, study shows

A new report from a University of Montana economist predicts that health care already the largest piece of Billings economy will grow even more dominant in the coming years.

Bryce Ward, associate director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana, wrote The Contribution of Health Care to Billings Economy and presented some of his findings during the Big Sky Health Care Summit held in Billings in July.

Big Sky Economic Development helped fund the recently published study, which builds on some of the material Ward presented during the summit.

Nearly 13,000 people work in Billings health care industry, earning about $641 million in wages, or about 20 percent of all Billings wages. Over the past 25 years, health care employment in Billings has almost doubled, and health care wages grew by 162 percent, adjusted for inflation.

About 3,700 health care jobs are expected to be added in the next seven years, exceeding the projection of every other industry. Health care employment is expected to be boosted by 29 percent between 2012 and 2022.

Without (Billings) health care sector, many people and businesses would move way from (or never move to) Billings, the report states.

Not only is the health care sector prevalent in Billings, but its efficient, too, according to Ward.

The federal Medicare program spent about $7,600 per beneficiary in Billings in 2010, about half what the government spent on beneficiaries in such places as McAllen, Texas; and Miami. During their last six months of life, Medicare patients in Billings spent an average of 6.5 days in the hospital; in Miami, it was 15.5 days.

Eighty-seven percent of Billings residents report being in good, very good or excellent health. Yellowstone County residents health is among the top 25 percent of all U.S. counties.

Health care begets health

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Billings' health care system a significant part of the local economy, study shows

How Obama Bungled Obamacares Success Stories

By now, there are thousands of people who can make Barack Obama and the Democrats case for the Affordable Care Act. Across the nation, there must be countless tales of Americans who would be broke and broken were it not for Obamacare. They have to exist in all walks of life, in every state, of all political persuasions.

And yet this week, as Mondays deadline approached for signing up for 2015 health plans, none of those people appeared as part of the pitch. The most frequently aired TV ad features a racially diverse cast of young people speaking in generalities about how their Obamacare plans provided peace of mind at a surprisingly low, low price. These folks, none of whom seem to have been sick, gush about the heckuva deal they got and how happy it makes them.

But why? Why is America still being asked to take it on faith that the ACA is a social and moral good? Why does the Obama Administration continue, even after these many years of largely unanswered attacks by Republican opponents, with a failed marketing effort that amounts to, Trust us! Youll love it!

Heres the ACA ad they should make: a grizzled, Duck Dynasty-like Alabaman stands outside a neonatal intensive care unit. I was against Obamacare, he tells the camera. I sure didnt vote for Obama, either. And, man, I liked my health plan, wanted to keep it. When I found out I couldnt, boy was I pissed. The camera pans to a wriggling baby, tubes everywhere, the mans wife gazing longingly into the incubator holding their child. Then my daughter was born, and she almost died, he says, choking up a little. My old plan wouldnt have covered this. We wouldve lost the house, probably wouldve had to go bankrupt. Its all still pretty dang expensive, I cant lie. But my Obamacare coverage really saved us. Thanks, Obamacare!

You think thats some liberal, nanny-state fever dream? Its not. This is not conjecture; it is a statistical certainty based on all the data used by insurance carriers to set rates. A certain chunk of the 8 million people who signed on to Obamacare plans or the millions more whose existing plans were bolstered to comply with the ACA suffered health catastrophes in 2014. Many opposed the law and were angry when Obamas like it, keep it promise was broken. But without the reform that required comprehensive plans and eliminated rejections of coverage based on pre-existing conditions, many would have met the same fate of so many in recent decades.

That is, lest anyone forget, how it was. Obama, strangely, really never told those stories back then, either. In 2009, when he stood before a joint session of Congress to make his case for health insurance reform, the political genius who campaigned in 2008 with such art and eloquence failed to use the moment to introduce skeptics to a parade of average, hard-working Americans who endured the all-too-common financial devastation of a serious illness. Cant you see those people, their wheelchairs and colostomy bags and adorable kids, festooning the dais as Obama made his case? How could a purported Judeo-Christian nation see those faces and hear those stories and not agree that something had to change? Instead, the president gave a boring, wonky speech that nobody remembers, a teaser for the incompetent public relations effort to come.

And there they go again. The current marketing effort also failed to appeal to anyones emotions or sense of justice. Rather, it insisted that having good insurance makes you feel good about yourself the way, say, eating tofu or reading Tolstoy might. Perhaps Obama once had to rely on unproven predictions, but that ended on Jan. 1, 2014. Since then, ACA supporters have had their pick of uplifting stories of tragedy averted by this law.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., knows this. Last month, in a Chicago Sun-Times essay, she cited several specific cases of ACA success. Cancer-stricken David Price, for instance, saved $4,000 this year on his meds versus 2013. Gary Wood, bankrupted 18 years ago by the cost of care from a heart attack and then shut out of coverage ever since, underwent a life-saving quintuple bypass in 2014 paid for by the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. And so on. Its not hard to find these people. Theyre everywhere, even in the deepest red of states.

The gang behind this years campaign offered up just one limp trick: rebranding. The TV ad, for instance, opens with a woman who says, Healthcare.gov allows me to continue on with my life. In other words, its not Obamacare. Its not even the ACA. Its now just healthcare-dot-gov, as if thats a policy or a government program rather than a place on the Internet. Given that the rollout of the website was among the biggest PR disasters of any sort in recent history, its an odd and ineffectual choice.

Stop being so cute. This is really, really easy; just tell the story. It goes like this: Obamacare has successes. It has already saved many Americans from financial doom. It has improved the health care of millions. It has given many entrepreneurs the courage to quit jobs they hated and start new businesses. Here, meet some of these folks. Theyre just like you. You could be next.

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How Obama Bungled Obamacares Success Stories

Arbitrators decision on fate of health-care unions to be known by Jan. 1

A weeklong arbitration hearing into how thousands of Nova Scotia health-care workers will be organized at the provinces hospitals and clinics wrapped up Saturday.

Arbitrator James Dorsey has until Jan. 1 to issue a decision on the fate of the labour structure of unionized health-care workers in Nova Scotia unless Health and Wellness Minister Leo Glavine extends the deadline.

Under the Liberal governments controversial health-care bill, 49 acute-care bargaining units would be reduced to four, with each union representing only one of those units.

The four health-care unions Unifor, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Nova Scotia Nurses Union and the Nova Scotia Government & General Employees Union have argued that the move strips workers of their rights to determine representation.

The five-day hearing between the unions and the province comes after months of debate over cuts to health-care bargaining units and district health authorities in Nova Scotia.

Everybody walked out of there yesterday feeling a little bit of battle fatigue, NSGEU president Joan Jessome said in an interview Sunday. Its been a rough year.

Although the unions found common ground during the hearing on health-care worker seniority and collective agreements, they disagreed on the structure and representation of bargaining units.

Citing the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the NSGEU argued that health-care workers should have the right to vote on which union to be part of.

I think the only way forward is to give health-care workers the right to choose through a vote, Jessome said. I think that is the only position that will give some level of peace into the future.

But Unifor Atlantic director Lana Payne said holding a vote is a very divisive exercise that pits unions against unions.

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Arbitrators decision on fate of health-care unions to be known by Jan. 1

Great Oaks Recovery Center Awarded Behavioral Health Care Accreditation from The Joint Commission

Egypt, TX (PRWEB) December 14, 2014

Great Oaks Recovery Center (Great Oaks) today announced that it has earned The Joint Commissions Gold Seal of Approval for Behavioral Health Care Accreditation by demonstrating continuous compliance with its performance standards. The Gold Seal of Approval is a symbol of quality that reflects an organizations commitment to providing safe and effective care.

This accreditation is very important to our organization, as every day we strive to provide the best quality of care to our clients, said Jill Shrader, Vice President of Quality and Compliance for Summit Behavioral Healthcare (Summit), parent company to Great Oaks. The entire team of Great Oaks continues to work together on initiatives, program development and outcome informed strategies that have the potential to improve care for those in our community," continued Shrader. Great Oaks underwent a rigorous on-site survey in December 2014. During the review, compliance with behavioral health care standards related to several areas, including care, treatment, and services; environment of care; medication management and leadership; and procedures for safety and security were evaluated. On-site observations and interviews also were conducted.

Established in 1969, The Joint Commissions Behavioral Health Care Accreditation program currently accredits more than 2,100 organizations for a three-year period. Accredited organizations provide treatment and services within a variety of settings across the care continuum for individuals who have mental health, addiction, eating disorder, intellectual/developmental disability, and/or child-welfare related needs.

Joint Commission accreditation provides behavioral health care organizations with the processes needed to improve in a variety of areas related to the care of individuals and their families, said Tracy Griffin Collander, LCSW, executive director, Behavioral Health Care Accreditation program, The Joint Commission. We commend Great Oaks Recovery Center for its efforts to elevate the standard of care it provides and to instill confidence in the community it serves.

The Joint Commissions behavioral health care standards are developed in consultation with health care experts and providers, quality improvement measurement experts, and individuals and their families. The standards are informed by scientific literature and expert consensus to help organizations measure, assess and improve performance.

Founded in 1951, The Joint Commission seeks to continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value. The Joint Commission accredits and certifies more than 20,500 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including hospitals and health care organizations that provide ambulatory and office-based surgery, behavioral health, home care, laboratory and nursing home services. An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission is the nations oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care. The Joint Commission has two nonprofit affiliate organizations: The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare aims to solve health cares most critical safety and quality problems and Joint Commission Resources (JCR) provides consulting services, educational services and publications. Joint Commission International, a division of JCR, accredits and certifies international health care organizations. Learn more about The Joint Commission at http://www.jointcommission.org.

About Summit -- Headquartered in Atlanta, GA and founded in June of 2013, Summit was established to develop and operate a network of leading addiction treatment and behavioral health centers throughout the country. The companys sole focus is on the provision and management of specialty chemical dependency and addiction disorder services within a flexible and dynamic continuum of care. The leadership team at Summit is comprised of senior executives with decades of combined experience in the behavioral healthcare industry. The team has a long and successful history leading and managing world class behavioral health centers and organizations throughout the country.

About Great Oaks Recovery Center Located outside of Houston, TX, Great Oaks is an addictions treatment program opened in the winter of 2014. It is considered the flagship of Summit Behavioral Healthcare, providing an affordable inpatient program in a serene, discreet and luxurious setting. The program is a dual diagnosis program which uses a multitude of modalities including by not limited to the 12 steps. At Great Oaks Recovery Center, the treatment plan is individualized, client focused and uses evidenced-based outcome data to continue to improve the care and recovery of every client that enters the program.

For additional information on Great Oaks Recovery Center or Summit Behavioral Healthcare, please contact Christina Hawkins at chawkins(at)summitbhc(dot)com.

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Great Oaks Recovery Center Awarded Behavioral Health Care Accreditation from The Joint Commission

Pearl Insurance Develops Affordable Health Care Coverage Solution

Peoria Heights, IL (PRWEB) December 15, 2014

Pearl Insurance is now offering the Pearl Health Care Exchange, a private exchange marketplace for competitively priced insurance coverage. This custom solution gives individuals access to thousands of plans offered by more than 300 of the industrys top health care carriers. This exchange also allows users to avoid the impending tax penalties by enrolling in a plan.

Weve designed a robust exchange program that provides quality insurance at affordable rates, said Greg Ketay, Senior Vice President of Underwriting and Risk Management at Pearl Insurance. We are very proud of this exchange and are even more proud to be providing this benefit.

All products offered by the Pearl Health Care Exchange meet or exceed the U.S. government guidelines of Minimum Essential Coverages as outlined in the Affordable Care Act Individual Mandate. Open enrollment began on November 15. Individuals have the option to shop online at pearlinsurance.com/exchange or over the phone at 855.465.0202 and get free advice from a licensed agent while choosing a plan. Enrollment is required by December 15 for coverage beginning January 1, 2015.

By using the Pearl Health Care Exchange, users gain access to all available Gold, Silver, and Bronze marketplace plans in their local areas and have the ability to estimate available federal tax subsidies and apply them directly to their health plan to receive lower monthly premiums. Exchange carriers include Aetna, UnitedHealthOne, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, and Humana. Plus, individuals may choose from a variety of additional off-exchange plans from multiple top carriers.

Pearl Insurance has 60 years of experience providing the industrys top insurance programs. Pearl Insurance is ranked among the top direct-marketing third-party administrators in the United States. If you would like more information about the Pearl Health Care Exchange, please contact Scott Whitaker, Executive Vice President of Business Development, at 309.679.0283.

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Pearl Insurance Develops Affordable Health Care Coverage Solution

A SYM card to cubism

STILL Kalabasa

Strange how one epithet of a word, uttered in confusion, can grow to have a life of its own. Ironic, too, that the perpetrator of such mischief could be the most influential critic of the time.

One such word was the cubeand one such critic was someone named Louis Vauxcelles. He first heard the word from Matisse, the reputed rival of Picasso, who told the critic, Braque has just sent in[to the 1908 Salon dAutomne] a painting made of little cubes. Matisse was referring to a painting that depicted simplified, boxy shapes of houses with deconstructed perspective. Braque and Picasso had worked so closely that the latter had described their relationship, thus: We were like mountaineers roped together.

Thence in an exhibition of Cubist works, the critic disparagingly described them as bizarreries cubiques. And thus the term Cubism came to be.

Cubism became the first abstract style, characterized by its rejection of perspective and its emphasis on a multiple perspective.

The Cubists wanted an art that recognized the changing world, now reflected in the advancement of photography and cinematography. The invention of the telephone, the motor car and the airplane destroyed the boundaries of communication and travel.

STATUE of David 1

The impact of Cubism was felt by artists in Germany, Holland, Italy, England, America and Russia. In Italy, an outgrowth of Cubism was called Futurism, which celebrated speed, violence and the mechanization of the modern world. In America, the Cubist practitioners depicted the New York landscape of soaring skyscrapers, speeding automobiles and wide-spanning iron bridges.

Alas, after a little more than a decade, Cubism quickly fell into disrepute. An art historian, Paul Johnson, wrote, Being the first form of fashion art, Cubism itself was soon abandoned by all its abler practitioners, who moved on to new styles. By 1930 there was no artist so out-of-date as a Cubist. It had however a curious persistence in the works of countless artists of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, who wished to paint in a figurative manner but who also wished to identify themselves as modern. Indeed, while Marcel Duchamp was referring to a painting, he might as well be alluding to an art movement, when he said that after 40 or 50 years, a picture dies, because its freshness disappears. I think a painting dies after a few years like the man who painted it. Afterwards its called the history of art.

In the Philippines, one such artist was Vicente Manansala, whose name became most closely associated with the term Transparent Cubism. Like the original Cubists, Manansala favored the still life. Thus he fragmented the forms of fruits and vegetables, kitchen and domestic scenes, and later, human figures such as beggars, candle vendors, sabungeros, and Mother and Child.

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A SYM card to cubism