As our population gets older and older patients are living longer with more complicated medical problems it is often a challenge to determine which patients should be admitted and which patient should be discharged home. Additional pressures from CMS(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) and health plans’ pressure to discharge patients adds an additional complexity… Read More
Average physicians salaries by a group called MDSearch Specialty Average Salary by Specialty 2016 Allergy/Immunology 334,889.00 Anesthesiology 456,141.60 Cardiology Invasive 505,168.00 Cardiology Noninvasive 486,900.40 Dermatology 492,978.80 Emergency Medicine 343,276.00 Endocrinology 246,712.60 Family Medicine 238,147.40 Gastroenterology 500,044.20 Hematology/Oncology 457,796.80 Hospitalist 268,383.00 Internal Medicine 253,263.80 Nephrology 356,092.00 Neurology 286,157.60 OB/GYN 339,029.80 Occupational Medicine 233,461.20 Oncology 481,116.60… Read More
There are countless new health related apps for your smartphone coming on the market every month. They can measure your heart rate, help with differential diagnosis and possibly even measure your blood pressure. Researchers at John Hopkins University looked to see how accurate one of the most popular blood pressure measuring apps was. They published… Read More
A national physician survey released by the AMA on February 16, 2016 identified ways to decrease opiate overdoses. The survey had five main findings: 1. PDMPs are valuable tools: 87 percent of physicians agree that PDMPs help them become more informed about a patient’s prescription history. 2. PDMPs need changes to be more beneficial: Physicians… Read More
The HIMSS Board approved the following definition of interoperability on April 5, 2013: In healthcare, interoperability is the ability of different information technology systems and software applications to communicate, exchange data, and use the information that has been exchanged. Data exchange schema and standards should permit data to be shared across clinicians, lab, hospital, pharmacy,… Read More
The majority of hospitals in the United States use the ESI triage tool. This tool Acad Emerg Med. 2010 Mar;17(3):238-43. doi: 10.1111/j.1553-2712.2010.00670.x.Accuracy of the Emergency Severity Index triage instrument for identifying elder emergency department patients receiving an immediate life-saving intervention. Platts-Mills TF1, Travers D, Biese K, McCall B, Kizer S, LaMantia M, Busby-Whitehead J, Cairns… Read More
In a major win for the insurance industry and a tremendous loss for patients and consumers, health insurers will not be forced to have minimum hospital and physician standards for 2017, nor will they have to offer standardized options in health plans. Health plans will continue to offer so called narrow provider networks which may… Read More
Every couple of years I encounter the story of how a colleague gets accused of something in the media. Sometimes these articles have merit and sometimes these articles are and turn out to be blatantly incorrect. Regardless, they are always shocking and and damaging to the physician’s career. It is interesting that these situations are… Read More
A February 29, 2016 study in JAMA Pediatrics found that parents discovered a surprising number of physician errors in the care of their children. Although it was a small study involving 383 children who were hospitalized during 2013 and 2014, researchers concluded that approximately one in 10 parents caught a mistake their child’s physicians did… Read More
