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By LocalHealthGuide on September 03rd, 2010
Valley Medical Center adds eight new physicians
Specialists in Family Medicine; Pediatric Neurology; General Surgery, and Ear, Nose & Throat.
Doctors
By Julie Rovner on September 03rd, 2010
Bucking the trend: Primary care doc practices solo
NPR’s Julie Rovner profiles Cathy Crute, a doctor who’s bucking the trend and sticking with her small, private practice in Portland, Maine.
By Julie Rovner on September 03rd, 2010
Future of primary care? Some say ‘Medical Home’
A “medical home” aims to be a practice where the doctor doesn’t keep you waiting, does keep you healthy, and works with a team to deliver better care cheaper.
By LocalHealthGuide on September 01st, 2010
Talks about cancer and cancer therapy at Gilda’s Club
Titles: When are we going to cure cancer? Cancer Chemotherapies and the Health of Your Bones. Late Effects After Cancer Therapy
By Michael McCarthy on August 29th, 2010
Health care reform and the homeless
Medicaid expansion to cover more working poor. Funding to boost community health clinics. Incentives to encourage more to pursue primary care careers.
By Sec. Kathleen Sebelius on August 26th, 2010
View: New momentum behind electronic health records
Despite the clear benefits of health IT, only two in ten doctors and one in ten hospitals use even a basic electronic record system.
By LocalHealthGuide on August 25th, 2010
More Washington teens up-to-date on their shots
More of Washington teens are up-to-date on their shots, but the state still has a way to go before it achieves recommended 90 percent target immunization rate.
By Phil Galewitz on August 23rd, 2010
Health law changes rules for docs with in-house imaging machines
Starting next year, doctors who refer Medicare and Medicaid patients to in-house imaging machines must disclose in writing that they own the equipment.
By Elaine Zablocki - HBNS on August 19th, 2010
Team approach to foot care lowers risk of amputation in diabetes
If you have diabetes, your lifetime risk of developing a foot ulcer is 15% or more, and about a quarter of diabetic foot ulcers fail to heal and eventually require amputation.
By LocalHealthGuide on August 18th, 2010
State O.K.s Swedish-Stevens affiliation
The new arrangement will go into effect September 1st, when the Stevens will officially be renamed Swedish/Edmonds.
By Michael McCarthy on August 18th, 2010
VM achieves highest overall score on Leapfrog hospital safety survey
Participating hospitals voluntarily report their progress towards implementing these practices. Your hospital’s report is available online.
By Michelle Andrews on August 03rd, 2010
How good are doctor-rating systems?
Experts caution that most doctor-rating systems are still rudimentary, and a four-star rating or other high-performance designation may not reliably reflect a doctor’s abilities.
By Adam Graham-Silverman on June 28th, 2010
Can the medical home model save primary care?
Despite the anecdotal evidence, substantial data has yet to emerge showing that the medical home model saves money or lives.
By Jenny Gold on June 15th, 2010
Top-ranked UW ranks high in fulfilling its ‘social mission’ too, study finds
University of Washington ranked 6th in the U.S. News & World Report survey but still managed to rank in the top 20 for producing primary care doctors.
By LocalHealthGuide on June 07th, 2010
VM adds nine new physicians to staff
Anesthesiologist, ophthalmologist, gynecologist, orthopedic surgeon, and hospitalists among the new hires.
By Scott Hensley - NPR on May 25th, 2010
Requiring doctors to justify scans reduces waste
A funny thing happens when a computer challenges orders for medical scans that aren’t likely to help: Doctors often drop the test requests.
By Irene M. Wielawski on May 24th, 2010
Doctors will embrace electronic records, says Obama’s health IT leader
Doctors who “get on board” will be paid more by Medicare and Medicaid, beginning in 2011. But in 2016 the subsidies disappear and those still using paper risk sanctions, including reduced Medicare fees.
By Adam Graham-Silverman on May 19th, 2010
Two-tiered medical care for haves and have nots
As doctors leave the system to join “concierge” practices, patients scramble to find care
By Michael McCarthy on May 11th, 2010
Can Seattle’s Qliance model help reinvent primary care?
“Direct care practices’” in which patients pay a monthly fee for primary care services may help cut health costs and attract more providers to primary care.
By Susan Okie on May 04th, 2010
Teaching doctors the price of care
Doctors in training have long been insulated from information about the cost of the treatments and tests. Schools are now teaching them what care costs.
By Arlene Weintraub on April 26th, 2010
New health law will require industry to disclose payments to physicians
Doctors who accept speaking fees and other compensation from pharmaceutical or medical device companies will soon see their names and the value of the gifts on the Web.
By Sammy Mack - Health News Florida on January 22nd, 2010
As records go digital, cultures clash
Surprise charges, inadequate training and even blocked access to patient files–a massive headache.
By KaiserHealthNews on October 01st, 2009
Study: Young Docs Stumped by Health Care System, Too
Less than half of graduating medical students say they have a good sense of how to navigate health care systems or the economics of practicing medicine.
By LocalHealthGuide on August 14th, 2009
Health Stories in the News – Aug. 14
Allow Seattle Children’s to expand, says Seattle Times
The Seattle City Council should reverse ruling of a hearing examiner who has rejected Seattle Children’s expansion plans, says Seattle Times argues in an editorial today’s paper.
The hearing examiner found that hospital’s planned expansion, which would add 1.5 million square feet of space on its Lauralhurst campus, was inappropriate [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 12th, 2009
Transcript of President Obama’s “Health Insurance Reform Town Hall”
The White House has released a transcript of President Barack Obama’s “Health Insurance Reform Town Hall” meeting held yesterday, August 11 at Portsmouth High School in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
To read it click on “Read more…”.
Transcript released by the White House:
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, Portsmouth! Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you so much. Everybody have a seat. [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 11th, 2009
For Major Health Industry Players, Reform’s Positives Outweigh Negatives
By Phil Galewitz
August 11, 2009
When Congress and the White House began talking about a health care overhaul, the industries that profit from the $2.5 trillion system were understandably nervous.
But as the legislation takes shape, it appears much of the anxiety was misplaced. Most of the major health care players, including hospitals, health insurers and pharmaceutical [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on August 10th, 2009
Bending the Curve Requires Health Care Reform, Not Just Sick Care Reform: A History Lesson
OPINION:
Joseph Califano, Chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University
As President Obama and Congress struggle to bend the rising cost curve in order to make health care available to all Americans, the history of the first great expansion of health care coverage when Lyndon Johnson drove Medicare and Medicaid through [...]
By LocalHealthGuide on July 21st, 2009
Health stories in the news – July 21
Continuous chemotherapy for some cancers?
New York Times reporter Andrew Pollack writes that some doctors and pharmaceutical companies are advocating treating patients with cancer continuously.
“That would be a departure from the common practice of stopping treatment when the cancer is under control and resuming it only if the cancer worsens,” Pollack writes.
Some doctors say such ”maintenance [...]
By Dr. Carolyn Clancy on July 21st, 2009
Deciding what treatment is best is not always easy
Health Effects Of Comparing Care: No Easy Answers
By Joanne Silberner, NPR News
JUL 21, 2009
This story comes from NPR, a Kaiser Health News partner.
The Obama administration and Congress are moving forward with plans to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the various medical treatments for common health conditions, despite concerns of some lawmakers and the [...]
By Dr. Carolyn Clancy on July 21st, 2009
How you can help reduce medical errors
To reduce medical errors, hospitals are forming advisory councils where patients and health care professionals work together to improve safety.
In this column, Dr. Carolyn Clancy, M.D., director of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, explains how these advisory councils work.
Hospital Advisory Councils Get Patients’ View on Safer Health Care
By Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D.
July [...]
