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On Dec. 17, the American Hospital Association (AHA) announced it would provide guidelines for hospitals on billing and collection practices to ensure that poor patients and patients who lack health insurance are treated in a fair-and-balanced manner.
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Mediation long has been known as an alternative way of resolving civil legal disputes. But as the following case study illustrates, it is emerging as a new way to help resolve conflicts in medical settings.
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According to newly released survey data from the Huntington Valley, PA-based Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), intimidating behavior is a common element of many health care practice settings, and such behavior is a factor in the occurrence of many medication errors.
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Although the researchers themselves focused on deficiencies in the delivery of health care, officials with the nonprofit consumer protection group, Public Citizen, claim the new analysis of health care quality conducted by the RAND Corp. demonstrates that the malpractice insurance crisis is not as great as tort reform advocates claim.
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A study shows only 50%-60% get recommended care. A recent analysis of data collected by the RAND Corp, a Santa Monica, CA-based health policy think tank, indicates that people in all parts of the nation are at risk for receiving poor health care.
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The recent report on assisted reproductive technology (ART) by the Presidents Council on Bioethics has been drawing a favorable reception from groups advocating womens health and reproductive choice.
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Recent studies in intensive care units1 (ICU) have found that critical care specialists often try to base decisions about withdrawal of advanced life support measures based on their perception of the patients wishes and the likelihood of survival in the ICU. But making accurate decisions about a patients wishes in such situations often requires clinicians to communicate effectively with surrogate decision makers members of the patients family or others empowered to make decisions should the person become incapacitated.
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Many adults do not understand health information. Nearly half of all American adults 90 million have difficulty understanding and using health information, and there is a higher rate of hospitalization and use of emergency services among patients with such limited health literacy, states a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
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More education for physicians and research into pain management strategies appropriate to the emergency setting are needed to ensure appropriate care in the emergency department (ED), new research indicates. Two upcoming studies published in the April issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine reveal that ED physicians prescribing practices vary widely even when the clinical scenarios are the same.
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Last years worldwide outbreak of a deadly new virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), made health systems around the world re-examine their preparedness to deal with a sudden epidemic of infectious disease. But in addition to designing new methods for detecting outbreaks and improving measures to prevent spread, health care providers again must look at the complex ethical issues that epidemics pose to society, experts say.
