Troubling New Report on Hospital Infections Comes While the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Considers Discontinuing Publicly Reporting Rates

Each day, one out of 25 hospital patients in the U.S. contracts a healthcare-associated infection (HAI), resulting in billions of wasted dollars and an alarming 90,000 deaths annually. Unfortunately, a new report published by The Leapfrog Groupand analyzed by Castlight Healthshows that the percent of hospitals achieving zero infections has declined dramatically since 2015, indicating many patients are still at risk.

Squamous cell Carcinoma

Squamous cell Carcinoma

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), the second most common form of skin cancer, is an uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells arising from the squamous cells in the epidermis, the skin’s outermost layer. It is sometimes called cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) to differentiate it from very different kinds of SCCs elsewhere in the body. Cutaneous is the scientific word for “related to or affecting the skin.”

A new approach can take patient safety to the next level

A new approach can take patient safety to the next level

For many hospitals and health care systems, improving safety means being alert to things that go wrong, finding out why they happened, and fixing them. While this is a helpful approach, adding a new one aimed at anticipating errors can take patient safety to an entirely new level.

Vascular Mortality Declining in Adults With Diabetes in the United States

Vascular disease mortality rates are declining in the United States, which is leading to a diversification of types of diabetes-related mortality, according to results published in theLancet.

Several nonvascular, noncancer causes of death, including renal disease, influenza, pneumonia, sepsis, and chronic liver disease, were significantly higher among adults with diabetes compared with adults without diabetes.

UPMC physician: Providers need a 'bolder' approach to win the battle against sepsis

Despite the high number of sepsis deaths in hospitals each year, current approaches to battling it aren't working — and providers need to develop more innovative ways to tackle the deadly infection, Derek Angus, MD, professor and chair of critical care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, writes in a STAT op-ed.

"If we can strive to fight a new scourge like opioids, we should be able to do the same for a much older killer," Dr. Angus argues.

Medicare Takes Aim At Boomerang Hospitalizations Of Nursing Home Patients

Medicare Takes Aim At Boomerang Hospitalizations Of Nursing Home Patients
In recent years, the government has begun to tackle the problem. In 2013, Medicare began fining hospitals for high readmission rates in an attempt to curtail premature discharges and to encourage hospitals to refer patients to nursing homes with good track records.

Today’s ‘palliative care’ disrespects the natural law

The natural law tells us that, in the context of health care, 1) food and water are basic treatment and care, and should not be withdrawn lightly; 2) morphine must not be used aggressively to hasten death when a patient is not near the time of death; and 3) pain management must be properly titrated to avoid overdose.