HAI and Antibiotic Prevalence Use Survey
Most US hospitals will never see a case of Ebola, but they face other more common – and potentially lethal – infections every day. Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) are “major causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States,” according to the CDC. From 2009 through 2011, the CDC tracked nosocomial infections in the HAI and Antibiotic Prevalence Use Survey, a three-phase, point-prevalence nationwide survey. Also, visit the CDC’s Safe Healthcare blog for relevant medical studies and updates on infection-prevention quality in hospitals around the country.
Health Care Entitlements: The Road Forward
On the preliminary campaign trail, Republicans vying for their party’s president nomination attack Massachusetts’ near universal coverage – which was created under then-Republican Gov. Mitt Romney and state Democrats, including the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. In Washington, Republicans are seeking to repeal the national health law that was in part based on the Massachusetts model, while also pushing to turn Medicaid into a block grant, saying they don’t have enough flexibility to control costs and innovate. Romney’s successor, Democrat Deval Patrick, testified June 23 before the Senate Finance Committee hearing on health entitlements. He addressed all of the above – stressing that his state was able to become a trailblazer within the current parameters on flexiblity.
KidsWell: Children’s health insurance coverage: This state and national campaign focused on health care reform implementation on behalf of children, has demographic data on children’s health insurance coverage as well as snapshots of key state health care reform implementation and opposition activity.
Three movies about health care – overtreatment, undertreatment, cost, quality, the uninsured, the underinsured, the safety nets – are being launched. Some are being shown in community settings like medical schools – might be a good story to go to one of the screenings and see how it’s received and what people say. “Escape Fire”looks at military medicine too – maybe explore how its message pertains to veteran’s care where you live.
- “Money and Medicine,” shot at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles and Intermountain Medical Center in Utah, airs on PBS stations starting Sept. 25. (Dates may vary in other communities.)
- “The Waiting Room” goes inside a safety net, Oakland’s Highland Hospital, and it premieres Sept 26 in New York.
- “Escape Fire” has held a bunch of medical school screenings and goes into wider release next week.
The Cochrane Library (access available through AHCJ or to media by contacting medicalnews@wiley.com)
If you are covering comparative effectiveness research, trying to assess the validity of providers’ claims about treatments, procedures, drugs, “breakthroughs,” vitamins, alternative medicines, counterclaims of skeptical insurers or other payers (including public payers like state Medicaid programs) a local medical “arms race,” or patient-centered decision-making (“should I have treatment A or treatment B”), the databases and podcasts in the Cochrane Library can guide you to reviews of the clinical and/or economic evidence. More detail on how to use it.
The Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative is one of several groups working on primary-care centered medical homes to provide more seamless and coordinated care.
IRS chart on how employers have to report pre-tax health benefits on W-2 forms