Federal News
Rural Unemployment Falls, but Jobs Decline
Rural unemployment is down a bit from last year. But a majority of rural counties actually have fewer jobs now than they did in March 2012. The losses are worst in the nation’s most rural counties. (Source: Daily Yonder) [Read article]
Fast Food Nutrition Has Barely Improved In 14 Years, Study Finds
Despite fast food companies' pledges to up the nutritional quality of their offerings, a new study suggests that little has changed health-wise in the past 14 years. The study, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, reveals that the nutritional quality of fast food meals improved only 3 percent between 1997/98 and 2009/10. (Source: Huffington Post) [Read article]
Achieving Meaningful Use as a Rural Solo Nurse Practitioner Practice
NPs are playing such a critical role in adopting and achieving meaningful use of EHRs. This post focuses on how nurses are achieving meaningful use and how Electronic Health Records and nursing have evolved over time. Related: Entire series. (Source: Health IT Buzz) [Read article]
Leapfrog Hospital Safety Scores 'Depressing'
The article reports that in the Leapfrog Group's third release of hospital safety grades, overall scores rose minutely, but more hospitals got worse than got better. (Source: Health Leaders Media) [Read article]
Latest Hospital Safety Scores Show Incremental Progress in Patient Safety
When it comes to patient safety, all hospitals and U.S. states aren’t created equal, according to the newly updated Hospital Safety ScoreSM. The Spring 2013 update to the Hospital Safety Score that assigns “A,” “B,” “C,” “D” or “F” grades to more than 2,500 general hospitals in the United States showed hospitals have made only incremental progress in addressing errors, accidents, injuries and infections that kill or hurt their patients. (Source: Hospital Safety Score) [Read article]
What's In A Flu Name? H's And N's Tell A Tale
NPR: The naming of viruses isn't so easy to follow. What in the heck do all these H's and N's mean? H is short for hemagglutinin. And N is short for neuraminidase. First, we've got to cover the ABCs. (Source: NPR) [Read article]
Health Spending Slower, Docs May Deserve Credit
About 55% of the slowdown in healthcare spending since 2003 can't be attributed either to declines in private insurance from the recession that started in 2008, or to changes in Medicare payments in the last decade. Therefore, the recent slowdown in health spending instead may come from one of three factors: fewer new drugs and imaging services, increased patient cost sharing, or greater provider efficiency. (Source: MedPage Today) [Read article]
Why Your Hospital Bill Is Totally Negotiable
For the first time, the federal government revealed how much hospitals charge for 100 of the most common medical procedures. The data showed a seemingly random pricing scheme with the cost of the same procedure varying by tens of thousands of dollars from hospital to hospital. (Source: The Fiscal Times) [Read article]
