SHM & Hospital Medicine in the News: January 18, 2018
Check out the latest hospital medicine and SHM-related stories in mainstream and healthcare news. For the full stories, click on the links below:
- SHM is one of three associations to endorse the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America’s (SHEA) new expert guidance statement on contact precautions for drug-resistant infections.
- Danielle Scheurer, MD, MSCR, SFHM’s blog post “Do Hospitalists Improve Patient Outcomes?” was reposted on com.
- Journal of Hospital Medicine article on implementing a best-practices notetaking program for physicians was highlighted in Medical Xpress.
- In a blog post from the American Journal of Managed Care outlines the successes of the APP integration model at Adfinitas Health, built upon the curriculum designed by SHM.
New Expert Guidance on Contact Precautions for Drug-Resistant Infections
New expert guidance released today by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America advises hospitals on determining when they can safely discontinue contact precautions for patients with multi-drug resistant bacteria. The framework, published in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, addresses how long hospital staff should use these safety protocols to reduce the spread of potentially deadly organisms within the hospital, in most cases ranging from one to three negative cultures prior to discontinuation. The guidance also outlines the use of molecular testing that is guiding these care decisions.
January 11, 2018
EurekAlert
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Do Hospitalists Really Improve Patient Outcomes?
Long continues the debate of what impact hospitalists have on inpatient outcomes. This issue has been playing out in the medical literature for 20 years, since the coining of the term in 1997. In the most recent iteration of the debate, a study was recently published in JAMA Internal Medicine entitled “Comparison of Hospital Resource Use and Outcomes Among Hospitalists, Primary Care Physicians, and Other Generalists.”
December 18, 2017
KevinMD.com
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Study Shows Doctors Record Better Notes After Using Best-Practices Program
The quality and efficiency of notes doctors took about their patients improved when they received education and guidelines that emphasized best practices. In a study led by UCLA researchers, physicians were instructed to document only what was relevant for that day and were discouraged from using some common tools that are intended to make note-taking more efficient. During the study period, physicians produced shorter, higher quality notes and completed the notes earlier in the day. By limiting the efficiency tools, note writing actually became more efficient.
January 17, 2018
Medical Xpress
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Mid-Atlantic Hospitalist Group Expands With Like-Minded Firm, Expects to See Additional Growth Opportunities
In 2017, large healthcare mergers dominated the headlines, but as 2018 begins, a smaller player in the hospitalist space made its first acquisition, for the same reasons as its bigger relatives.
Adfinitas Health is the largest private hospitalist group in the Mid-Atlantic region, operating in Maryland and Virginia, as well as Michigan. Earlier this week it announced it moved into the Pennsylvania market by acquiring the majority of Advanced Inpatient Medicine (AIM). Terms were not disclosed.
January 11, 2018
AJMC In Focus Blog
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