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The Joint Commission has strongly endorsed recently issued compendium infection prevention guidelines, announcing that the condensed, actionable recommendations may become required as accreditation standards by 2010.
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Concerns regarding patient safety have produced numerous pieces of new legislation focused on infection control surveillance and reporting of antibiotic-resistant organisms in healthcare facilities nationwide.
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Sometimes you have to work fast to keep up with a new infection preventionist in career transition.
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As infection prevention enters a new era of transparency, regulatory activity, and consumer activism, unprecedented demands are being placed on a profession that long labored in relative obscurity.
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It's a common misconception held by many Americans: If you're poor, Medicaid is available to you. In many cases, that's just not true.
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Expanding coverage to more than 720,000 people who otherwise would not have coverage — this and other achievements were made possible because Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich made health care a top priority since he took office in 2003, according to Theresa Eagleson, the state's Medicaid director.
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A just-published report on state efforts to cover low-income adults without children found something encouraging. Researchers looked at all 50 states to see whether policies were in place to subsidize coverage for childless adults. They found that almost half of states had some type of program in place.
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It's the "perfect storm" for working families—soaring gas and food prices, declining home values, and skyrocketing health care costs.
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"Medical debt has been increasing over the past 15 years. In our state, that number has increased dramatically over this time," says Robert A. Crittenden, MD, MPH, a professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine and chief of the family medicine service at Harborview Medical Center, both in Seattle. "With the economic downturn, this is an even bigger issue. More families are facing unaffordable debt."
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The Access Project's Medical Debt Resolution Program worked with 187 people in the state of Massachusetts between September 2006 and April 2008 with a combined medical debt of over $2 million. Medical debt was resolved in a variety of ways—by informing people about their insurance appeal rights, and eligibility standards for public programs, and also by negotiating payment arrangements with medical providers. While some of these cases are ongoing, over $1 million of the debt was retired.
