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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued guidance advising states that hospital workers and others caring for patients infected with the monkeypox virus and close contacts of people or animals confirmed to have the virus should receive a smallpox vaccination to protect against the possibility of contracting the illness.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has published two proposed rules in the Federal Register to enhance worker protections from respiratory hazards on the job.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a 3.3% increase in Medicare payment rates to home health agencies for fiscal year 2004.
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Although health care organizations are using innovative strategies to recruit and retain nurses and federal, state, and local government agencies are providing financial support to help alleviate shortages, the national nursing shortage will continue to be one of the greatest challenges to the health care industry for many years, according to a report issued by Fitch Ratings, an international credit rating agency based in New York City.
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When the case managers at HealthPartners work with patients who are at risk for clinical complications, they focus on helping their clients meet personal goals, not those of the health care organization.
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When a member of Worcester, MA-based Fallon Community Health Plan is newly diagnosed with HIV-AIDS, the first person he or she is likely to see is Rita Wesolowski, RN, BSN, ACRN, the HIV-AIDS on-site care manager.
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There are two critical times when patients newly diagnosed with depression are likely to stop taking their medicine the early weeks of treatment and after three months when they start to feel better, says Laura Schneider, LSCW, CEAP, manager of assistance programs and the Taking Charge of Depression Program for PacifiCare Behavioral Health.
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Before Health Plan Alliance started HeartSmart Sisters, a cardiovascular disease management program, the health plan held focus groups to determine what interventions would be most effective with its targeted group, African-American women.
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To alleviate the problem of social admissions from the emergency department, Northeast Medical Center in Concord, NC, established an ED case management staff and made arrangement with local assisted living facilities to admit patients directly from the ED.
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Before Thomas Hospital in Fairhope, AL, redesigned its case management program, nurses from two separate departments social services and utilization review performed case management-type functions. In 2002, the hospital hired a division director to redesign its case management program and oversee the social work, discharge planning, and utilization review functions.
