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Soft-tissue rheumatism often is a challenging disorder for the primary care physicians. The patient's symptoms often are vague, and the physical examination and laboratory testing often do not give comforting confirmatory findings. This issue reviews common conditions that afflict many of our patients and that, although often not serious, cause significant distress and morbidity. With the proper history and attention to presenting features, effective and professionally rewarding treatments are available.
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5-α reductase inhibitors and hip fracture in men; the effects of drug-reimbursement policy on outcomes; new guidelines for type 2 diabetes; beta-blocker-associated brady-cardia is linked to CVD events; FDA Updates.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that a final rule will appear in the Nov. 18, 2008, Federal Register detailing changes to the agency's outpatient ambulatory surgical center (ASC) payment system.
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An unlucky 13 out of every 1,000 inpatients in recently surveyed hospitals were either infected or colonized with Clostridium difficile, a rate that is 6.5 to 20 times higher than previous incidence estimates.
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(Editor's note: The following frequently asked questions were posted on The Joint Commission web site regarding the issue of health care-associated infections and sentinel events. They were marked as most recently reviewed in March 2008.)
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Conducting an inspection in a Las Vegas endoscopy clinic shortly before it became the epicenter of the largest "look-back" patient testing effort in medical history, inspectors for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services saw nothing amiss with needle practices that ultimately led to a nationally publicized hepatitis C outbreak, Hospital Infection Control & Prevention has learned.
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A survey tool to assess infection control in ambulatory care settings was created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for use by inspectors for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
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The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) has announced the launch of APIC Consulting Services Inc.
