Tag: Pandemic

EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 2/16/23

EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 2/16/23

HIStalk

As we approach the end of the declared emergency surrounding the COVID pandemic, it will be important to assess how shifts in healthcare policies including those involving payment, access, and prescription medications will impact health outcomes.
A recent article in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Maternal-Fetal Medicine looked at hos telehealth care impacted racial disparities in visit attendance during the pandemic. As background, the US has a terrible track record for maternal care, with maternal mortality rates that are significantly higher than other high-income countries. Additionally, in the US black woman are more likely to die during pregnancy and…

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How to Leverage Diagnostic Development to Guard Against RSV, Flu and Covid-19 [Sponsored]

How to Leverage Diagnostic Development to Guard Against RSV, Flu and Covid-19 [Sponsored]

MedCity News

For the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals focused on understanding the Covid-19 virus, how best to guard against it, and developing tests to detect it. They also tracked, aggregated, and analyzed health data to assess and monitor the public health threat on a regional, state and country-wide level. In the longer term, vaccine development and distribution were used to slow the spread to avoid a collapse of the health system and to reduce the potency of the virus for the majority of people.
More recently, attention has shifted to the long perceived threat of viruses coming together with…

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Blood Biotech Grifols Cuts Deep in the U.S. to Find €400M in Savings

Blood Biotech Grifols Cuts Deep in the U.S. to Find €400M in Savings

MedCity News

Grifols, a company that turns blood plasma into therapies for immunological disorders and other conditions, is laying off about 2,000 U.S. workers as part of a corporate restructuring projected to yield up to €400 million in annual cost savings, the biotech announced Wednesday.
The layoffs represent about 8% of the Barcelona-based company’s global workforce, but they will happen mainly in its U.S. plasma operations. That’s notable because as a company that relies on plasma, the U.S. is vital to its business. The starting point for Grifols’s therapies is blood plasma. Key to its drug-making process is fractionation, in which the protein components…

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The Path Forward for Healthcare’s People Matching Problem

The Path Forward for Healthcare’s People Matching Problem

Healthcare IT Today

The following is a guest article by Rachel Podczervinski MS, RHIA, Vice President of Professional Services at Harris Data Integrity Solutions.
Efforts to identify the right path forward for healthcare’s patient matching problem are gaining a foothold as stakeholders from across the spectrum come together to remove obstacles and implement effective solutions. Most notably, in 2022, efforts by industry organizations like Patient ID Now led to the temporary removal of Section 510 from the U.S. House and Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) appropriations bills. While it was ultimately reinserted in the final version, its initial removal…

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Hurdle, CloudLIMS Partner to Augment Diagnostic Lab Capabilities

Hurdle, CloudLIMS Partner to Augment Diagnostic Lab Capabilities

HIT Consultant

What You Should Know:– Hurdle (a Chronomics Inc. brand), a global bio-infrastructure platform that powers end-to-end diagnostics for life sciences, labs and healthcare providers, and CloudLIMS, a leading SOC 2 compliant and ISO 9001:2015 certified lab informatics provider, announced today that the companies have entered into a strategic partnership marking the first integration between a Diagnostic as a Service (DaaS) platform and a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) LIMS provider.– The partnership brings together Hurdle’s remote diagnostic platform and CloudLIMS’s secure, purpose-built diagnostics LIMS to empower labs with the ability to offer at-home tests, and manage lab processes and data efficiently.Helping Diagnostic Labs Stay…

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RTLS Can Enhance the Patient Experience, Staff Safety, and Workflow Operations in 2023

RTLS Can Enhance the Patient Experience, Staff Safety, and Workflow Operations in 2023

HIT Consultant

Scott Hondros, MHA, SCPM, VP of Professional Services at CenTrakAlthough the healthcare industry has shown significant resilience, the byproduct of the pandemic has amplified staff stressors across all operational and clinical roles. In a study conducted in 2022, more than one-third (34%) of the participating registered nurses (RN) stated that it was likely they would leave bedside nursing by the end of the year. Almost half (44%) cited both burnout and high-stress environments as their main reasons to retire or pursue other careers. As staff shortages increase, so do workloads. Forty-three percent of the nurses that responded to Hospital IQ’s recent survey…

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Why healthcare leaders should embrace home-based technologies

Why healthcare leaders should embrace home-based technologies

Healthcare IT news

Home health technologies will have an increasingly larger role to play in healthcare delivery as the silver tsunami of the aging population strain the system. And if more consumers embrace preventative care that can easily be done in the home.It’s important to understand that home health technologies are leveraged in home health settings by clinicians for home health patients, and at-home or home-based health technologies are diagnostic and/or screening tools that can be used in non-clinical settings for the purpose of understanding overall health conditions.
Home-based health technologies are any preventive care technology tool that elevates health. This includes tools like blood…

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Indian healthcare chiefs doubt their cybersecurity capability: report

Indian healthcare chiefs doubt their cybersecurity capability: report

Healthcare IT news

A new survey report in India has gauged the stances of healthcare leaders on their use of technology in an effort to yield operational efficiencies, enhance service delivery, and improve health outcomes. More than 50 respondents, who are mostly chief executives of multi-site hospitals based in metropolitan cities, were polled by Grant Thornton Bharat and the Association of Healthcare Providers (India) in the said report titled “Technology transformation for future-ready healthcare.”
FINDINGS
The survey revealed that around eight in 10 respondents are increasing their digital and technology budget in the next 12 months. One major area of investment is 5G technology, which is noted for…

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Few Managed Care Plans Have Current Contact Info for Medicaid Members as Redeterminations Loom

Few Managed Care Plans Have Current Contact Info for Medicaid Members as Redeterminations Loom

MedCity News

Just about one-third of managed care plans have verified or current contact information for between 76% and 100% of their Medicaid members, a recent survey found. 
The news comes as the Medicaid continuous enrollment provision is set to expire March 31 due to the Consolidated Appropriations Act. The requirement was part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and banned states from disenrolling people from Medicaid during the public health emergency (although the Consolidated Appropriations Act separated the requirement from the PHE, which will end in May). Starting April 1, states can resume disenrollments and Medicaid enrollees will have to undergo the…

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We’re Feeling the Effects of the Nursing Shortage. Technology Can Help.

We’re Feeling the Effects of the Nursing Shortage. Technology Can Help.

MedCity News

The healthcare industry is in desperate need of nurses — and fast. Chances are this isn’t news to you. You’ve seen the countless headlines covering the impact the pandemic has had on nurses, and how that nursing shortage has impacted employment numbers, healthcare facilities, and patient care.
Nurses are burnt out. They’re stressed, exhausted, and struggling to find adequate mental health support. But the pandemic isn’t the only issue to blame. Experts are predicting that over 1 million RNs will likely retire by 2030, which will only add to the heaviness of the nursing shortage. An overly-stressed out and aging workforce of…

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