Who says there’s no more creativity in American business?

Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder named for German physician Alois Alzheimer, who first described it in 1906. (He forgot about it shortly thereafter.  Kidding!)  Alzheimer’s is a progressive and fatal brain disease. As many as 5.3 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s destroys brain cells, causing memory [...]]]> Source:  AARP Bulletin, July 2010

Who says there’s no more creativity in American business?

Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder named for German physician Alois Alzheimer, who first described it in 1906. (He forgot about it shortly thereafter.  Kidding!)  Alzheimer’s is a progressive and fatal brain disease. As many as 5.3 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s destroys brain cells, causing memory loss and problems with thinking and behavior severe enough to affect work, lifelong hobbies or social life.  It is the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States.

The most common form of the disease is dementia (general memory loss) which interferes with daily life.  The disease is currently without a cure.

A small company in Philadelphia (of all places), Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, has offered information on a radioactive dye which may be used in connection with currently existing PET scan technology.  The dye “sticks” to the plaques (a protein known as beta-amyloid) on the brain which are associated with Alzheimer’s and appear whiter on the scan.  Reportedly, the dye finds and highlights plaques in 97% of the PET scans.

The test, if approved for marketing by the US Food & Drug Administration, could help diagnose the disease in its early stages to allow for medical intervention.  For those suffering along with a family member who has Alzheimer’s the value of added time can not be denied.

~Posted by D.M. Schwadron, Esquire

The US Department of Health and Human Services is a broad agency.  One of it’s charges is the administration of Medicare and Medicaid.  In this time of financial unrest, one of the measures taken by the Department is to reduce the amount of reimbursement to [...]]]> Source:  The US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

The US Department of Health and Human Services is a broad agency.  One of it’s charges is the administration of Medicare and Medicaid.  In this time of financial unrest, one of the measures taken by the Department is to reduce the amount of reimbursement to hospitals.  How does one do that?  by identifying things which occur in hospitals that are “reasonably preventable” of course.  Let’s review the Government’s own top 10 list of HAC’s or Hospital Acquired Conditions.

Section 5001(c) of Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 requires the Secretary to identify conditions that are:  (a) high cost or high volume or both, (b) result in the assignment of a case to a DRG that has a higher payment when present as a secondary diagnosis, and (c) could reasonably have been prevented through the application of evidence‑based guidelines.

The Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 Final Rule, CMS included 10 categories of conditions that were selected for the HAC payment provision.  The IPPS FY 2009 Final Rule is available in the Statute/Regulations/Program Instructions section, accessible through the navigation menu at left.

The 10 categories of HACs include:

1. Foreign Object Retained After Surgery (Seriously? Still number 1 after all these years?)
2. Air Embolism
3. Blood Incompatibility
4. Stage III and IV Pressure Ulcers (Also a big Nursing Home Issue)
5. Falls and Trauma
   • Fractures
   • Dislocations
   • Intracranial Injuries
   • Crushing Injuries
   • Burns
   • Electric Shock
6. Manifestations of Poor Glycemic Control  (If you’re in the hospital they should be controlling this)
   • Diabetic Ketoacidosis
   • Nonketotic Hyperosmolar Coma
   • Hypoglycemic Coma
   • Secondary Diabetes with Ketoacidosis
   • Secondary Diabetes with Hyperosmolarity
7. Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection (Common and preventable)
8. Vascular Catheter-Associated Infection
9. Surgical Site Infection Following:
   • Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) – Mediastinitis
   • Bariatric Surgery
     • Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass
     • Gastroenterostomy
     • Laparoscopic Gastric Restrictive Surgery
   • Orthopedic Procedures
     • Spine
     • Neck
     • Shoulder
     • Elbow
10. Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT)/Pulmonary Embolism (PE)

We aren’t suggesting that everything hospitals do is incorrect.  However, if the US Government is limiting reimbursement or withholding reimbursement to hospitals when these incidents occur then it may be a good indicator that a hospital has committed an act of malpractice.

~Posted by D.M. Schwadron, Esquire

Roughly equivalent to our JCoHA (Joint Commission) here in the US, the NPSA has been taking notes on the administration of medications in English and Welsh Hospitals.  Their findings?  In every hospital in England and Wales, there were reports of patients not receiving their medications on time or [...]]]> Source: BBC Health; National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA)

Roughly equivalent to our JCoHA (Joint Commission) here in the US, the NPSA has been taking notes on the administration of medications in English and Welsh Hospitals.  Their findings?  In every hospital in England and Wales, there were reports of patients not receiving their medications on time or at all.

From 9/06 to 6/09, the NPSA recorded reports of 68 cases of severe injury and 27 deaths with an additional 21,000 cases of drug administration delays or non-administration.  Since reports to the NPSA are voluntary, the organization believes that these figures are underestimated.

Alarmingly, antibiotics (drugs to treat infection) and anticoagulants (blood thinners) and cardiac drugs are the most likely to harm patients if missed.  Although even antidepressants and Parkinson’s Disease drugs can have dramatic effects upon patient wellness if they are not timely received.

And if this is happening in England and Wales, consider the implications for an area as populated as the US with all of its hospitals and nursing home facilities.

~Posted by D.M. Schwadron, Esquire

In 2004 a National Survey was conducted of Nursing homes in the U.S.  Unfortunately this is the most recent comprehensive study of its type.  Among the Data from the National Nursing Home Survey, 2004 was the following: