Community Benefit

With an increasing demand for home care services, home care businesses have been springing up in communities across the country. And with the rapid expansion of these largely unregulated businesses questions about the industry's hiring practices have begun to surface.

According to a new Johns Hopkins Children's Center study, hospitals can prevent one in five central-line infections by following a list of precautions and measures, encouraging families to speak up when they observe noncompliance and doing an analysis of the causes behind every infection that does occur.

Maine is often regarded as being behind the rest of the country in a lot of things, but last August, it found itself experiencing a growing healthcare business trend dubbed "Big Med."

While much attention has been paid to the role state health insurance exchanges will play in health reform, a second, quieter movement also created under the Affordable Care Act has been taking place and one that could play as significant a role in the states as the exchanges themselves - the formation of new, non-profit health insurers called Consumer Oriented and Operated Plans (CO-OPs).

That the healthcare industry is broken and needs to be fixed is a message the general public has been hearing for years. The urgency of the country's healthcare situation has so far largely failed to penetrate, but several new documentaries may change that, and that's something those in the business of healthcare need to pay attention to.

Through a new five-year initiative, UPMC will create what officials call a best-in-class data warehouse to bring together clinical, financial, administrative, genomic and other information in order to provide more personalized care.

Instead of admitting certain patients to the hospital, using observation units in hospitals can often be more efficient, result in shorter lengths-of-stay and lower costs, according to a recent study from Health Affairs.

Due to the increased risk and more time and money that is necessary for regulatory compliance, more and more hospitals and healthcare groups have acquired smaller, physician-owned practices in the last 10 years.

The nature of a healthcare organization is to help others improve their health, but it would save money and reduce turnover if these organizations also focused on their own employees by promoting healthy living and wellness for them.

How to get more medical students interested in primary care careers has been much discussed due to the primary care physician shortage and the spotlight the Affordable Care Act has placed on primary care. A new study provides insight into understanding what drives medical students away from careers in primary care.