Patient Engagement
One in five Americans is estimated to have a mental health condition at any given time. But getting treatment remains difficult -- and it's worse for children, especially those who identify as black or Hispanic.
Following a data breach that compromised the medical information of hundreds of thousands of patients, Athens Orthopedic Clinic says they cannot pay for credit monitoring for those affected.
As the number of states allowing medical marijuana grows -- the total has reached 25 plus the District of Columbia -- some are working to address this knowledge gap with physician training programs.
The Minnesota Hospital Association released a study Friday that shows significant shortcomings in patients getting appropriate care for mental health issues in their hospitals.
Elderly and disabled Californians were less likely to go to the emergency room or be hospitalized after their in-home caregivers participated in an intensive training program, according to a report.
According to an analysis published Monday in Health Affairs, more than a third of the nation's hospitals in 2013 did not offer patients similar language assistance. In areas with the greatest need, about 25 percent of facilities failed to provide such services.
About one-third of patients over 70 years old and more than half of patients over 85 leave the hospital more disabled than when they arrived, research shows.
Because physicians who treat addiction don't necessarily have experience with surgery or access to sterile spaces, some are having to learn a new skill and develop new systems.
A California bill that would allow certified nurse-midwives to practice independently is pitting the state's doctors against its hospitals, even though both sides support the main goal of the legislation.
Even for states that have managed to institute some kind of method for consumers to compare prices for healthcare services, patients have few options for finding current pricing on common procedures. That's what a study from the nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen shows.