Risk Management
The study found that only 8 percent of healthcare institutions prohibit consumer messaging apps for employee communication -- perhaps unsurprising given employees in the healthcare industry use mobile messaging more frequently than voice calling for colleagues with whom they communicate most frequently.
Going forward, the exam every medical student and new physician must take to get a license will include questions about military medicine.
Because hospital-acquired infections are a common complication and extend inpatient stays, hospitals actually save money by building costly, single-patient rooms, according to a new study by Cornell University.
Over the next five years, U.S. health systems stand to lose a total of $305 billion from coordinated cyberattacks, according to Accenture. Even worse, their patients are at big financial risk themselves.
Advocate Health Care's South Suburban Hospital in Chicago will pay $10.4 million after a court ruled that negligence in administering blood pressure medication resulted in permanent disfigurement of a surgical patient.
Dedicated funding is needed for research, the report says, and hospitals and doctors need to develop better ways to identify, reduce and learn from "near misses."
Hospital operator Sutter Health last week said personal information on more than 2,500 patients was improperly emailed by a former employee in 2013, representing a possible breach of patient data.
As a Standard & Poor's report finds many insurers are missing the mark on their risk-adjustment predictions, a new partnership between population health management consultant Evolent Health and Health Fidelity, which develops technology to steer providers towards value-based care, aims to fill the gap.
New York health plan Excellus BlueCross BlueShield on Wednesday said it was a victim of a cyberattack that affected 10.5 million beneficiaries. Even worse, the plan said hackers had access to information systems for more than a year and a half before the health plan even noticed the cyberattack had occurred.
Cancer Care Group, a large radiation oncology practice in Indianapolis, is reevaluating its privacy and security practices after it was slapped with a $750,000 HIPAA settlement from the Department of Health and Human Services. It agreed to pay the sum to settle alleged HIPAA violations involving a breach that occurred three years ago.