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

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

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

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

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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What Is PHI, and How Can Healthcare Organizations Keep It Secure?

What Is PHI, and How Can Healthcare Organizations Keep It Secure?

What Is Protected Health Information?According to UC Berkeley’s Human Research Protection Program, PHI includes any information found in medical records or clinical data sets that can be used to identify an individual. In addition, this information must have been collected, used or disclosed while providing a healthcare service. PHI can be used during the diagnosis or treatment of a patient or in clinical research processes.
The HIPAA Privacy Rule and Security Rule require the protection of identifiable health information, such as:
Information collected by doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers in the medical record
Conversations between doctors and other healthcare providers about a patient’s…

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GSK’s Covid-19 Valentine to Vir Biotech: ‘You Can Go Your Own Way’

GSK’s Covid-19 Valentine to Vir Biotech: ‘You Can Go Your Own Way’

Vir Biotechnology’s Covid-19 research may yield more drugs and perhaps a vaccine, but no longer with the financial support of GSK. The collaboration agreement the two companies struck up in the early days of the pandemic has been amended, leaving Vir to either find another partner or continue its coronavirus research on its own.
The alliance did successfully develop the Covid-19 drug sotrovimab. GSK and Vir will continue to share responsibilities for that drug, which is available under the brand name Xevudy in more than 40 countries. The U.S. is no longer one of them. Last April, the FDA withdrew emergency authorization…

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Electrochemical Sensor for Detailed SARS-CoV-2 Immunity Data

Electrochemical Sensor for Detailed SARS-CoV-2 Immunity Data

Researchers at the Harvard Wyss Institute have developed an electrochemical device, called the eRapid sensor, that can assist clinicians in quickly characterizing someone’s COVID-19 infection, including identifying the infecting viral variant and the nature of someone’s immunity to the virus in terms of whether it is vaccine-mediated or natural immunity. Monitoring these characteristics could help to personalize treatment for individuals and also provide data for drug development and inform government decisions on the best way to manage COVID-19 in the community. When antibodies from a blood sample bind within the device, it precipitates a biochemical cascade that affects the electrical […]…

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How Mental Healthcare Access can Improve to Meet Patient Needs

How Mental Healthcare Access can Improve to Meet Patient Needs

– Meeting patient needs for mental healthcare access will require industry leaders, clinicians, and healthcare policymakers to focus on giving clinicians the tools needed to meet patients in any care setting, as well as enable more ample access to mental healthcare providers, according to a new paper from the Alliance for Patient Access (AfPA). More patients than ever are seeking mental healthcare, with AfPA citing figures that 53 million Americans now live with some kind of mental illness. Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this prevalence of mental illness has pushed the mental health space to face unheard-of patient demand. But patients…

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The Real Reason Patients Continue to Defer Care

The Real Reason Patients Continue to Defer Care

It’s no secret that patient volumes in 2022 were below expectations. NRC Health, recently found that 27% of patients are actively deferring their care in 2022. Why are so many patients putting off their care? The primary reason in 2022 was not fear of COVID-19. Instead, it was financial concerns that kept patients away. Until healthcare organizations address this, patients may continue to defer their care. Healthcare IT Today sat down with Ryan Donohue, Strategic Advisor at NRC Health, to dig deeper into the company’s findings and to discuss how healthcare organizations can motivate patients to return. Learn more about NRC…

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An inside look at AdventHealth's powerful telemedicine program

An inside look at AdventHealth’s powerful telemedicine program

Most healthcare consumers have experienced certain pain points in receiving care for family and friends.THE PROBLEM
Patient access is a top priority for AdventHealth, a health system based in Altamonte Springs, Florida. For the health system, improving the way it delivers care to patients starts with meeting them at the place of their needs.
“Looking for ways to solve for bringing the right care to the right patient at the right place and time is imperative to stay ahead of the ever-changing landscape,” said Ashley Bard, IT director, care navigation and virtual care technology, at AdventHealth. “In recent years, our users of healthcare…

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Mining EHR data to understand documentation burnout

Mining EHR data to understand documentation burnout

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information found that hospitals’ access and analysis of documentation data in electronic health records has increased over the past five years, but gaps in access and use remain for some hospitals.WHY IT MATTERSData from EHRs can track the time clinicians spend documenting and carrying out certain tasks. To measure physician burden on a national scale, ONC analyzed four waves of a nationally representative survey of U.S. non-federal acute care hospitals.
Published in January, in the special health IT issue of the American Journal of Managed Care, Trends in Electronic Health Record Capabilities for Tracking…

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