Clostridium difficile, abbreviated as C. difficile, is just one of the many infections that are common in nursing homes. Caused by inflammation of the colon, some symptoms include diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, fever, and cramping. Because residents of skilled nursing facilities live in such close quarters, infections are…
Recently, as reported by The Baltimore Sun on January 12, 2012, certain health care groups have been engaging in a practice called “upcoding.” This increasingly prevalent practice involves healthcare providers reporting more serious medical conditions to the government, in order to receive higher reimbursement rates. In this specific case, an…
On January 10, 2012, Bloomberg News featured a story about Omnicare, a pharmaceutical company, that adjusted its billing records and reported false information to government health programs, such as Medicare and Medi-Cal, in order to increase its own profits. According to the report, the government may have lost millions of…
In the January issue of the Journal of American Medical Directors Association, an article titled “When is a Chronic Wound Infected?” studies various methods of determining when a chronic wound is infected and judges which of these methods is most accurate. The article begins by explaining that the skin is…
On December 22, 2011, The Seattle Times published an article, titled “Medical; Patients, Doctors Differ on High-Quality Care,” about patient-centered medical homes. Although a survey on the satisfaction of patients showed that they were generally satisfied with their physicians, a recent study conducted by the Health Service Research Journal reported…
A new Medicare program is aimed at reducing medical costs, while improving quality of care for the elderly, The Arizona Republic reported on December 20, 2011. Instead of paying doctors after each patient visit, the new health initiative gives health providers a budget within which they must work. The only…
On December 14, 2011, Modern Healthcare reported the dangers of extended hours and long shifts in healthcare facilities. While the correlation between exhaustion and increased error may seem obvious, many nurses have difficulty accepting this truth and determining the point at which their fatigue may lead to fatal consequences. The…
On December 11, 2011, the Detroit Free Press published a series of articles investigating nursing home neglect. The first article, titled “Nursing Homes with Good Staff, Stopgaps Can Still Fail”, reports the accidental death of a man as a direct result of nursing home neglect. After having an accident, James…
On December 11, 2011, the Associated Press reported that three nurses were convicted of tampering with their patient’s drugs. All three nurses had been previously convicted of various drug-related crimes and yet were still able to secure jobs at skilled nursing facilities. One nurse, previously convicted for forging prescriptions, was…
The prevalence of diabetes is increasing exponentially in the American population. In nursing homes alone, it has been found that 20 percent of adults between the ages of sixty-five and seventy-five suffer from diabetes, and that 40 percent of adults over the age of eighty suffer from this common illness.…