Health Care Reform (Page 3)

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In: Activism, Health Care Reform, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Minnesota Nurses Association, Nurses, Organizing, Patient Safety, Unsafe Staffing

NOTES ON NURSING

More Cancer Specialist Nurses Improve Hospital Care   Patients of better staffed trusts were more likely to report that people treating and caring for them worked well together and they received enough emotional support during outpatient treatment.

HEALTH CARE NEWS

Obamacare Postpones Employer Mandate for a Year    Employers who don’t provide health insurance will be spared penalties of up to $3,000 per worker until 2015, a one-year delay of a major component of President Barack Obama’s health care reform law.

Kickstart Your Medical Bills   The Kennett family of Alexandria is one of thousands turning to the Internet to raise money for medical bills.
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, July 3, 2013: Nurses, staffing, special skills combine to improve care for cancer patients  »

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In: Health Care Reform, Healthcare, Hospitals, Minnesota Nurses Association, Nurses, Nursing, Patient Safety

NOTES ON NURSING

sisters-of-mercy-painting_420Union Army’s Top Nurses Were Nuns   This insight honors the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.    The Daughters of Charity at their provincial house in Emmitsburg, Md., could hear the cannons of Pickett’s Charge 10 miles off. They helped their chaplain pack a wagon with medical supplies and, when the cannons were silenced, a dozen sisters rode with him to tend to the wounded.

HEALTH CARE NEWS

Hospitals Reward CEOs for Profit Over Quality    Across the nation, boards at nonprofit hospitals such as Valley are often paying bosses much more for boosting volume rather than delivering value, according to interviews with compensation consultants and an examination of CEOs’ employment contracts and bonus packages.
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, July 1, 2013: Nuns as nurses in Civil War; How bogus are patient satisfaction scores  »

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In: Activism, Bargaining, Health Care Reform, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Minnesota Nurses Association, National Nurses United, Nurses, Nursing

NOTES ON NURSING

MNA at the 2013 Staff Nurse Assembly   Minnesota nurses made up one of the biggest collections of delegates at the annual National Nurses United conference in San Francisco.

Global Nurses United of Nurse, Healthcare Unions, Born   Leaders of the premiere nurses and health care workers unions in 14 nations in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe have announced plans to form a new international organization to step up the fight against the harmful effects of austerity measures, privatization, and cuts in health care services that they say are putting people and communities at risk across the planet.
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, June 26, 2013  »

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In: Health Care Reform, Healthcare, Nurses, Nursing

NOTES ON NURSING

Approaching Death    A nurse goes from the ER to a hospice, and changes the way she thinks about life and its end.

AACN Issues Practice Alert on Alarm Management   A new practice alert from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses outlines evidence-based protocols to reduce false or non-actionable alarms and improve the effective use of these monitoring aids.

LABOR UPDATES

Supreme Court Weakens Chances of Workers Winning Employment Discrimination Cases   By restricting who counts as a supervisor, the Court has handed employers a victory.

HEALTH CARE NEWS

Health of U.S.
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, June 24, 2013: Nurses and Hospice care; SCOTUS weakens workers’  »

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In: Activism, Health Care Reform, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Minnesota Nurses Association, National Nurses United, Nurses, Nursing, Patient Safety

NOTES ON NURSING

SF BridgeNurses Take Activism Beyond the Bedside   Nurses and environmental activists from across the U.S. are joining hands this week to step up the message that there is still time to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline before it stops all of us.

St. Louis University Hospital RNs Win First Contract   Registered nurses at Saint Louis University Hospital (SLUH) have won their first ever collective bargaining agreement with a new three year contract that provides for significant improvements in patient care protections, compensation, and job protections.

HEALTH CARE

AMA Recognizes Obesity as a Disease   Experts in obesity have struggled for years to have obesity recognized as a disease that deserves medical attention and insurance coverage as do other diseases.
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, June 19, 2013: Nurses march; Jobs gap for Black Americans  »

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In: Activism, Health Care Reform, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Minnesota Nurses Association, Nurses, Nursing, Patient Safety, Unsafe Staffing

LABOR UPDATES

OSHA To Investigate 2nd Plant Explosion in Louisiana    OSHA had cited the company for 14 alleged safety and health violations, 12 of which were described by the agency as serious.

HEALTH CARE

FBI:  Chicago Patients Suffer as For-Profit Hospital Frauds Medicare  “This complaint alleges the hospital and doctors were performing unnecessary invasive surgery to justify false billing.”

Children’s Hospitals Well-Positioned to Handle Reform  Standalone children’s hospitals have the financial fortitude to take reform challenges head on, according to a report from Fitch Ratings.

NOTES ON NURSING

Fewer Nurses, More Assistants in Montreal OR   At the end of that presentation, Richard Fahey, MUHC director of public affairs, handed journalists a USB stick containing nearly 600 pages of budget documents that spell out the cuts.
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, June 17, 2013: Patients suffer as hospital profits; LA plant where workers died was cited previously  »

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In: Activism, Health Care Reform, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Minnesota Nurses Association, Nurses, Nursing, Patient Safety, Unsafe Staffing

NOTES ON NURSING

AHRQ Seeks Comments From Patients to Help Develop Patient Safety Reporting System   There is a growing body of evidence that many adverse medical events go unreported in current systems.  One important reason for this reporting gap is that most reporting systems do not presently accept or elicit reports from patients and their families. AHRQ recognizes that the unique perspective of health care consumers could reveal important information that is not reported by health care providers. NOTE: Comment deadline is July 8, 2013

On the Wings of a Nightingale  Today I ran into a Mexican restaurant to grab a quick lunch, and as I ate my meal I came across a table of nurses wearing hospital scrubs.
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, June 10, 2013: Long-term damage to health research from budget cuts  »

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In: Health Care Reform, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Legislative Policy, Minnesota Nurses Association, Nurses, Nursing, Patient Safety, Unsafe Staffing

NOTES ON NURSING

MNA OpED:  Law Change Will Benefit Patients   (originally published in the New Ulm Journal)  Everyone who’s a patient in a hospital, who might be a patient in a hospital, or who cares about somebody in a hospital will be grateful that the Staffing Plan Disclosure Act was signed into law on May 9.

A Shared Concern:  Flight Attendant Fatigue Poses Safety Risks   Flight attendants exhausted from long hours and little rest have forgotten to engage or disarm emergency chutes, failed to properly stow baggage and carry out other safety duties.
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, May 29, 2013:  »

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In: Health Care Reform, Healthcare, Hospitals, Labor Unions, Minnesota Nurses Association, Nurses, Patient Safety, Unsafe Staffing

NOTES ON NURSING

Expert Affirms Nurses’s Warnings About Electronic Health Records System   At a meeting of the Marin Healthcare District board on May 14, a group of Marin General nurses told the board problems with the new computer system were diverting them from their patients and causing errors, such as sending orders to the wrong patients. One nurse reported that a patient had received a medication to which he was allergic.

Worst Times to be Admitted for Heart Attack.  Hint: Involves Nurse Staffing   It’s possible that staffing issues at hospitals during these times are part of the problem; patients who come into the hospitals just before the weekend and late at night may see fewer nursing staff members and this could contribute to less attention that may impact care.
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, May 28, 2013: Nurses warn about electronic health system; The Obamacare shock  »

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In: Health Care Reform, Healthcare, Minnesota Nurses Association, Nurses, Nursing, Uncategorized

HEALTH CARE

Is the Future of American Health Care in Oregon?   “The governor has a notion that you can move away from medical billing and towards a more flexible approach to health-care spending that makes more sense for the community,” John McConnell, a health economist at Oregon Health and Science University, is telling me. Then he stops. “You’ve heard the air conditioner story, right?”

Medicaid Opposition Underscores States’ Health Care Disparities   Republican opposition in many statehouses to expanding Medicaid next year under President Obama‘s healthcare law — opposition that could leave millions of the nation’s poorest residents without insurance coverage — will likely widen the divide between the nation’s healthiest and sickest states.
… Read more about: MNA NewsScan, May 20, 2013: MN health care innovation cuts costs for the poor; poverty up in the suburbs  »