Editor’s note: As states prepare for Hurricane Milton, at least 223 people have died and hundreds are still unaccounted for in the destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene on Sept. 26. North and South Carolina, as well as Tennessee, were hard hit, and the U.S. medical system is being tested. Headlines include: “Helene Nearly Turned a…
Hurricane Ida intensified in the last two weeks of August 2021, battering the Cayman Islands and Cuba before hitting the Louisiana coast as a Category 4 storm just before Labor Day weekend.1 At landfall, Ida blasted southern Louisiana with maximum sustained winds of 150 knots, then turned in a north-northwestern direction to hit the New…
CHICAGO—“You never know when things might happen,” began Kamala M. Nola PharmD, MS, vice chair and professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Lipscomb College of Pharmacy, Nashville, at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. Dr. Nola explained that on May 1, 2010, the Arthritis Foundation Arthritis Walk held on her university’s campus was moved…
Many rheumatology patients have complex conditions and require the added expertise of colleagues in other fields, such as pulmonology, neurology or dermatology. This is even more true when patients with complex care issues are referred to academic medical centers. At such centers, patients often travel hours for an appointment and see more than one provider….
(Reuters Health)—Many outcomes for hospital patients—including how long they stay and their survival odds after they go home—may depend on whether or not they’re cared for by their primary care physician, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers examined data on 560,651 admissions nationwide for patients covered by Medicare, the U.S. health program for the elderly and…
Running a rheumatology practice can be expensive. Here are some tips to save money on expenses, while still investing in the growth of your practice and avoiding penny pinching…
(Reuters Health)—Academic medical centers, increasingly spurned by insurers for being more expensive than community hospitals, appear to have lower death rates for older adults than other facilities, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers reviewed millions of records for patients aged 65 and older and insured by Medicare, the U.S. health program for the elderly. They found…
LONDON (Reuters)—Hospitals and doctors’ surgeries across England were forced to turn away patients and cancel appointments on Friday after a nationwide ‘ransomware’ cyber attack crippled some computer systems in the state-run health service. The U.K. National Health Service (NHS) said 16 organizations had been affected by the cyber attack but said it had not been…
(Reuters Health)—Patients may be less likely to die in U.S. hospitals during weeks when accreditation inspectors show up unannounced than during other times of the year, a recent U.S. study suggests. Researchers examined mortality data for 1,984 hospitals nationwide from 2008 to 2012. During surprise inspections, 7.03% of patients died within 30 days of being…
Do you want to practice near a highway off-ramp or a supermarket? Where a rural rheumatology practice is located may be the key to success…