James "Butch" Rosser, MD, has found through his research that surgeons who “warm up” for procedures by playing video games such as Super Monkey Ball and Wii Golf are more efficient and make fewer mistakes in minimally invasive surgery. "So as far as I'm concerned, we cannot rest until...
As the Affordable Care Act increases health insurance enrollment, and thus patients seeking care, physician assistants (PA) are opening primary care clinics in Washington’s Spokane Valley, the Inlanderreported earlier this week. Janice Jordan and her husband Kevin Bichler, both certified...
Most medical societies surveyed by the AMA Advocacy Resource Center (ARC) identified ensuring physician-led, team-based care as a top priority for 2014. The survey identifies trends for the upcoming 2014 state legislative sessions, and the top issues facing organized medicine at the state level...
A controlled study of 11 nursing homes indicates that switching from on-call to telemedicine physician coverage during off hours could reduce hospitalizations, and generate cost savings to Medicare in excess of the facility’s investment in the service. However, the savings were evident only at...
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 15, Issue 6
Roughly 61% of healthcare organizations nationwide reported some form of security breach, data loss, or unplanned downtime this past year, Healthcare IT News reported earlier this week. According to a new health IT report by MeriTalk, these security events cost U.S. hospitals an estimated...
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 15, Issue 6
Hospitals can be very dangerous places for patients, according to a KevinMD blog post by Robert Pearl, MD, earlier this week. Pearl outlined four risks that hospitals pose, along with their causes and possible solutions that could save lives. The risks are: psychological harm, physical harm,...
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 15, Issue 6
The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) has announced that its Federation Credentials Verification Service (FCVS) will implement a new procedure for identity verification. Effective February 6, each applicant will be required to complete and mail a Certification of Identification (CID)...
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 15, Issue 6
CMS has extended a delay in the enforcement of Final Rule 1599-F by prolonging the probe and educate period. This is the third time CMS has delayed enforcement of the policy, which requires a patient to stay in the hospital for more than two midnights before CMS will reimburse a hospital at...
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has released new guidance for graduate medical education in U.S. teaching hospitals and medical centers. The council’s effort creates the framework to reshape the clinical environments in which tomorrow’s physicians learn to...
The public has until the end of the day today to submit suggestions for revisions to the NPDB Guidebook. The updated National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) guide will incorporate legislative and regulatory changes adopted since its last edition (2001), including the merger of the NPDB...
