In the News

Revised Medicare Penalties Hit Some States Hard - According to Kaiser Health News, on October 22nd, Medicare revised its penalties from the new Readmissions Reduction Program at the end of September after discovering it had made small errors in its calculations affecting more than 1,400 hospitals. A total of 2,217 hospitals, or 71 percent of those eligible, are receiving penalties for having too many patients with heart attacks, heart failure or pneumonia return within 30 days. Only hospitals with at least 25 heart failure, heart attack or pneumonia cases for Medicare to evaluate were eligible.TO READ MORE CLICK HERE



Home Health Aides: In Demand, Yet Paid Little - According to NPR, on October 16th, the home care workforce — some 2.5 million strong — is one of the nation's fastest growing yet also worst paid. Right now, many home health aides get no training at all. There's little path to advancement. And with a median wage less than $10 an hour, it's hard to call this a career. Advocates say one big problem is a decades-old law that exempts home care workers from federal minimum wage and overtime.TO READ MORE CLICK HERE



Health care students seek edge in new charter school - According to The TandD, on October 13th, Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five’s new charter school is giving 68 local ninth and tenth graders a chance to prepare for careers in the health care field. The mission of the High School for Health Professions(HSHP)is to give students a competitive edge throughout high school and college and their professional careers, Principal Angel Hightower reported at Tuesday night’s OCSD 5 board meeting. Hightower also reported that HSHP students will be able to take dual course credits at Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College and Claflin University.TO READ MORE CLICK HERE

In the News

Home Health Aides: In Demand, Yet Paid Little - According to NPR, on October 16th, the home care workforce — some 2.5 million strong — is one of the nation's fastest growing yet also worst paid. Right now, many home health aides get no training at all. There's little path to advancement. And with a median wage less than $10 an hour, it's hard to call this a career. Advocates say one big problem is a decades-old law that exempts home care workers from federal minimum wage and overtime.TO READ MORE CLICK HERE



Health care students seek edge in new charter school - According to The TandD, on October 13th, Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five’s new charter school is giving 68 local ninth and tenth graders a chance to prepare for careers in the health care field. The mission of the High School for Health Professions(HSHP)is to give students a competitive edge throughout high school and college and their professional careers, Principal Angel Hightower reported at Tuesday night’s OCSD 5 board meeting. Hightower also reported that HSHP students will be able to take dual course credits at Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College and Claflin University.TO READ MORE CLICK HERE



SC legislator calls for routine dental office inspections - According to DrBicuspid.com, October 15th, 2012 South Carolina lawmakers say the state should consider routine inspections of dental offices. Some 15 states conduct regular inspections of dental offices; South Carolina currently only does routine inspections of barbershops and hair salons. The VA notified 535 veterans that they may have been exposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV by Dwight Pemberton, DDS, the dentist who allegedly failed to properly sterilize dental instruments between patients between 1992 and 2010.TO READ MORE CLICK HERE

In the News

Health care students seek edge in new charter school - According to The TandD, on October 13th, Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five’s new charter school is giving 68 local ninth and tenth graders a chance to prepare for careers in the health care field. The mission of the High School for Health Professions(HSHP)is to give students a competitive edge throughout high school and college and their professional careers, Principal Angel Hightower reported at Tuesday night’s OCSD 5 board meeting. Hightower also reported that HSHP students will be able to take dual course credits at Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College and Claflin University.TO READ MORE CLICK HERE



SC legislator calls for routine dental office inspections - According to DrBicuspid.com, October 15th, 2012 South Carolina lawmakers say the state should consider routine inspections of dental offices. Some 15 states conduct regular inspections of dental offices; South Carolina currently only does routine inspections of barbershops and hair salons. The VA notified 535 veterans that they may have been exposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV by Dwight Pemberton, DDS, the dentist who allegedly failed to properly sterilize dental instruments between patients between 1992 and 2010.TO READ MORE CLICK HERE



Nearly half of physicians struggle with burnout - According to American Medical News, September 3rd, 2012 the many rigors and stresses of medical practice mean that physicians experience burnout at higher rates than the general population. They work an average of 10 hours more per week and are nearly twice as likely to be dissatisfied with their work-life balance, according to an Archives of Internal Medicine study published online Aug. 20. TO READ MORE CLICK HERE

News from September 25th through October 15th

In the News

SC legislator calls for routine dental office inspections - According to DrBicuspid.com, October 15th, 2012 South Carolina lawmakers say the state should consider routine inspections of dental offices. Some 15 states conduct regular inspections of dental offices; South Carolina currently only does routine inspections of barbershops and hair salons. The VA notified 535 veterans that they may have been exposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV by Dwight Pemberton, DDS, the dentist who allegedly failed to properly sterilize dental instruments between patients between 1992 and 2010.TO READ MORE CLICK HERE



Nearly half of physicians struggle with burnout - According to American Medical News, September 3rd, 2012 the many rigors and stresses of medical practice mean that physicians experience burnout at higher rates than the general population. They work an average of 10 hours more per week and are nearly twice as likely to be dissatisfied with their work-life balance, according to an Archives of Internal Medicine study published online Aug. 20. TO READ MORE CLICK HERE



Luring Students Into Family Medicine - According to The New York Times, September 9th, 2012, Most students going into medicine imagine that they will have daily contact with their patients; but the reality is that only a minority will end up as primary care physicians, causing what some experts say could be a critical shortage in the United States, where there are long waits in both doctors’ offices and emergency rooms. TO READ MORE CLICK HERE