In the News
Redefining Leadership and Medical Teams - The June issue of the AMA Journal of Ethics takes a look at the ethical impact of team-based care in clinical practice, medical education and administrative leadership. Read the editor's overview here.In clinical practice, responsibility for patient care is shifting from individual physicians to groups comprising different specialists who, together, are accountable for “episodes” of care.The “team” challenge, so to speak, is that doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and others, e.g., physical therapists, working as a clinical team must provide integrated, coordinated patient-centered care, despite the specific competencies that each possesses and spheres of practice that each represents.TO READ MORE CLICK HERE
Medical Schools Not Graduating Enough Primary Care Docs - According to Physicians News Digest on June 13th, 2013: The nation’s medical education system — and the graduate medical education funding that supports it — are failing to produce the primary care physician workforce needed by Americans, particularly those who live in rural areas. The percentage of graduates going into primary care overall was less than 25 percent. Fewer than 5 percent practiced in rural areas.Primary care physician production of 25.2 percent and rural physician production of 4.8 percent will not sustain the current workforce, solve problems of maldistribution or address acknowledged shortages.TO READ MORE CLICK HERE
Adequate and Stable Nurse Staffing Is Key to Improving Care for Heart Failure Patients - According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on May 1st, 2013: A new study, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI), in the current issue of Medical Care found that rural hospitals with lower nurse turnover are more likely to implement all four measures that are central to optimal care for heart failure patients. The four measures are providing smoking cessation counseling; providing adequate instructions to patients being discharged from the hospital; assessing how well the heart pumps; and making sure the patient receives medication to help blood vessels relax. The results of this study really speak to the central role nurses play in almost any quality improvement effort.TO READ MORE CLICK HERE
