Updated Stroke Prevention Guidelines
The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) have updated guidelines...
prevention
Using Readbacks to Enhance Patient Safety
Normal readback orders have been recommended as a patient safety initiative for physicians,...
Heart Disease Awareness Among Women
In 1997, a national survey commissioned by the American Heart Association (AHA) documented that...
Identifying Post-Op Complications for Readmission in General Surgery
In June 2009, CMS began publishing 30-day readmission data for select medical diseases, resulting...
Decreasing VAP Risk in the ED
Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) results in increased morbidity, mortality, and healthcare...
Guidelines Update: Preventive Treatments for Migraine
About 38% of people who suffer from migraine could benefit from preventive treatments, but less...
Exploring Variances in Dual-Chamber ICD Use
Each year in the United States, approximately 140,000 implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) are implanted in cardiac patients. Physicians often face challenges when working with patients to decide whether it’s best to...
Primary Prevention ICDs Yield Survival Benefits
Among eligible patients, those who undergo implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implantation appear to benefit from a significantly decreased mortality rate when compared with those who do not undergo implantation,...
Investigating Referrals for ICDs
The American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, and Heart Rhythm Society have published guidelines that provide patient selection criteria for the use of implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) as primary...
New Additions to the “Never Events” List
You are probably familiar with the CMS “never events” initiative. CMS has decided it will not reimburse hospitals for treatment related to complications that it says should never occur. Here is the current list. Foreign object...
Use of Preventive Services Lacking Among Americans
CDC researchers have found that nearly half of American adults missed out on 15 key preventive services prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010. The report, available at www.cdc.gov/mmwr, suggests that...
Analyzing Preventive CRT in the Elderly
Published studies have shown that the prevalence of congestive heart failure (CHF) increases as people age, rising from 2% to 3% in the total population to 10% to 20% after patients reach age 75. When compared with younger...
