Morning Report: Seattle and National Health News Roundup

Drug and alcohol abuse on the rise in Washington state

“Abuse of drugs and alcohol is on the rise in Washington state, including one of the highest rates of nonmedical use of prescription pain relievers in the nation, according to the state Department of Social and Health Services,” the Associated Press reports in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

To learn more:

• Read: “Drug and alcohol use rises in Washington state” in the Dec. 27 issue of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Using computers to improve healthcare

New York Times reporter Steve Lohr profiles how a large group practice of doctors has used computers and electronic medical records to improve medical care.

“A paper record is a passive, historical document,” writes Lohr. “An electronic health record can be a vibrant tool that reminds and advises doctors. It can hold information on a patient’s visits, treatments and conditions, going back years, even decades. It can be summoned with a mouse click, not hidden in a file drawer in a remote location and thus useless in medical emergencies.”

To learn more:

• Read Steve Lohr’s article: “Health Care That Puts a Computer on the Team“.
• Read about Seattle Swedish Medical Centers new wireless network in “Hospital reaps healthy returns from wireless” at NetworkWorld.com where you can also listed to a podcast of an interview with Steve Horsley as well as an article on “lessons learned” from the project.

Health-insurance “job lock” hobbles U.S. economy

LocalHealthGuide Editor Michael McCarthy writes in a Seattle Times op-ed about how the U.S. employer-based health insurance system locks many workers into jobs they’d otherwise leave. He suggests the managed competition healthcare reform adopted in the Netherlands might be a solution.

To learn more:

• Read “Health care ‘job lock’ stifles entrepreneurship“ 

Tags: Alcohol, Alcohol Abuse, Alcoholism, Computers, Drug Addiction, Electronic Medical Records, Health Insurance, Health-care Quality, Health-care Reform, Methamphetamine

Category: Addiction