Sometimes, delaying treatment while regularly monitoring the progress of a disease — a strategy called “watchful waiting” — may be better than starting treatment right away.
If hospitals want to reach patients, they have to go where the patients are–online, where patients are posting to Facebook, chatting with each other through Twitter, and sounding off on Yelp!, experts tell Seattle conference.
Fifty-five percent of adults surveyed gave the U.S. health care system a C or D, when asked to assign it a grade. Eleven percent gave it an F.
Many patients cannot understand their health providers advice or the labels on their prescriptions, leading to higher rates of hospital readmission, expensive and unnecessary complications, and even death–all at an estimated annual cost of $238 billion.
Health care accounts for $10 billion — or nearly a third — of the state’s two-year budget and so is a prime target for cuts.
Swedish Community Health is a pilot program, built on a model called the patient-centered medical home. The focus is on wellness, disease prevention and day-to-day management of chronic illnesses.
The concept of a “medical home”—a clinic where you are followed by a team of primary care providers who know you and can coordinate your care—is getting more attention these days. (See NPR’s story on Swedish Medical Center’s “medical home” program in Ballard below.) Here Dr. Carolyn Clancy, director of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare [...]
Seattle’s KPLU reporter Keith Seinfeld has a story on NPR this week about Swedish Hospital’s new “medical home” clinic in Ballard. LocalHealthGuide’s story from March is below. By Keith Seinfeld, NPR News August 7, 2009 This story comes from KHN partner NPR When President Obama and other Democrats talk about changing the health care system, [...]
The idea behind the medical-home model is to create a primary-care team that provides continuous, coordinated care to patients at one location.
The President’s Council of Economic Advisers predicts strong growth in health-related employment in the U.S. over the coming years. Health care practitioners and technicians, which include physicians, registered nurses, and other health professionals and technicians, are expected to be in increasing demand. Jobs for medical records and health information technicians are also projected to increase. [...]
Creating a “medical home” to help patients cope with chronic and often complicated health problems is really an old idea that is getting a new look as health providers try to find ways to improve the quality of care and reduce medical costs. In this column, Dr. Carolyn Clancy, director of the U.S. Agency for Health [...]
“In health care, one size does not fit all, and treatments that are good for one patient aren’t necessarily good, or even safe, for you,” writes Dr. Carolyn Clancy, director of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. To try to find out which treatments are best for which patients, Clancy’s agency has been [...]
LocalHealthGuide is a health news and information web service for Seattle and the Puget Sound Region. We are independent and unaffiliated with any hospital, medical association or insurer. If you have questions or if your group has an upcoming event that you would like us to cover, please let us know by going to our "Contact Us" page and dropping us a note. -- Michael McCarthy, Editor
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Seattle Times Health News
Experts divided over recommendation to screen children for cholesterol
Some clinicians say universal screening is an important tool to help identify children who are genetically predisposed to high cholesterol and to pinpoint others who could benefit from treatment. Others express concerns that screening may do more harm than good.
People in state high-risk insurance plans often feel left behind
The federal health law set up new plans that are cheaper and more comprehensive than the older ones run by states but consumers need to go without insurance for six months to qualify.
Peeking in on your doctor’s notes
Although federal law guarantees patients the right to examine and get copies of their medical records, providers haven’t always made it easy to do so. But the movement to give patients direct access to their health information has picked up steam, and policymakers have encouraged it as a way to empower patients to help manage their health and their medical care.
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