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Thursday, September 30, 2010
The Definition of My Daughter's Success
As I read articles about talented college graduates unable to find work because the US job growth rate is not keeping pace with the college graduation rate, I speculate about the best way to define success for my 17 year old daughter.Is it a high paying job as doctor, lawyer, or stockbroker?Is it fame resulting from some remarkable talent?Is it her pursuit of one of my dreams - being a naturalist, an environmental engineer, or outdoor educator?Is it successfully competing with some local, regional, or national peers to be the best at something?Should I compare her to the athletes, musicians, performers, artists, and academicians in her school and ask her to be as good or better than they are?All such measures of success are perilous.How many doctors, lawyers, or hedge fund traders have...
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Medical transcription outsourcing: Providing quality services with integrity
Healthcare facilities of every kind are looking for ways to lessen the burden on the scarce resources at their disposal while not compromising on the quality of services provided. It is important for healthcare facilities to concentrate on the process of providing quality healthcare, by outsourcing all tasks that are not part of the core business. This enables them to not only retain control over their business in terms of delivering quality healthcare in a timely manner it also enables them to minimize expenses.Outsourcing medical transcription to a professional service provider benefits the healthcare facilities in the following areas:Helping the process of healthcare by creating patient records on timeHelping quicken the process of reimbursement by creating patient records on timeProvides...
That Wheel Was Already Invented: the UN Special Rapporteur's Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies
For five years now, we have been writing about concentration and abuse of power in health care, and on specific tactics used predominantly by large health care organizations that threaten the values that physicians and other health care professionals once swore to uphold.Pharmaceutical companies may not have been the worst offenders when it came to threatening these values, but they have not been laggards. Specific issues we have discussed included (in a peculiar order that I will explain in a minute): failure of the companies' boards of directors to be accountable for misbehavior by its management, sometimes associated with conflicts of interest affecting these board members (e.g., this recent case); outright crime and corruption (e.g., this case); use of key opinion leaders paid by...
ACHARYA N.G.RANGA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY JUNIOR ASSISTANT-CUM-TYPIST EXAM PATTERN
ACHARYA N.G.RANGA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITYADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE, RAJENDRANGAR, HYDERABAD �500 030ANDHRA PRADESHJUNIOR ASSISTANT-CUM-TYPIST .. 100 posts Qualifications1. A University Degree and Diploma in Computer Applications from an Instituterecognized by Government of A.P. (OR) from any other Institute who offersthe Diploma Courses in Computer Applications.(OR)B.C.A. Degree(OR)A Degree with Computer Science as one of the elective subjectsAND2. A pass in Govt. Technical Examination in Typewriting by the Lower Grade.Age: The above maximum age relaxation from 34 years to 39 years is applicable only for this recruitment of 100 JACT Posts.Method of Selection:Written test:Paper Subject ...
ACHARYA N.G.RANGA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION OFFICER EXAM PATTERN
ACHARYA N.G.RANGA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITYADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE, RAJENDRANGAR, HYDERABAD �500 030ANDHRA PRADESHAGRICULTURAL EXTENSION OFFICER .. 23 postsQualifications1. Two years Diploma in Agriculture Awarded by ANGRAU.(OR)(i) A Pass in Two years Intermediate Examination of Board of IntermediateEducation with any two of the following subjects:-(a) Physical Sciences(b) Biological Sciences or Natural Sciences(c) Agricultural Sciences(d) Vocational Course in Agriculture(NOTE: Preference shall be given to the Two Year Diploma holders in Agriculture Awarded by ANGRAU). Age:The above maximum age relaxation from 34 years to 39 years is applicable only for this recruitment of 23 AEO posts. Method of Selection1. Written test:Paper Subject ...
A Milestone for Vocabulary Resources
The Vocabulary Task Force of the HIT Standards Committee is hard at work specifying the vocabularies and codesets that should be publicly available to accelerate certification and meaningful use efforts.Today, Kaiser Permanente announced the donation of its Convergent Medical Terminology (CMT) to the International Healthcare Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO�) for U.S. distribution through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) so that all health care providers�large and small�can benefit from the translation-enabling technology. This donation makes the results of years of work at Kaiser Permanente available to help U.S. health professionals and hospitals achieve key meaningful use standards set forth by the Office of the National Coordinator of Health...
Food Allergies and Bullying Study Results
Forty-three percent of school-age children with food allergies report bully waving allergen in their face in a threatening manner. Twenty percent of food allergic students report the teasing and harassment came from teachers and staff.What?!?!? Read the results of this study, conducted by Mount Sinai, then talk to your child. Explain to young children what bullying is and what they should do if they feel threatened. Develop a plan with older children about how to handle a bullying situation. Share this research with your school nurse, guidance counselor, teacher and administrators. Bullying is never okay. Bullying with food allergens is dangerous and needs to be stopped immediately. Does your school have an anti-bullying policy? Does the policy mention food allergy? The authors of this study...
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Medical transcription outsourcing: Offering effective solutions
Much has been said about healthcare, one often ignored factor about healthcare is that, it is a business in spite of being a life & death/ quality of life improving service. Like any other business the goals of healthcare facilities are straightforward; to be able to provide quality healthcare services while still maintaining a healthy bottom-line. In order to achieve these goals it is important for healthcare facilities to concentrate on their core activities and outsource all other activities that are not part of the core.Outsourcing non-core activities will have an impact on the following:Improved focus on the core business of providing quality healthcare Reducing allocation of limited resources on non-core activitiesThe healthcare process is a complex one, drawing inputs from numerous...
More Tales of Hospital Executive Compensation: Pay for What?
I have collected another series of stories from the wild and wacky world of health care executive compensation. These are from three different hospitals/ hospital systems, ordered from smallest to largest.Jefferson HealthcareThis story, from Jefferson County, Washington state, came from the Peninsula Daily News:When Mike Glenn takes over the Jefferson Healthcare CEO office Oct. 4, he will be receiving $225,000 annually to run the 25-bed publicly funded hospital.And he will become the highest-paid public official in Jefferson County.Jefferson Healthcare's budget is $65 million, and it employs 360 full-time workers and about 550 part-timers.Note that the amount above is apparently salary, not total compensation, which could well be higher.Lakeland Regional Medical CenterThis story, from...
Clarifying the Meaningful Use Quality Measures
As the country prepares for meaningful use stage 1, many are studying the functionality of their EHRs, hospital information systems, and data warehouses to ensure they can produce the ambulatory and hospital quality measures.This has led to many implementation questions.The ambulatory measures and guidance are detailed on a previous blog.The hospital quality measures for 2011-2012 are found in pages 303-305 of the Final Rule, available here.Additional guidance from CMS is available here.The detailed HITSP documentation detailing the standards for computing numerators and denominators is available here.The most useful, focused, and streamlined materials are the definitions of the quality measures. These measures are encoded according to the HL7 Health Quality Measures Format. To view them1....
Monday, September 27, 2010
Medical transcription outsourcing: Playing an important role
Patient records are a vital element in the healthcare process. They are essential for not only patient care but play an important role in the commercial, statutory and medico legal aspects. Medical transcription is the process by which patient records are created. Medical transcriptionists are the scribes who faithfully transform the narration of the healthcare professionals into text format, making it available to healthcare professionals and other staff.Outsourcing medical transcription has been found to be not only economical, but also efficient and effective in terms of accuracy, turnaround time, security and technology. In recent past there have been many arguments over the role of the medical transcriptionists/medical transcription service providers in the process of patient record creation....
Food Allergies at School: More Tips
As the new school year gets underway, do not forget about "special area" teachers when creating a food allergy management plan.Food allergens may be hidden in art supplies. Make sure the art teacher is aware of your child's allergies and contacts parents if there are any questions about supplies used in the classroom.In music class, many instruments are passed around for children to try. Find out about the cleaning of these instruments. Ask for a specially designated set for your child if you are especially concerned.Computer kepyboards may harbor food allergens. Does your child (or teacher)need to wipe down the keyboard before beginning computer class?From classroom to cafeteria to art room and school bus, cover all spaces and places in whatever food allergy plan you develop with...
Unconscious in the Emergency Department
As State Health Information Exchanges and Federal efforts (NHIN Connect/NHIN Direct) implement the data sharing technology that will enable all providers in the country to achieve Meaningful Use Stage 1, I'm often asked "but when will this healthcare information exchange technology be able to retrieve all my records from everywhere when I'm lying unconscious in the Emergency Department and cannot give a history?"Here are my thoughts about the trajectory we're on and how it will lead us to supporting the "Unconscious in the ED" use case.Meaningful Use Stage 1 is about capturing data electronically in EHRs. Getting healthcare data in electronic form is foundational to any data exchanges. By 2011 we should have medication lists, problem lists, allergies, and summaries available...
MARKETING APTITUDE QUESTIONS FOR BANK & PSC EXAMINATIONS
1. The Indian Economy will grow as per the estimates given by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) at which of the following rates in 2008 ?(A) 6.7%(B) 7.5%(C) 8.5%(D) 8%Ans (D)2. Government has notified the hike in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limit for Public Sector Undertakings refineries. The new FDI limit is�(A) 26%(B) 49%(C) 51%(D) 75%Ans: (B)3. As per the report on State of Forest released on February 13, 2008, what is the percentage coverage of forest area in the total geographical area of the country ?(A) 22.20%(B) 21.30%(C) 20.60%(D) 19.90%Ans: (C)4. 13th Finance Commission has been constituted under the Chairmanship of�(A) Y. S. P. Thorat(B) Vijai L. Kelkar(C) T. S. Vijayan(D) Laxmi NarayanAns: (C)5. SEBI is a�(A) Statutory body(B) Advisory...
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Medical transcription: Steps for easy transition to outsourced services
The role of medical transcription in both the operational and commercial aspects of healthcare is undeniable. Outsourcing medical transcription has been found to be an easy, economical, efficient and effective to the process of medical records creation. However the process of choosing the right medical transcription service provider needs a certain process so that it can result in a fruitful and long-term association.The steps leading to successful outsourcing of medical transcription are:Defining the purpose of outsourcing medical transcription: This part of the outsourcing process is very important and often overlooked. Overlooking this step in the process of outsourcing can result in:Unrealistic expectations: Outsourcing medical transcription can help the healthcare facility in many aspects....
