Patient Care Forum

Since 1970, January has been designated as National Blood Donor Month.  The American Red Cross is urging all Americans to roll up their sleeve and donate blood and platelets this winter.  Since this is the time of year for making resolutions, why not add to your role as a life saver by resolving to donate blood regularly.  Unfortunately, blood and platelet levels are at an all-time low forcing the Red Cross to issue an emergency call for donations on January 4th, 2017. 

While the rest of us celebrate the incoming New Year, many Physical Therapy providers will admittedly be viewing the calendar change with some trepidation.  The reason for the unease are the new ICD-10 codes and guidelines that take effect on January 1, 2017.  Most providers have been fully immersed in coding over the previous 12 months as the grace period for ICD-10 flexibility ended on October 1st. 

As 2016 winds to a close and before we welcome in the New Year, 2017, it is an appropriate time to reflect on the news, advancements, and trends that occurred throughout the year.  From major stories about runaway viruses to technological advancements allowing physicians to monitor their patients remotely, it has been a busy year for all of us who are part of the healthcare industry.  Let’s review the year that was 2016.

“Dashing through the snow, in a one-horse open sleigh, o’er the fields we go, laughing all the way…” Chances are that you recognize these merry lyrics from one of our most iconic Christmas carols.  In fact, just humming the song can brighten up anyone’s day.  Sometimes the stresses of the holidays require something to lift out spirits. Unfortunately, for people who suffer from Shingles, it takes a little more than a cheerful song to ease the discomfort associated with the virus. 

Way back in 1996, when Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or better known as HIPAA, consumers believed that they could rest easier knowing that their personal health information and medical records were going to be protected.  And the protective measures kept evolving with the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), signed into law in February 2009.

Evidence-Based Medicine or EBM is more than just a promising future for healthcare education. Recent research into EBM has shown that implementation at hospitals can lower costs, and potentially lead to an affordable future for patients, doctors, and hospitals across the country.

“I see the bad moon arising, I see trouble on the way” ~ John Fogerty, 1969

The song, “Bad Moon Rising” was written in 1969, by John Fogerty, the leader of southern rockers Creedence Clearwater Revival.  Even though the song reached number two on the charts in September of 1969, it is fairly certain that those lyrics will be on the minds of ER Nurses all around the country on November 14th.  On this evening, the Moon’s orbit will bring it closest to Earth, since January 1948. 

The number of patients receiving Hospice Care services has grown steadily over the past twenty years.  Now, an almost $20 billion industry, hospice is expected to continue growing by 7.5% annually due to the aging U.S. population and patient preferences towards non-acute care settings.  Even with the rosy market projections, many healthcare professionals are reluctant to consider hospice care as a career path.  This reticence is mainly due to a number of myths about what hospice care is and isn’t.  Let’s dig a little deeper into this and determine if we can debunk some of the myths about working in hospice care.

We’ve all read the news stories touting the benefits of physical therapy across the entire continuum of care.  Physical Therapy interventions are now being studied as a pain management alternative in the fight against opioid addiction, and even the burgeoning home health industry has found its way to PT providers.  These topics have been in industry news a lot lately, but there are many other emerging trends on the horizon for physical therapy that you may not have heard about yet; let’s take a look at just a few of them.

A Physical Therapy practice is no different than any other health care provider when it comes to introducing new technologies and treatments.  Technology and research are opening up windows to new ideas and potential treatment options for everything from pain management to exercise therapy for elder citizens.  In honor of National Physical Therapy Month, let’s examine the introduction of newer therapies as viable treatment options.

Halloween is rapidly approaching and children across the country are looking forward to trick or treating. Some of those children will be spending Halloween in a hospital receiving treatment. Luckily, patient care heroes like yourself can bring the fun to them. Here are 3 reasons you should get spooky at work this month.

A little more than one year ago, we published an article about the health care industry’s readiness for ICD-10.  The International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) went live on October 1, 2015, after several years of being delayed.  Providers were given 12 months of flexibility in implementation because almost half weren’t on target to meet the implementation deadline.

As is the case with most healthcare careers, Physical Therapy is experiencing rapid growth and an increasingly diverse range of career opportunities.  With the month of October being an annual month of recognition for those in the Physical Therapy field, let’s take a look at a few of the trends that are driving the growth and opportunity.

If you are a fan of the National Football League, throughout the month of October, you will see the players wearing a variety of pink accessories with their typical uniforms.  From gloves to socks, and even spikes, pink will be the color of the month.  Why are these modern day warriors decking themselves out with pink accessories?  It’s all in recognition of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM), the annual campaign devoted to promoting awareness of the disease and raise funds for research, prevention, treatment, and a cure.

Each year for National PT Month the APTA decides on a public awareness campaign to highlight one aspect of physical therapy.  The theme of National PT Month for 2016 is #ChoosePT and was chosen to raise awareness of the role that physical therapy can play in combatting our nation’s serious opioid epidemic.

In the news lately, most of the coverage has been dominated by the upcoming presidential election. However, there has also been significant news breaking about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for 2017.  The most recent news was that United Healthcare (UHC) has opted to leave the ACA exchanges beginning in 2017.  The reason for their departure is an estimated $1 billion in losses for 2015 – 2016.  Having such a major insurer leave the ACA marketplace has sent shock waves through the industry and rightfully caused quite a bit of fright for many Americans. 

Originally established in the 1970’s, the first published paper coining “Evidence-based Medicine” (EBM)  appeared in 1990.  In its simplest form, Evidence-based Medicine is the utilization of the current, best evidence and statistical analysis in making decisions about the care of individual patients.  The second role that EBM plays in modern healthcare is in the context of medical education.  In recent years, the term “evidence-based” is being applied to a broad range of activities throughout the health care system.

Back in June, we examined the healthcare proposals from the presumptive nominees of the Democrat and Republican Party.  Now that the nominating conventions have ended, and the presidential campaign is entering its final 60 days, let’s revisit the proposals of each of the major party candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and also include a brief look at the two minor party candidates, Dr. Jill Stein and Gary Johnson.   Note: The candidates are not being listed in any order of preference, and the included information has been taken from the official campaign websites.

September is Healthy Aging® Month and no American generation is more in tune with that fact than our “Baby Boomers”.  The Baby Boomer generation references people born between 1946 and 1964, with the first boomers now reaching their 70th birthday.  In the United States, there are approximately 76 million baby boomers, a number that includes people who have immigrated to our country and are of the boomer age.   Considering the fact that within the next ten years, more than 1 in 5 Americans will be over age 65, let’s examine ways that baby boomers can stay healthy as they age.

Just about every industry imaginable has been impacted by the rapid advancement of technology over the past few decades.  The Healthcare industry is no exception, although it has been a bit slower to embrace the digital revolution than others.  The marriage of innovative technologies and data utilization, with a helping hand from governmental legislation, has created an environment where healthcare providers are all but forced to join the revolution.  This digitization of healthcare is now being labeled as “The Internet of Medical Things”.