Issues & Trends
American Hospital Association content on issues and trends in the health care field.
Physicians in the United States spend about 28,000 hours in medical school, residency and fellowship learning to be physicians. But once they start practicing, only 18 minutes of each hour is with patients on an average workday. Administrative and other tasks take up the remaining 48 minutes.…
2015 was the year of the health care security breach. Nearly 100 million electronic health records were compromised, according to a December 2015 IBM Security report, blowing away the number of data breaches that occurred in the computer services and financial sectors.
Infant mortality hits record low
The U.S. mortality rate fell 2.3% in 2014, to a record low 582.1 deaths per 100,000 live births. The drop was led by a 13.5% decline in deaths from respiratory illness.
When a sports team has an outstanding game, people often examine the coach’s role in setting expectations for performance and helping the team effectively coalesce to achieve its goal. And, just as sports teams benefit from coaching, health care teams can boost their performance and impact…
Trustee Talking Points
Trustee Talking Points
This is the first of a three-part series on the rise of health insurance exchanges and what they mean for hospitals and health systems.
The American Hospital Association will hold its Annual Membership Meeting May 1–4 in Washington, D.C. The event brings together hospital and health system leaders from around the country to hear from some of the top names in health care, government and media. One track will focus on issues of…
Last year marked the 50th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid. These two programs (including state funding) represent 37 cents of every dollar spent on health care in the United States. There are more than 54 million Medicare beneficiaries and 64 million Americans on Medicaid.
As one of the…
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has created a Web page featuring strategies and tools to support OSHA’s “Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Healthcare and Social Service Workers.” Visit www.osha.gov/dsg/hospitals/workplace_violence.html.
In many ways, women are on the front line in health care — as consumers, employees and family caretakers. They possess firsthand knowledge of community health issues and needs. They can bring an informed perspective to health care and other community organizations about where to focus…
U.S. hospitals are embracing tried-and-true sustainability methods and launching new initiatives tailored to their individual budgets and staffing needs. Here’s a sample of initiatives underway, from the Health Facilities Management/American Society for Healthcare Engineering/Association…