On Aug. 4, the Department of Veterans Affairs proposed to stop offering abortion care at its hospitals, which would reverse a 2022 rule. From 1999 to 2022, VA hospitals excluded abortions and abortion counseling in its medical benefits package for…
Patient Safety & Outcomes
More patients who require hospitalization are waiting hours or days in emergency departments for a bed to open, and the trend has grown worse the past four years, researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor and…
Hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs) affect 1 in 10 hospitalized adults in the U.S.1 and are responsible for as many as 60,000 deaths annually.2 For hospitals, this means a financial impact to the tune of $11 billion in preventable costs every…
As more health systems suspend gender-affirming surgeries and hormone treatments for minors, the Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether gender-affirming care providers are violating consumer protection laws. The FTC hosted a workshop July 9 concerning unfair or deceptive trade practices…
According to a July report from HHS’ Office of Inspector General, hospitals failed to capture 49% of patient harm events because staff either did not consider them harmful or were not required to disclose them. The OIG established the first…
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New Hampshire is the first state to require physicians to obey some patients’ wishes for sterilization with respect to reproductive health. The legislation, signed into law on July 15, takes effect Sept. 13. Physicians might require patients to sign an…
About 80% of emergency department visits of terminally ill nursing home residents are potentially avoidable, according to a study published July 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. Researchers analyzed Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers program…
After being born 133 days premature, a 1-year-old boy in Iowa holds the Guinness World Records’ title for most premature baby. On July 5, 2024, Nash Keen was born to Randall and Mollie Keen at a gestational age of 147…
A growing number of hospitals and health systems no longer provide gender-affirming surgeries for minors, citing a January executive order from President Donald Trump. The order instructed health insurers to exclude coverage for pediatric transgender surgeries and hormone treatments. In…
Almost 50 years ago, EHR pioneer and Harvard Medical School professor Warner Slack, MD, said patients’ insight is the “largest and least utilized resource in healthcare.” Today, health systems are working to bring patients into clinical decisions — and increasingly,…