Small But Mighty: Rural Hospitals Cope With Many Challenges

From dotMED.com:
As politicians in Washington duke it out over health care, rural and community hospitals are certain to be a focus. The mission of primary care, the need for chronic disease management and caring for the uninsured are priorities for small hospitals and for national health policy. Whatever form reform takes, the nation’s rural hospitals [...]

New Rural Family Practice Residency Program in Enid, OK

From Enid (Oklahoma) News:
Enid has two new residents — physician residents that is.
The newest addition to Integris Bass Baptist Health Center is its residency program. The residency program started July 1 and currently has Aaron Sizelove, D.O., and Joy Ekpo, D.O., as residents.
The residency program at Bass is a community partnership with health care facilities [...]

An ER Doc Grapples With ‘Unnecessary’ Hospital Admissions

From the WSJ Health Blog:
It’s all well and good to talk about reducing unnecessary hospital admissions to help control health costs. But the definition of “unnecessary” gets a lot more complicated when you’re the one doing the admitting, ER doc Jesse Pines writes in a column on WSJ.com.
He describes the case of a woman with [...]

EMS competition has international appeal

From Utica Observer Dispatch:
EMS teams from two countries will try to demonstrate world-class skills this weekend as they compete in the second annual International Emergency Medical Services Road Rally and Ambulance Competition.
The contest will pit teams from the United States and Poland against each other on Friday and Saturday in a race to find [...]

Beyond the Books–Continuing EMS Information Resources

From EMS1:
Although the educational world is changing, printed textbooks remain a core feature of EMS education. There are four or five good EMT-level textbooks out there, and several paramedic textbooks. Writing and publishing a paramedic textbook, such as my books Paramedic Care: Principles an Practices and Essentials of Paramedic Care, are gargantuan tasks that involve [...]

As House and Senate Negotiate, Obama Fine-Tunes His Pitch

From the Washington Post:
President Obama on Wednesday will take his plea for health-care reform to audiences in North Carolina and southwest Virginia, armed with a bullet-point-style message that his aides are hoping will be persuasive.
The re-tooled pitch highlights eight ways that, the White House says, health-care consumers would be treated better by insurance companies if [...]

More Than a Year Later, New AMA Conflicts Policy Still in Works

From the WSJ Health Blog:
For more than a year, the American Medical Association has been drafting a new ethics policy aiming to limit industry influence on continuing education for doctors.
Apparently that’s not enough time.
Early this month, Sen. Herb Kohl sent  a letter to the AMA for a status report. The AMA  wrote back saying it [...]

Ike-damaged UTMB emergency room to reopen Saturday

From the Houston Chronicle:
The emergency room at the Hurricane Ike-devastated University of Texas Medical Branch is scheduled to reopen Saturday.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Mike Hill, associate chief operating officer.
Ike hit Galveston on Sept. 13, swamping parts of the island and forcing thousands of residents to flee.
Hill says the reopening will take some [...]

MyGlucoHealth Adds SMS, Email Messaging Capabilities

From Medgadget:
Entra Health Systems out of San Diego, CA has been rolling out its Bluetooth powered glucose meter which can synchronize data with a computer or other devices. The firm has just announced that the MyGlucoHealth system, with which the company’s meter interacts, can now send updates of patient’s historical glucose trends, as well as [...]

Medical Ultrasound Technology Expected to Flourish as it Enters New and Unique Medical Markets

Press release from Marketstrat via eMediaWire:
The world Medical Ultrasound equipment, accessories, and maintenance services market is expected to reach $4.7 billion by 2012. Higher growth rates towards the end of this period are projected as economic conditions stabilize around the world leading to sizeable increases in healthcare expenditures, particularly in high-end capital equipment acquisition.
Growth in [...]