HHS ON KIDS AND STAIRS

FROM:   HHS HealthBeat (May 21, 2012) 
Kids, stairs and falls
Home should be a safe haven for a kid. But researchers who looked at national data on emergency department visits say falls down stairs account for a lot of injuries – and many can be prevented.

At Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, Dr. Gary Smith says there were close to 90,000 injuries to kids ages 5 and younger in 2008, the latest year for which there was data. Smith says some injuries can be prevented by installing gates at the top and bottom of stairs.

He also notes, though:
"An important finding in the study was that, among children younger than 1 year of age, about a quarter of the time, they were injured while being carried by a caretaker."
The study in the journal Pediatrics was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

NEW HHS RULES SHOULD SAVE OVER $5 BILLION

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
HHS finalizes new rules to cut regulations for hospitals and health care providers, saving more than $5 billion
Changes will reduce costs and allow more focus on medical care
Today, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced significant steps to reduce unnecessary, obsolete, or burdensome regulations on American hospitals and health care providers. These steps will help achieve the key goal of President Obama’s regulatory reform initiative to reduce unnecessary burdens on business and save nearly $1.1 billion across the health care system in the first year and more than $5 billion over five years.

“We are cutting red tape and improving health care for all Americans,” said Secretary Sebelius. “Now it will be easier for health care providers to do their jobs and deliver quality care.”

The new rules are being issued today by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The first rule revises the Medicare Conditions of Participation (CoPs) for hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs). CMS estimates that annual savings to hospitals and CAHs will be approximately $940 million per year.

The second, the Medicare Regulatory Reform rule, will produce savings of $200 million in the first year by promoting efficiency. This rule eliminates duplicative, overlapping, and outdated regulatory requirements for health care providers.

“These changes cut burdensome red tape for hospitals and providers and give them the flexibility they need to improve patient care while lowering costs,” said CMS Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner.  “These final rules incorporate input from hospitals, other health care providers, accreditation organizations, patient advocates, professional organizations, members of Congress, and a host of others who are working to improve patient care.”

Among other changes, the final rules will: 
Increase flexibility for hospitals by allowing one governing body to oversee multiple hospitals in a single health system;

Let CAHs partner with other providers so they can be more efficient and ensure the safe and timely delivery of care to their patients;

Require that all eligible candidates, including advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants, be reviewed by medical staff for potential appointment to the hospital medical staff and then be granted all of the privileges, rights, and responsibilities accorded to appointed medical staff members; and
Eliminate obsolete regulations, including outmoded infection control instructions for ambulatory surgical centers; outdated Medicaid qualification standards for physical and occupational therapists; and duplicative requirements for governing bodies of organ procurement organizations.

ICU MEDICAL CARE QUALITY

FROM:   HHS HealthBeat (May 8, 2012) 
Talking quality before the ICU
After long stays in intensive care, patients might not be able to return to the life they once had. But a study finds that family members who have to make decisions for the patient often hadn’t talked with the patient about these quality of life issues. Sara Douglas of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland saw that in an analysis of 116 family meetings.
Douglas says this discussion is not about ICU medical care – it’s about how the patient wants to live after the care:

“If we can have these discussions at a time when we are not ill – or at least not acutely ill – we’ll be able to afford our loved ones the gift of knowing our wishes.”
The study in the journal Critical Care Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

GRIEF AND HEART ATTACKS

FROM:  HHS HealthBeat (May 1, 2012) 
A grieving heart
A study of 2,000 people hospitalized for heart attacks finds the psychological stress of losing a loved one can increase heart attack risk.

At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Elizabeth Mostofsky and her collaborators say heart attack symptoms should not be dismissed as a harmless response to grief.  Mostofsky says:

"Bereaved individuals and their family and friends should be aware of this heightened risk to make sure that the bereaved person takes care of him or herself. It may indicate that the person is indeed having a heart attack and should seek immediate medical attention." She also says:

“The risk of having a heart attack was 21 times higher in the 24 hours following the loss of loved one, compared to other times.”

The study in the journal Circulation was supported by the National Institutes of Health.