http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. New guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics should eliminate one of the many stresses of bringing a preterm or low birth weight infant home from the hospital. http://phys.org/news160056549.html Medicine & Health Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:09:50 EST news160056549 (AP) -- Thousands of veterans were at first shocked to learn they should get blood tests for HIV and hepatitis because three hospitals might have treated them with unsterile equipment. Now, just a couple of months after the Department of Veterans Affairs issued the dire warnings, veterans are growing frustrated by the lack of information from the tightlipped federal agency. http://phys.org/news159899366.html Medicine & Health Sat, 25 Apr 2009 17:29:58 EST news159899366 Local, state and national health experts are baffled as to how a rare and deadly strain of meningitis killed four people and infected eight others in South Florida since December, an unprecedented outbreak in the United States. http://phys.org/news159786160.html Medicine & Health Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:03:50 EST news159786160 According to a study by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, elderly Medicare recipients transitioning from outpatient to hospital settings were more likely to experience lapses in continuity of care in 2006 than 1996. The researchers ascribe part of the reduction in continuity of care to the increasing use of hospitalists, physicians who specialize in the care of hospitalized patients. http://phys.org/news159648245.html Medicine & Health Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:44:40 EST news159648245 A new study, led by Lucy Selman and colleagues from King's College London, has found that patients with incurable, progressive diseases and their family carers in sub-Saharan Africa often do not receive enough information about the patient's disease and its management, which impacts negatively on their ability to cope with illness. The results of the study have been published online by the BMJ today. http://phys.org/news159627721.html Medicine & Health Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:02:26 EST news159627721 More than 45,000 infants and children in the United States are hospitalized each year for urinary tract infections, but a new study reveals significant variability across hospitals in treatment and outcomes. http://phys.org/news159542078.html Medicine & Health Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:16:41 EST news159542078 Russian authorities on Wednesday evacuated 53 passengers to quarantine and sealed off a train after a Chinese woman died of what could be a mystery infectious disease, officials said. http://phys.org/news159039415.html Medicine & Health Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:37:23 EST news159039415 It started as something of a medical mystery that, at first, doctors couldn't figure out. http://phys.org/news158941890.html Medicine & Health Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:32:55 EST news158941890 (AP) -- Just nine people accounted for nearly 2,700 of the emergency room visits in the Austin area during the past six years at a cost of $3 million to taxpayers and others, according to a report. The patients went to hospital emergency rooms 2,678 times from 2003 through 2008, said the report from the nonprofit Integrated Care Collaboration, a group of health care providers who care for low-income and uninsured patients. http://phys.org/news157829120.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:26:10 EST news157829120 When a patient is discharged from the hospital, just about the last thing he or she wants is to be back in again within the next month. But a new national study has found that's exactly what happens to one out of five Medicare patients, costing billions in health care and suffering for patients. http://phys.org/news157826911.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:49:06 EST news157826911 Hospitals that reported higher scores on measures of safe practices did not have a significantly lower rate of in-hospital deaths compared to hospitals that reported lower scores on these measures, according to a study in the April 1 issue of JAMA. http://phys.org/news157738118.html Medicine & Health Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:09:10 EST news157738118 A new research study, published in the March/April issue of the journal Nursing Economics, has determined what factors can help keep new nurses from leaving their jobs and - in doing so - save health systems money. When nurses leave for another position or retire early, it dramatically affects a hospital's bottom line - as much as 5 percent of a hospital's budget may go to paying for nursing turnover costs. http://phys.org/news157654908.html Medicine & Health Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:02:23 EST news157654908 The level of exercise is linked with the reduction of hospitalization and death in patients with chronic heart failure, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study. http://phys.org/news157637639.html Medicine & Health Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:14:29 EST news157637639 Relaxine, a naturally occurring hormone that helps women adapt to pregnancy, is showing promise as a treatment for acute heart failure, a new study has found. http://phys.org/news157616798.html Medicine & Health Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:27:51 EST news157616798 (AP) -- Eighteen groups representing consumers, business, insurers, doctors and hospitals say they have reached agreement on how they would like to see the nation's health care system overhauled. http://phys.org/news157376743.html Medicine & Health Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:46:01 EST news157376743 There is broad consensus that electronic health records (EHR) have the potential to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare providers. Yet, to date, there has been no reliable estimate of the prevalence of EHR use among U.S. hospitals. In a new study, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), Massachusetts General Hospital and George Washington University found that less than 2% of surveyed hospitals had implemented comprehensive EHR; further, less than 8% had basic EHR in place. It is the first nationally representative study of the prevalence of EHR in hospitals. http://phys.org/news157222044.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:47:57 EST news157222044 Hospital practices, such as supplementing newborns with formula or water or giving them pacifiers, significantly reduce the chances that mothers who intend to exclusively breastfeed will achieve that intention, according to a new study led by a Boston University School of Public Health researcher. http://phys.org/news156705090.html Medicine & Health Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:11:48 EST news156705090 Older people with comorbidities and those with multiple hospital admissions related to heart failure are unlikely to receive a meaningful survival benefit from implanted defibrillators, found a study in CMAJ by researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts http://www.cmaj.ca/press/pg611.pdf. http://phys.org/news156449760.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:16:29 EST news156449760 When patients choose to leave the hospital before the treating physician recommends discharge, the consequences may involve risk of inadequately treated medical conditions and the need for readmission, according to a review in the March 2009 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Additionally, the article examines the effect of costs as well as predictors and potential interventions to help manage and improve this important issue. http://phys.org/news155816994.html Medicine & Health Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:30:28 EST news155816994 Cell phones belonging to hospital staff were found to be tainted with bacteria -- including the drug-resistant MRSA superbug -- and may be a source of hospital-acquired infections, according to study released Friday. http://phys.org/news155538696.html Medicine & Health Fri, 06 Mar 2009 05:12:40 EST news155538696 Sick or injured African-American patients wait about an hour longer than patients of other races before being transferred to an inpatient hospital bed following emergency room visits, according to a new national study published in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine. The authors say the findings underscore the urgency to find equitable, cost-effective solutions to provide better care in the nation's emergency departments, which are already strained by unprecedented crowding and more visits from the nation's uninsured population, which is expected to balloon toward 55 million people in the next decade. http://phys.org/news155474066.html Medicine & Health Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:15:07 EST news155474066 Following an acute coronary syndrome such as a heart attack or unstable angina, patients who receive a medication to reduce the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding that may be associated with the use of the antiplatelet drug clopidogrel and aspirin have an increased risk of subsequent hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome or death, according to a study in the March 4 issue of JAMA. http://phys.org/news155320506.html Medicine & Health Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:36:06 EST news155320506 UT Southwestern Medical Center's primary adult teaching hospital has cut its rate of preterm births by more than half in the past 15 years, even as national rates are rising, researchers have found. http://phys.org/news154956040.html Medicine & Health Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:22:16 EST news154956040 High summer temperatures, pushed higher by global climate change, may bring with them a spike in hospitalizations for respiratory problems, according to an analysis of data from twelve European cities, from Dublin to Valencia. The data comes from the "Assessment and Prevention of Acute Health Effects of Weather Conditions in Europe" (PHEWE), a multi-center, three-year collaboration between epidemiologists, meteorologists and experts in public health collaboration that investigated the short-term effects of weather in Europe. http://phys.org/news154341716.html Medicine & Health Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:42:34 EST news154341716 In a study of more than 3,000 patients, researchers at the University of Liverpool have found that one in seven admitted to hospital experience adverse drug reactions to medical treatment. http://phys.org/news153550212.html Medicine & Health Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:50:51 EST news153550212 Researchers from Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have designed a process to minimize discharge failures. The Re-Engineered Discharge (RED) program reduces hospital utilization within 30 days of discharge by over 30 percent, by redesigning the discharge workflow process. These findings appear in the February issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. http://phys.org/news152818537.html Medicine & Health Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:35:48 EST news152818537 There is no good evidence supporting a harmful effect of exercise on joints in the setting of normal joints and regular exercise, according to a review of studies published in this month's issue of the Journal of Anatomy. http://phys.org/news152279685.html Medicine & Health Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:55:14 EST news152279685 For select patients, hospital at home treatment produces similar outcomes to inpatient care at similar or lower costs, found a study by researchers from the United Kingdom and Italy to be published in CMAJ. http://phys.org/news151608790.html Medicine & Health Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:33:47 EST news151608790 Scientists at The University of Nottingham are leading a major European study to unravel the genetic code of one of the most lethal strains of hospital acquired infections. http://phys.org/news151592316.html Biology Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:59:02 EST news151592316 A new study published in Value in Health estimates the extent of hospital admissions for individuals with diabetes and its economic burden in the U.S. The results show that, during 2005, Americans with diabetes had 3.5 times more hospital admissions than those without diabetes. Though only 7 percent of the U.S. population has diabetes, in a study of data from 2005, nearly 22 percent ($171 billion dollars) of hospital charges resulted from treating individuals with the condition. http://phys.org/news151077389.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:56:29 EST news151077389