journal of general internal medicine
Few hospitals aggressively combat catheter-associated urinary tract infections
Hospitals are working harder than ever to prevent hospital-acquired infections, but a nationwide survey shows few are aggressively combating the most common one — catheter-associated urinary tract infections. In the survey by…
Struggling to follow doctor’s orders
CHICAGO — Paid caregivers make it possible for seniors to remain living in their homes. The problem, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study, is that more than one-third of caregivers had difficulty reading and understanding health-related …
Drugs warning — check the label
A new study highlights inconsistencies in black box warnings – medication-related safety warnings on a drug’s label – and argues for a more transparent and systematic approach to ensure these warnings are consistent across all drugs within a s…
Massachusetts physician groups improving patient experience, study finds
Most Massachusetts physician groups are using results from a statewide patient survey to help improve patient experiences, but a significant number are not making use of the information or are making relatively limited efforts, according to a new RA…
R-E-S-P-E-C-T: The health of health care depends on it
INDIANAPOLIS — Along with integrity and compassion, respect for patients, colleagues and other team members is an essential attribute of medical professionalism. A new study examines how medical students learn respectful or disrespectful professio…
Patient-provider language barriers linked to worse diabetes control
Patients who cannot discuss their diabetes with a doctor in their own language may have poorer health outcomes, even when interpreter services are available, according to a new study by researchers at UCSF and the Kaiser Permanente Division of Resea…
Health reform fails the disadvantaged
A new study¹ looking at the effects of the 2006 Massachusetts Health Reform on access to care, health status and ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in healthcare, shows that the legislation has led to improvements in insurance coverage as well as…
Simplified clinical tool affects treatment decisions for heart health
The widespread use of a simplified clinical tool to estimate future coronary risk could lead to the classification of millions of Americans into different risk groups than when using the original, “gold-standard” tool. Millions of patients may ha…
Electronic tracking system can improve follow-up after an abnormal Pap test
(Boston) — Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) report that physicians who use an automated, electronic medical record (EMR) tracking system to follow-up on patients with an abnormal Pap test could increase the number of wo…