
JWT INSIDE HEALTH CARE NEWSLETTER
Week of February 1, 2010
*National
New data bank will help hospitals with background checks
After years of delay in the federal bureaucracy, a national data base
for
background checks on licensed medical professionals from all 50 states
will be
available for hospitals to examine on March 1, the
Health Resources and Services Administration announced today.
Hospitals can
already access the National Practitioner Data Base, which contains
records on
physicians and dentists, such as license or privilege suspensions, and
malpractice
payments that are reported by state and federal oversight agencies and
health
plans. Now, restricted access data stored in the separate Healthcare
Integrity
Protection Data Bank, which records adverse licensure actions for all
medical
professionals, including nurses, technicians, chiropractors, and
podiatrists,
will be added to the NPDB for hospitals to examine. The data will be
collected
by sources that include malpractice payers, state licensing and
certification
boards, hospitals, peer review organizations, accreditation
organizations, and
professional societies that conduct peer review. It will be available
for
hospitals, healthcare professional societies that conduct peer review,
state
medical and dental boards, law enforcement, and for self-queries from
medical
professionals. Businesses like temporary healthcare staffing companies,
however, will usually not be allowed access to the data. (HealthLeaders
Media, 01/28/10)
*New Jersey
First in nation survey of nurses reveals New Jersey's 'Best Physicians'
In what is believed to be the first such comprehensive survey in the
nation,
nurses in New Jersey have selected who they think are the best
physicians in
their state. The results of the survey appear in New
Jersey Monthly magazine which hit newsstands today. Called
"Nurses' Choice," the initiative is the result of a unique
collaboration between the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute and
the
Monmouth University Polling Institute with the cooperation of the
Institute for
Nursing, the Foundation of the New Jersey State Nurses Association. The
survey
results are available through the New Jersey Health Care Quality
Institute (www.njhcqi.org); the
website of New Jersey Monthly magazine (www.njmonthly.com); and also on
the
website of the New Jersey State Nurses Association (www.njsna.org). (San
Jose
Business Journal, 02/01/10)
*Pennsylvania
Suburban Pittsburgh hospital closing Sunday
A suburban Pittsburgh hospital closes its doors at midnight Sunday
despite protests
and legal efforts by local residents to keep the century-old hospital
open. The University of Pittsburgh Medical
Center
announced three months ago that it could not continue to operate the
Braddock
hospital at a loss of between $4 million and $12 million annually. UPMC
attributed the problems in part to a drop in patient admissions and
general
underuse by the surrounding Mon Valley communities. (Lebanon Daily News,
01/31/10)
*Texas
Health Science Center tapped to lead Hispanic nursing initiative
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio received
$500,000
in federal funding to help more Hispanics enter careers in nursing. The
National Association of Hispanic Nurses administers a Hispanic nursing
student
mentoring program that identifies and mentors Hispanic students who
want to
enter careers in nursing. The initiative supports Hispanic nursing
initiatives
in Texas, Arizona and California. The program was developed in San
Antonio. The
federal funding will help the Health Science Center’s mentoring program
become
a national model. “The program will be based on the template of Juntos
Podemos,
a mentoring program for Hispanic students that has proven successful at
our
School of Nursing in San Antonio,” says Norma Martinez Rogers,
professor of
family nursing care at the Health Science Center. Rogers is president
of NAHN
and will lead the program. Juntos Podemos is Spanish for “together we
can.” The
School of Nursing created the program back in 2000. (San
Antonio
Business Journal, 02/03/10)
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
Healthcare sector leads online job ads bump in January
Online job listings were up sharply in January in many employment
sectors
across the nation, with continued strong demand for nurses and
healthcare
technicians, a new report released today shows. The Conference Board's Help Wanted Online
Data Series report, which tracks more than 1,000 online job
boards
across the United States, found that advertised vacancies for highly
skilled
healthcare practitioners and technical occupations, such as registered
nurses
and radiographic technologists, increased by 24,500 listings in
January, for a
total of 567,800. Demand for healthcare support personal, such as
dental
assistants and home healthcare aides, also rose by 6,500 listing for
the month,
for a total of 119,000, the report shows. (HealthLeaders Media, 02/01/10)
2010 Survey of Registered Nurses: Job Satisfaction
and
Career Plans
Nearly one-third of registered nurses (RNs) surveyed last month say
they will
not be working in their current job a year from now and close to half
say they
plan to alter their career path in the next one to three years that
would
either take them out of the nursing field entirely or reduce their
contribution
to direct patient care by working fewer hours or choosing a less
demanding
role. These are among key findings from AMN's
2010 Survey
of Registered Nurses: Job Satisfaction and Career Plans. The
survey,
which collected data from 1,399 respondents, was conducted during a
period of
economic recession and in the course of an ongoing national debate over
healthcare reform. The survey reflects how RNs may have altered their
career
plans due to the recession, how they might respond to an economic
recovery, and
highlights whether they believe healthcare reform will address the
nurse
shortage. (AMN press
release, 02/03/10)
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