Thursday, January 12, 2012

Top Killers

The CDC has released the top causes of death list. 14 of the top 15 have not changed much in years but Homicide finally got pushed out by pneumonitis.

1. Heart Disease

2. Cancer
3. Lower respiratory diseases; 
4. Stroke and related cerebrovascular diseases; 
5. Accidents (unintentional injuries); 
6. Alzheimer's disease; 
7. Diabetes; 
8. Kidney diseases; 
9. Influenza and pneumonia; 
10. Suicide; 
11. Septicemia; 
12. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis; 
13. Hypertension and related renal disease; 
14. Parkinson's disease; and 
15. Pneumonitis due to solids and liquids.

The good news is that overall the death rates from these causes has dropped including for heart disease, cancer, stroke, and chronic lower respiratory disease and the oft quoted infant mortality rate also declined to an all time low of 6.14 (per 1000 births).
Life expectancy increased by 1 month to 78 years and 8 months

Not clear if the trends will continue or even improve over time...and it will be interesting to see i the healthcare changes have a positive impact on these measurements

Posted via email from drnic's posterous

Friday, January 6, 2012

Hospital CEO Thinks It's Perfectly OK To Show Patient's Records To Newspaper

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Seems there is much more to this story than first meets the eye. THe HIPAA regulations unintended consequences include the price that healthcare providers pay to suffer claims such as this made with either “no comment” or “disagree and if they follow the letter of the law are unable to comment because of patient privacy regulations.

Is patient privacy....patient privacy…….no matter the consequences or are there times and ways to address issues without jeopardizing patient privacy and patient information.

THere is no easy answer but it does expose another instance where we create regulations with good intentions but end up with unfortunate and undesirable consequences

Posted via email from drnic's posterous