Results of a recent study have shown multiple barriers to evidence-based practice, a method of patient care that can improve outcomes by 28%, previous data supports. A key barrier is lack of nurses' knowledge of and belief in EBP suggesting that introducing interventions in health care settings can positively influence use of EBP. Additionally, having an EBP mentor was shown as a potential factor to increase the use of EBP. This demonstrates the importance for healthcare systems to create mentoring positions in their organizations.
Article from EurekaAlert
PLoS Medicine
We are pleased to present the inaugural issue of PLoS Medicine, an international open-access medical journal from the Public Library of Science.
Please read our editorial "Prescription for a Healthy Journal" and message from the PLoS founders "A Medical Journal for the Internet Age".
PLoS Medicine: Table of Contents
Recent decisions on PET scans and defibrillators point to a new trend toward faster coverage, but with provisos for doctors.
By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. Oct. 25, 2004.
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Washington -- Physicians who want Medicare to start paying for new uses of cutting-edge medical technology much more quickly than it has in the past could be finally getting their wish. But doctors had better be prepared to do some extra work for it.
Federal officials recently proposed expanding Medicare coverage of implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), which have been approved for more than a year for use in a limited number of patients with coronary disease. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services anticipates that the list of qualified recipients will jump by one-third, to nearly a half-million as a result.
Article from amednews.com
Posted: Sep 29, 2004 - 10:38:19 PDT
By Joel Gallob Of The News-Times
Some 20-plus local residents joined this week in an exercise in identifying the problems of medical care delivery in today's Oregon. They confronted issues ranging from the old and familiar - how to provide health care to all - to the very newest - how to ensure good health in a culture where self-induced diseases are the chief threat.
Dr. Rick Wopat, a family physician with Samaritan Health Systems in Lebanon, led the forum at Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital Monday night. The forum, one of ten around Oregon, was organized by the Oregon Health Policy Commission, a body formed by the legislature to research health care problems and make recommendations to the governor and legislature.
The possible solutions discussed, in Newport and elsewhere, Dr. Wopat said, will help form the recommendations the commission will make. "Some will be short term recommendations, some will be intermediate-term, and some will be long term," he said. "Not everything we come up with will lead to legislation next session." But some of it, he said, will.
The exercise focused on four areas: improving access to health care, controlling costs, increasing the health care quality, and improving health generally.
Article from News Times