Healthcare is ever changing, so it’s important to stay up to date on advancements and issues that may impact the development, operation, maintenance, and growth of your services. Here are some important developments:
4 ways to cut down on no-show patients at your practice
The Elmont Teaching Health Center, a federally qualified health center, cut its patient no-shows by 34%. That’s significant given that missed appointments cost up to 14% of anticipated daily revenue at clinics and can also result in longer wait times and can hurt care quality, health outcomes and patient satisfaction. The steps that Elmont took to reduce the number of no-show patients can help other practices or even other businesses that are hurt when customers don’t show up for appointments. Continue reading…
Drug that treats psoriasis also reduces aortic vascular inflammation
An antibody used to treat the skin disease psoriasis is also effective at reducing aortic inflammation, a key marker of future risk of major cardiovascular events. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, led a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study and found patients who took the drug ustekinumab had a 19 percent improvement in aortic inflammation, as measured and confirmed by imaging, when compared to the placebo group. Continue reading…
Montreal Parkinson Risk of Dementia Scale deemed accurate
The office-based, eight-item Montreal Parkinson Risk of Dementia Scale is a valid predictor of development of dementia, according to a study published online in JAMA Neurology. Colleagues from McGill University in Montreal conducted a multicenter study using four diverse Parkinson’s disease cohorts with a prospective 4.4-year follow-up to examine the predictive validity of the Montreal Parkinson Risk of Dementia Scale. A total of 717 patients with Parkinson’s disease were recruited; 607 were dementia-free at baseline and followed for one year or more. Continue reading…
Imaging tracer specific to bacterial infections shows early promise
It may be possible to distinguish infection from inflammation with maltodextrin imaging agents, according to one rat study looking at these tracers to catch infections early on for implanted cardiac devices. One such tracer, maltohexaose conjugated with fluorescent dye, accumulated at one hour after injection in a model of subclinical device pocket infection in rats and persisted over 24 hours. Continue reading…
Pulmonary hypertension at baseline doesn’t raise mortality after TAVR
More than three-quarters of patients undergoing TAVR present with some degree of pulmonary hypertension, but this has no bearing on subsequent mortality, researchers have found. Rather, what matters most is whether the condition persists after TAVR. Pulmonary hypertension is one of the many risk factors that enter into decision-making for TAVR operators and heart teams. In fact, pulmonary artery pressure is one element of the EuroSCORE. Continue reading…
