Australian Medical Association (NSW)’s Post

✨ Daily Dose of Health Insights January 16✨ 🔹 Today's Highlight: Island Health Launches Pilot Program to Address Doctor Shortages with Physician Assistants "Island Health has become the first health-care authority in B.C. to approve physician assistants (PAs) as part of a one-year pilot program at Saanich Peninsula Hospital to help address doctor shortages. Physician assistants do not have medical degrees but have completed a two-year graduate program and work under the supervision of doctors. This initiative is seen as a way to support the medical team, improve patient care, and reduce physician workload, particularly as patient volumes have increased by 40 to 50 percent at the hospital. Dr. Paeta Lehn, an ER doctor at the hospital, highlighted the success of similar programs in Manitoba and emphasized the value of PAs in improving care efficiency. The pilot program involves two PAs, with hopes to expand it across B.C. in the future. Mayor Michael Goetz of Merritt, where rural communities have faced frequent health-care facility closures, expressed support for the initiative, noting that PAs could help alleviate some of the pressure on physicians, even though they still require supervision. Health Minister Josie Osborne has committed to developing a plan to address health-care provider shortages, particularly in rural areas, with the PA program seen as a positive step towards better support for physicians and patients alike." 🔎 Why Stay Updated? In the rapidly evolving field of healthcare, staying informed is crucial. Whether it's ground breaking research, policy changes, local health events, or wellness tips, these updates are designed to enhance your understanding and keep you at the forefront of medical knowledge. 👩⚕️ Our Commitment to Community Health: At Terra Nova Medical Clinics, we believe in empowering our community with information. Knowledge is not just power; it's health. By sharing these updates, we hope to foster a well-informed community that is proactive about health and wellness. 📲 Join the Conversation: We encourage you to engage with our posts, share your thoughts, and spread awareness. Let's create a healthier, more informed community together. #TerraNovaMedical #StayInformed #PhysicianAssistants #HealthcareInnovation #DoctorShortage #IslandHealth #RuralHealthcare #BCHealth #PatientCare #MedicalSupport #HealthcareSolutions #SaanichPeninsulaHospital https://lnkd.in/g9e3Qwpq

👩⚕️ How does Radial work with physician-led ACOs? 👨⚕️ We’re often asked this — and today, we’re unveiling a new case study (link in comments) that shows exactly that. Our partners at CareMax, Inc. — one of the largest physician-led ACOs in the nation — are re-envisioning post-acute transitions with Radial’s AI-driven insights. Picture this: A hospitalized Medicare patient with a complex medical history. Radial Placement AI decision support automatically flags them on Day 1 for early mobilization. CareMax receives the alert, telephonically engages with the hospital team. Physical therapy activates. Nurses coordinate. Early mobilization begins, to avoid deconditioning. By discharge? Skips the Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) — goes home with the right support. 👍 No need to delay hospital discharge waiting for a SNF bed to become available. It’s a win-win-win: • The patient goes home for their recovery - which is where they want to be, and where they’ll get the best outcomes • The busy hospital opens up a bed sooner, releasing pressure on the backed-up Emergency Department • CareMax succeeds under their value-based contracts As the case study illustrates: Before Radial’s Placement module and early mobilization, 23% of patients went to facility post-acute care. With early mobilization? Only 19%. A 1-in-6 reduction. 🚀 The real impact? A broader shift in thinking on how AI can transform decision-making in value-based care. Now discharge planning isn’t reactive — it’s proactive. Shorter hospital stays. Higher patient satisfaction. A bold vision for value-based care. If your ACO Care Transitions program feels stuck in the past … Let’s fix that. DM me to learn more. #ValueBasedCare #AIinHealthcare #EarlyMobilization

Missing clinical voices in urgent and emergency care 🫥🩺 Clinicians are one of the three core groups necessary to lead change in healthcare. The others are nurses and managers. Each brings a particular perspective to the leadership table that is important for balance. 🩺+😷+🧑💼=⚖️ In many systems clinicians are often absent from decision-making for the services they co-lead. The reasons for this is largely technical: 🩺 Acute trusts allocate little time to clinical leadership - 4 hours a week or less is standard, 🩺 Clinicians, especially those in urgent care, are less agile to fit their clinical duties around meetings where decisions about how they work are made, and 🩺 When system pressure is high (near constant in urgent and emergency care) clinicians are conflicted when asked to prioritise between meetings and direct patient care. The result is an interesting imbalance in decision-making: clinicians have strong voices (as industrial action proved), and when decisions exclude their perspectives, their strong voices can end up derailing these decisions. 🚫⚖️ This affects the strength of decisions. It also affects to what extent clinicians follow decisions they were excluded from - resistance (passive and active) is not uncommon. ✋ A shared purpose, belonging and agency are important change variables. Removing these from any team member, weakens the team, and by extension the decisions made without them. When affecting a core team member the stakes are so much higher. 🚫🤝 When viewed in the context of urgent and emergency care, weakly balanced leadership introduces unnecessary challenges, with very real effects on patient care. Urgent and emergency care systems are complex; lasting change is unlikely when all core decision-makers are not on board. 🚑... . 🏥🚑🚑🚑🚑 🚑... . Finding a better way to ensure clinician leaders can contribute meaningfully, requires removing the structural barriers that limit their engagement. 🚑... . 🚑🚑🚑... . 🏥 🚑... . Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT), Helen Bevan

Here’s my recent contribution to an incredibly helpful and comprehensive article written by Payton Babb Sy, RN in US News and World Report about ways to find a physician when none are available.   It’s no secret that there's a primary care shortage, which has occurred due to a variety of factors: higher pay in specialized fields of medicine and challenges with insurance reimbursement are a few. So getting creative when looking to be treated by a physician on short notice is a necessity.   I suggested getting in touch with medical schools and nursing programs in your area to see if such an option exists. It’s usually easier and faster to make an appointment there to receive the care that you need, and it’s also more affordable than visiting a doctor’s office.    Additional helpful suggestions are available in the article. #primarycarephysicians #findingaphysician #primarycareshortage https://lnkd.in/gjeBu9nz

A study by UMass Chan Medical School and UMass Memorial Health revealed significant financial costs associated with emergency department (ED) boarding, especially for acute stroke patients. While ED boarding times decreased from 182 minutes in 2022 to 110 minutes in 2023, high-volume EDs (over 80,000 patients annually) still face lengthy boarding periods, with an average of 178 minutes. The study, which used a time-driven, activity-based costing approach, found that daily ED boarding costs were nearly double those of inpatient care. For example, medical/surgical boarding costs were $1,856 per day compared to $993 for inpatient care. The gap widened when accounting for travel nurses, with daily boarding costs reaching $2,258. ICU boarding also incurred 5% higher costs than inpatient ICU care. Aside from financial burdens, the study highlighted that boarding patients often receive less equitable nurse care compared to inpatients. This research underscores the urgency for hospitals to address the costly issue of ED boarding. Our telehealth specialists help reduce ED boarding by offering virtual consultations for non-critical cases, alleviating the strain on overcrowded emergency departments. By providing timely remote care, we assist hospitals in optimizing resource allocation, decreasing boarding times, and improving overall patient flow and care quality. We are the One! #revenuecycle #revenuecyclemanagement #priorauthorization #medicalbilling #medicalcoding #healthcare #healthcaretechnology #accountsreceivables #denialmanagement #consulting #management #implementationpartner Becker's Healthcare

Chicken and egg scenarios are increasing in hospitals. Clinical department closures such as OB due to low birth rates beg the question of which came first. The inability to recruit physicians will shut down any clinical service. No Obstetricians and Anesthesiologists = No L&D. I see more of this extending to other clinical services as physicians exit clinical medicine or choose part-time models of care delivery. It's dystopian to read a hospital is closing surgical services due to low volume and inability to recruit physicians and surgeons. Until hospitals change their staffing model for providing physician services, we will continue to see department closures, hospital closures, and loss of accreditation. The cost and instability of relying on Locum Tenens should be closely examined by hospital leadership. Until then, Becker's Healthcare will have lots of content to share on the diminished access to patient care. #patientaccess #patientsafety #healthcareonlinkedin #hospitals #physicianadvocacy #exitstrategies

BBC Headline today - "High staff turnover rates linked to patient deaths" TL;DR 🏥 148 NHS hospitals 👩⚕️ 4,000 patient deaths associated with high turnover of nurses and senior doctors. ✏️ Author's comment -"High turnover rates are not simply an administrative issue; they have real, life-or-death implications for patients. It's time for healthcare leaders to focus on retention strategies that prioritise workforce stability." 👇 Reference to longitudinal study from University of Surrey below. My take: 🤦♀️ On the face of it, this is something that makes sense to all of us working in fast-paced, acute services. ⏰ It underscores the urgent need to invest in skills, empower our staff and make working in the NHS attractive again - to break out of the retention crisis we're seeing. https://lnkd.in/eMddUwrT

Nurse practitioners in the VA health system have full practice authority and are trusted healthcare professionals who care for our country's veterans and their families. The Veterans Health Administration is one of the largest integrated health care systems in the United States, employing thousands of NPs across VA medical centers and community‐based outpatient clinics across the country. A 2020 study comparing MD-assigned patients to NP-assigned patients in the VA health system found similar results in costs, clinical outcomes, and receipt of diagnostic tests across both patient groups. The study also found that the NP patients had less hospitalizations overall, as well as comparable outcomes across differing levels of patient comorbidity. These results suggest NPs may be effective at reducing patient hospitalizations and show how primary care NPs don't need to be limited to caring for less complex patients. The study adds to the ongoing decades evidence showing that NPs provide effective, high-quality health care and are a cost‐effective approach to addressing primary care shortages across the country. View the full study published in the National Library of Medicine: https://lnkd.in/et25CrPT #NursePractitioners #CareForPA #FullPracticeAuthority #AdvancedPracticeNurses #HealthcareAccess #AccessToCare

🚨 G-BA Revamps AKI Guidelines to Support Physicians & Enhance Patient Care! 🚨 The Joint Federal Committee (G-BA) has announced pivotal changes to out-of-hospital intensive care (AKI) guidelines, set to take effect on January 1, 2025. These amendments aim to alleviate the burden on healthcare providers while ensuring uninterrupted patient care. 🔑 Key Highlights: - The requirement for potential assessments prior to prescriptions has been relaxed from “must” to “shall” until June 30, 2025. - New exception regulations for patients under Home Nursing Care Guidelines will ease transitions and minimize disruptions. This strategic response addresses the urgent need for qualified physicians and focuses on improving healthcare accessibility, especially in rural areas. The G-BA's proactive approach underscores a commitment to adapting healthcare policies in response to evolving challenges. 👉 Click the link for more details! #AKIGuidelines #GlobalMarketAccess #Healthcare #HealthcarePolicy #MedicalProfessionals #PatientCare #RegulatoryAgencies #MarketAccess #MarketAccessToday

What if continuous monitoring could give back time to clinical staff allowing them to focus on providing care, ensuring patients receive the attention they truly deserve? Prevention and earliest possible intervention are the cornerstones of improving patient care. Still, failure to timely identify exacerbation is a serious challenge in general wards, where intermittent and manual patient check-ups often miss early signs of patient deterioration. Compared to ICUs, general wards face a higher risk of late detection due to limited monitoring capabilities, a problem closely tied to an overburdened clinical workforce. The growing shortage of clinical staff represents a growing pressure on global healthcare systems. With high nursing shortages, nurses often face heavy workloads, trying to balance the demands of routine administrative tasks, and meaningful patient care. Automated, continuous patient monitoring can be a powerful solution. By leveraging the benefits of real-time insights, earliest signs of patient deterioration can be detected and responded to before minor issues escalate. This is not about collecting data; it is about utilizing the data to ease the burden on staff and empowering them to focus on what truly matters: patient care. Earliest possible detection also helps reduce ICU readmissions, shortens hospital stays, and lowers overall operational costs of care. At smartQare, our purpose is clear. We aim to empower healthcare providers to focus on what they are passionate about, caring for patients. Our technology supports strong professional-patient connections by making continuous monitoring a seamless part of everyday care. This ensures providers can stay closely attuned to their patients’ needs, delivering timely support and compassionate attention. Ultimately, it is our mission to enable care that is proactive, preventive and deeply patient centered. What do you think is the most important advancement needed to bring continuous monitoring into general wards? #smartQare #digitalhealth #inhospitalmonitoring