Medical Care

How states can encourage web-based health care in hospitals
In the first national look at how broadly web-based technologies are being used to provide health care, a University of Michigan researcher has found that 42 percent of U.S. hospitals use some type of "telehealth" approach. The study, published in the February issue of the journal Health Affairs, breaks down adoption rates by state. It also pinpoints state policies that might encourage more hospitals to adopt telehealth. Eurekalert!

New assessment tool designed to improve care provided at hospitals
A new assessment tool published today in the Journal of Hospital Medicine can help hospital medicine groups across the country improve their patient care and make their operations more effective. Published as "The Key Principles and Characteristics of an Effective HMG," the self-assessment tool is comprised of 47 different characteristics of effective hospital medicine groups (HMGs) sorted into ten different principles. It outlines characteristics like the development of an annual budget, care coordination across care settings and "care that respects and responds to patient and family preferences, needs and values." Eurekalert!

New study shows core factors and strategies to turn primary care practices into PCMHs
A new study conducted by Robert A. Gabbay, M.D., Ph.D., FACP, Senior Vice-President and Chief Medical Officer at Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues identified three core factors and thirteen strategies that increase the probability of getting buy-in from the practice teams within a medical practice to becoming a fully-functioning patient-centered medical home (PCMH). This study was published in the January/ February issue of the Annals of Family Medicine. Eurekalert!