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Introducing State Rankings to Best Hospitals
Tweet Share on Facebook July 3, 2012 CommentWe published an advance look in March at the upcoming expansion of the Best Hospitals regional offerings, which will incorporate statewide rankings of hospitals. Now, with Best Hospitals 2012-13 slated for release July 17, we can provide more details.
Last year we introduced rankings in major metropolitan areas. Hospitals nationally ranked in one or more specialties were also ranked in their respective metro areas, for the first time giving consumers a way to compare these hospitals to neighboring institutions. Also ranked in the metro areas are "high-performing" hospitals—those that aren't nationally ranked but perform nearly as well as their nationally ranked brethren in at least one specialty. Including high-performing hospitals in our metro rankings highlighted significantly more options for tens of millions of patients who live in or near a major city and who don't necessarily need a nationally ranked hospital to address their medical needs.
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Corrections to Best Children's Hospitals 2012-13
Tweet Share on Facebook June 14, 2012 CommentFollowing online publication of Best Children's Hospitals 2012-13, we learned from our contractor about programming errors that affected the rankings of hospitals across seven specialties as well as the order of several Honor Roll hospitals.
In Cancer, Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Gastroenterology, Nephrology, and Pulmonology, a measure of hospitals' success in eliminating a particular kind of bloodstream infection was improperly programmed. Some hospitals did not receive partial credit.
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CT Scans Boost Cancer Risk in Young Patients, Study Finds
Tweet Share on Facebook June 6, 2012 Comment (6)A study involving thousands of British children provides the first direct evidence that low-dose radiation used in diagnostic imaging produces a small but real increase in a child's risk of developing cancer within 10 to 15 years, researchers say. The study, published today in Lancet, found that two to three head CT scans can triple a child's risk of getting a brain tumor. Five to 10 scans that deliver radiation to the bone marrow triple the risk of leukemia, the research showed.
In absolute terms, however, the estimate translates into one excess brain tumor or case of leukemia per 10,000 young patients, the study says. This finding is critical, researchers say, because it indicates that an individual's odds of getting brain cancer or leukemia from CT radiation exposure is low.
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Trove of Health Insurance Data Released at 'Health Datapalooza'
Tweet Share on Facebook June 6, 2012 Comment (1)For decades, individuals and families shopping for health insurance have been unable to easily lay their hands on the most basic information on costs and coverage that they need to make an informed choice. That's about to change.
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Study Highlights Shortcomings of Individual Health Plans
Tweet Share on Facebook May 25, 2012 CommentIf ever there was a sign that many individual health insurance plans leave something to be desired, it surfaced this week in a study published in Health Affairs. The study found that more than half of the 14 million Americans who buy coverage directly from insurance companies wind up in health plans that fail to meet standards for essential benefits set by the Affordable Care Act. The analysis, by a team of researchers at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago and the benefits firm Towers Watson, also showed that most people who are insured through employers have more comprehensive benefits and pay a smaller share of the cost.
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Best Children’s Hospitals: Changes Coming in New Rankings
Tweet Share on Facebook May 25, 2012 CommentSharp-eyed users of our Best Children's Hospitals rankings will note the presence of new data points when the 2012-13 rankings are published June 5. The addition of these data points, along with a change in how we factor in each hospital's reputation as determined by a survey of pediatric specialists, reflect the latest refinements to the methodology behind our rankings.
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Ratings of Medicare Advantage Plans Take Fire
Tweet Share on Facebook May 25, 2012 Comment (1)Using stars to rate health plans isn't as simple as using them to rate restaurants or movies. Just ask the agency that governs Medicare, which is now facing renewed criticism over the one- to five-star ratings it uses to evaluate Medicare Advantage plans.
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Continuity of Information: Will EMRs Remedy Discontinuity of Care?
Tweet Share on Facebook May 3, 2012 Comment (5)Back when health information technology amounted to a clipboard, paper and a pen, “continuity of care” was one of the bedrock principles of medicine. It meant that whenever possible, primary-care physicians should oversee their patients’ care, serving as healers and advisors through every phase of the medical experience. Those days are all but gone, replaced by 15-minute office visits and episodic medical encounters, as patient migrate from one doctor to the next, depending on who’s covered in their insurance plan.
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Big Gaps in Health Insurance Coverage, Report Says
Tweet Share on Facebook April 19, 2012 Comment (2)As we wait for the Supreme Court to release its ruling on the Affordable Care Act, there may be no better time to reconsider what started the furor over health reform. A new report lays out in the starkest detail why the court’s decision will have profound implications for tens of millions of Americans.
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TEDMED's Top 20: A List of Big Health Challenges
Tweet Share on Facebook April 13, 2012 CommentThe votes are counted, and the results are in. The 1,500 so-called delegates attending this week’s TEDMED conference at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. -- and many more watching via live simulcast at some 2,000 sites around the U.S. -- have selected the 20 “Great Challenges” in healthcare that they believe deserve the most attention in the year ahead. “Inventing wellness programs that work” was the top vote getter, followed by the overwhelming burden borne by 44 million people caring for ailing relatives. Rounding out the top three was the challenge of shifting role of patients who find themselves navigating a medical landscape that is growing more costly, complicated and inhospitable by the day. The many TEDMED attendees, who winnowed the winners from a list of 50, know challenges when they see them. They included leading medical researchers, CEO’s, venture capitalists, start-up entrepreneurs, health advocates and patients, who rarely get a chance to take center stage at big medical and scientific talk-fests.
Many attendees have come back, year after year, lured by TEDMED’s dedication to incorporating compassionate human stories into sessions focused on technology, entertainment and design (the TED part of the name). This year, TEDMED’s new owner, Jay Walker, founder of Priceline.com, moved the meeting from San Diego to Washington, as the first stage in an ambitious attempt to, as he put it, “take TEDMED and grow it into something important for the nation and the world.” Identifying the 20 Great Challenges was one step in that plan. Walker acknowleges that the TEDMED effort is unlikely to produce sweeping solutions any time soon. “We won’t get answers,” he says. “We’ll get a better understanding.” The advocates who backed the challenges were selected for their stature and accomplishments. And they weren’t shy about stumping for their cause. “Can I have your vote,” David Ludwig, an obesity expert at Children’s Hospital in Boston, asked anyone in earshot. He achieved his goal. “Childhood obesity” made the top ten. Now the question is what happens next. Walker’s goal was to launch discussion of these issues that will somehow, hopefully, knock them off the list once and for all. That’s something anyone can root for.
