Developing a “rapid response team” is one of the six recommended interventions in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s 100,000 Lives Campaign. UNC Hospitals has been a part of this national campaign since it began last year.
A small number of medical centers, believed to be less than 20 nationwide, have created rapid response teams [...]

Last month, the Congress held a hearing to examine the financial and human impact of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs).
The main points raised in the hearing were:
• CDC estimates that there are approximately 1.7 million hospital-acquired infections resulting in 99,000 deaths each year.
• The financial costs of hospital-acquired infections are estimated to be [...]

Lots of folks, from political leaders, to public health officials, to people on the street, are asking good questions about pandemic flu. We are even beginning to get a sense of the administration’s plans for addressing the challenges posed by pandemic flu as reported on in this article published in yesterday’s Washington Post . [...]

We are having lots of conversation, nationally and locally, about the cost of health care, and about the latest notion in health insurance, “consumer-driven health care.”
But we really must not forget the millions of our fellow citizens who are without health insurance of any kind, and who therefore don’t have full access to our health [...]

In light of my recent blog entry about electronic health records (March 2, 2006), I’d like to provide a link to an editorial in the current issue of the Annals of Family Medicine: “Keeping our Eye on The Ball: Managing The Evolution of Electronic Health Records.”
The editorial was co-written by several authors, including two [...]

Last week the state of Massachusetts embarked on an innovative path to solve the problem of the uninsured. The legislature and the governor collaborated to pass legislation that will require all citizens to buy health insurance. This is modeled on the many state laws around the nation that require you to have car [...]