Higher Patient Satisfaction Associated with Mix of Health Care Utilization, Expenditures and Mortality Outcomes – Higher patient satisfaction appears to be associated with lower odds of emergency department use, higher odds for inpatient hospitalization, greater health care and prescription expenditures, and higher mortality risk.
Statins may reduce mortality in patients hospitalized with influenza – Taking Statins May Help Flu patients – The two main ways to prevent and control influenza today are annual immunization and antiviral drugs. A team of investigators has found that statins, cholesterol-lowering drugs, may offer an additional treatment to complement these approaches and reduce mortality among patients hospitalized with influenza.
Quality of life benefits of transcatheter aortic valve replacement, cost effectiveness analysis demonstrates continued superiority over standard therapy – A two-year study of patients in the landmark PARTNER trial, which compared transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in patients who have severe aortic stenosis and are not candidates for open heart surgery, confirm the one-year findings and support the role of TAVR as the standard of care.
Medicare patients at risk of long-term institutionalization after hospital stay — Discharge to skilled nursing facility a key factor, according to first national study – Confirming many elderly patients’ worst fears, a national study has shown that being hospitalized for an acute event, such as a stroke or hip fracture, can lead to long-term institutionalization in a nursing home.
One person has died and 77 people have been sickened in the United States by an outbreak of drug-resistant salmonella that likely originated in ground turkey – Last Friday, the U.S.D.A. issued an alert warning consumers to fully cook ground turkey. Ground turkey is a popular substitute for ground beef for grilled burgers. It is not illegal to sell meat contaminated with salmonella; cooking the meat thoroughly can destroy the pathogen.
Chantix associated with 72 percent increased risk of serious CV events — Popular smoking cessation drug significantly increases risk of hospitalization due to serious cardiovascular problems – Smoking cigarettes is a dangerous habit that many are struggling to break, but for the smokers who choose to use one of the most popular smoking cessation drugs on the market, new warnings about the risk of serious cardiovascular events are on their way. Use of varenicline ? marketed by Pfizer under the brand name Chantix ? is associated with a 72 percent increased risk of hospitalization due to a serious adverse cardiovascular (CV) event, such as heart attack or arrhythmia.
Rate of Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgeries Decreases Substantially – Between 2001 and 2008, the annual rate of coronary artery bypass graft surgeries performed in the United States decreased by more than 30 percent, but rates of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI; procedures such as balloon angioplasty or stent placement used to open narrowed coronary arteries) did not change significantly.
Low Health Literacy Associated With Higher Rate of Death Among Heart Failure Patients – An examination of health literacy (such as understanding basic health information) among managed care patients with heart failure, a condition that requires self-management, found that nearly one in five have low health literacy, which was associated with a higher all-cause risk of death.
Increase in Use of Evidence-Based Treatments is Followed By Decrease in Risk of Death Among Patients With Heart Attack – In an analysis of data from a coronary care registry in Sweden, between 1996-2007 there was an increase in the prevalence of use of evidence-based invasive procedures and pharmacological therapies for treatment of a certain type of heart attack, and a decrease in the rate of death at 30 days and one year after a heart attack for these patients.
NIH study finds omalizumab relieves seasonal asthma attacks in youth — Symptoms reduced in children and young people with moderate to severe disease – A drug that targets the antibody immunoglobulin E (IgE), a key player in asthma, nearly eliminated seasonal increases in asthma attacks and decreased asthma symptoms among young people living in inner city environments, a clinical trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health has found.
Surgery sooner rather than later better for children with perforated appendicitis – For children with a perforated appendix, early appendectomy appears to reduce the time away from normal activities and has fewer adverse events as compared to another common option, the interval appendectomy, which is performed several weeks after diagnosis.
Ischemic stroke hospitalizations decline in middle-aged, elderly, increases in young – The number of acute ischemic stroke hospitalizations among middle-aged and older men and women fell between 1994 and 2007, but sharply increased among those under age 35 – including teens and children – according to research presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2011.
