Friday, March 23, 2012

Medical Outsourcing - Some Fact Revelation


The world is shrinking. Did you say what? What we mean by it is we are getting better connected and are less defined and bound by our geographic and national boundaries. The current economic downtrend has resulted in a marked decrease in benefits in most of the affected countries. Some of the consequences includes unemployment, loss of healthcare benefits or marked decrease in healthcare benefits. Despite the economic downtown the healthcare costs are still going up. This is mainly due to the hospitalization costs in the developed world. For example, the surgeon and anesthesiologist would make less than six thousand dollars in a surgery that would cost over $50,000 after insurance price negotiations. Where would all this money go? The answer being the high cost of hospitalization has driven up the costs for many of the procedures requiring surgical intervention.

The same $50,000 procedure after the insurance might cost over $80,000 for the uninsured patient. When the patient cannot afford the insurance in the first place, how can one expect him to pay for such massive bills? This has led to skipping on the preventive care among many uninsured and under insured patients and have resulted in the increase of otherwise preventable surgical interventions. These factors have helped the medical tourism industry a lot. The patients are consumers first. A typical consumer generally shops around for the best price available and also tries to get some coupons on top of the best price. And how is this scenario any different? As mentioned before, the world is becoming a smaller place. Most of the products are coming from China. The consumer loves his country made products but don't have much a chance of what to buy because of complex market pressures. The same thing is happening in the field of medical tourism.

The motives for health tourism are different for patients in different countries. For example, some countries in the Middle East and many countries in Africa do not have facilities or expertise to carry out complex life saving surgeries. And many patients cannot afford the prices charged by western countries. And it is also a fact that obtaining a visa also poses significant problem to these patients. Hence the countries like India with enormous hospitals with world class standards and rack bottom prices have become the obvious choice. One would be strprised by the capabilities of these hospitals. Many American patients have commented that the facilities and the service have surpassed that of many American hospitals.

The corporate world is eagerly looking for a way to curb the healthcare costs. They are noticing that the healthcare costs are going up. They also notice that their employees are paying bigger portion of their salaries every year. But this has not resulted in increased care. On the contrary, one would notice that the benefits are constantly dropping with higher deductibles and out of pocket costs. Many employers are today receptive to the idea of incorporating medical tourism as one of the strategies to curb the problem of increasing medical costs. And some have already begun the pilot projects to encourage the employees to utilize medical tourism as one of the alternatives to bring down the costs. If utilized and implemented properly, this should translate in to significant savings in healthcare for the employers and employees alike.

Land That Job Affordably: Where to Go For a Pre Employment Physical Exam


You've been looking and searching, scouring websites and newspapers. You've been posting requests to friends on Facebook, dialing the phone like a mad person and finally... finally, you land the new job! It's time to break out the champagne and celebrate, right? What, not yet? There's one more thing to do? Ah, the pre employment physical exam! Don't worry about it. It's a piece of cake. You're as healthy as a mule (you smell better, but you're as healthy as one), nothing can go wrong. Right?

Well, hopefully. Assuming that you have been eating foodstuffs other than fried chicken and Slurpees your entire lifetime, all should be fine. A pre employment physical exam is a run-of-the-mill exam. Of course, the doctor will do everything in his or her power to alert you to any outstanding or newly found medical problems, but they also realize how important this test is for you. In other words, that it is this test-and at this point only this test-standing between you and a brand new, regular paycheck.

A pre employment physical exam is a set of tests and procedures that a doctor will perform by eye, hand and tool. It will be quick and easy on you-not painful-and hopefully affordable to boot. None of the tests will be invasive and you should be out the doctor's office within an hour. We've all had these exams performed on us at some point in our lives and they are nothing to worry about. Most of us have had them growing up before we were shipped off to summer camp, or perhaps before we attended a special school or program that required one. There is also the physical exam one will undergo if they join the armed forces-but that type of physical exam is different from a pre employment in several different ways.

One thing a potential employer may ask of you is that you prove to them that you are not currently partaking in any illegal drugs. In this case, the doctor will do a drug test to see if you have any non-prescription drugs in your system. When it comes to the "street drugs" testing procedures there is a standard five panel urine test that is commonly used. The drugs that this five panel test looks for are marijuana, cocaine, PCP, opiates (such as Vicodin, morphine and Oxycontin) and amphetamines. It is rather typical for a pre employment physical exam to include these tests.

Other features of a pre employment physical exam may include your medical history, your vitals (height, weight, blood pressure and temperature), vision screening, and a heart test to make sure you are as strong as that mule. (Note: one does not need to be as healthy as a beast of burden to pass a pre employment physical exam!)

Another thing a pre employment physical exam may include is your vaccination history. Many employers want to make sure that their employees are up to date with their inoculations. Many of us have already received these as children and if a booster is required can be easily provided by your medical clinic.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Important Factors in Choosing The Material for Nurse Scrubs


Working in a hospital often means that you have to be alert all the time. We all know just how intense it is to be in an environment where you are always on the go. Every minute is crucial espdcially when you are called on. In other words, workers in this type of institution are expected to be in their best shape. They are expected to be two steps ahead. Now, even their uniforms have already evolved into something better -- perhaps much more comforting, if I may say so.

Being in a room where patients need cure for their diseases can be somewhat scary. That is one of the reasons why medical practitioners are expected to wear their own uniforms. These uniforms are not just for identity purposes. These serve as protection against harmful bacteria or other microorganisms they've been in contact with. Aside from that, they also need to do measures in preventing the contamination of these microbes to other people -- healthy and sick alike.

If you are not familiar with the medical field, you may not know that medical scrubs are unlike any other kinds of uniforms. Since they are made particularly for hospital setting, the fabric and material dries faster than usual. Furthermore, the uniform should ideally be easy to wash -- meaning, stains can be removed easily.

Another major element that is expected in a medical uniform is the weight. Of course, since these medical practitioners are always on the go, they need to have a lightweight uniform that flows with them wherever they go.

Medical practitioners often group themselves according to profession. This can be seen through their uniforms. Aside from being an effective way to identify their roles in the hospital, it can also be somewhat fun for the institution. According to experts, even nurse uniforms can affect the aura of a medical unit. Like for example, nurses who are working in a Pediatric Oncology unit can lighten up a child's mood by wearing a uniform with cartoon characters. In the same way, older patients can experience a slight tranquility when seeing a medical practitioner wearing hues of green and blue. Although this may seem a little petty for some, research says that a slight change in mood can affect the overall wellness of a patient, sick or not.

Working in a hospital can be very stressful. You may feel ecstatic when your patient gets discharged, but you can also be at your lowest after trying to revive your patient to no avail. Either way, the hospital mood is just like a rollercoaster ride. Wearing fun and stylish scrubs is just one of the things that can somewhat help in lifting your moods after a draining shift.

Medical scrubs are now getting the attention of many medical practitioners. Indeed, a lot of people now are looking for ways in lightening up the mood of hospitals. After all, this is the place where sick people gets cured, and not the other way around, right?

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Health IT - Five Benefits of Managed Network Services to Medical Practices


Small and medium-sized medical practices that remain hesitant about Managed Network Services are not realizing the value or the peace of mind that comes with having this service. Some of the advantages of using a Managed Network Services provider that specializes in health IT include better cost control and a more comprehensive and up-to-date IT infrastructure that's dependable, stable, and allows medical practices to comply with regulatory compliances.

Medical practices that choose the right Managed Network Services provider can expect to reap the following five benefits:

1) Reduce cost - In today's healthcare environment, it's important to be as cost-effective as possible. Especially in health IT, where unbridled or poorly managed systems cost is extremely high, it's essential to have a system that works within a budget but doesn't compromise on quality. Managed Services is the most feasible and practical way to accomplish that, especially in the long term.

2) Deal with increasingly complex health IT solutions - With both hardware and software components of health IT systems constantly evolving, medical practices with limited budgets may very well find themselves left behind over time. But with Managed Services, medical practices are able to enjoy the advantages of the latest health IT solutions at a fraction of the cost enabling the practice to provide the best possible care to their patients.

3) Gives healthcare organizations a better, more dependable IT infrastructure - Especially for smaller medical practices, it can be tedious and expensive to maintain an in-house IT staff. Not to mention that medical practices run the risk of stretching resources too thinly, which can compromise the quality and output of the IT department. This service allows the practice to have a stable, responsive, and dependable IT arm that's dedicated to meeting the specific needs of the practice in a cost-effective manner.

4) Offers proactive performance and availability monitoring - 24×7 Availability Monitoring and Performance Monitoring should be included as part of the services suite. 24x7 Availability Monitoring provides real-time alerts when a critical device has lost connectivity, thus affecting the practice ability to deliver care to patients. Performance Monitoring allows the ability to view and analyze the performance metrics of the practice IT infrastructure over time, including CPU utilization, memory utilization, disk usage, network utilization and others. These metrics provide the ability to understand when hardware is ready to fail, before it happens, further shortening the amount of downtime the practice experiences.

5) Helps medical practices maintain compliance - Maintaining HIPAA regulatory compliance with regards to the security of patient records and patient privacy is of critical importance for all healthcare organizations. Managed Services helps medical practices to not only fully understand all the requirements under HIPAA, but to also adhere remain in compliance will all requirements.

Managed Network Services helps medical practices considerably reduce IT related expenses while freeing up clinicians to concentrate their focus and efforts on the most important thing, their patient's care and outcomes.