Care Transitions Across Sites: Closing Gaps in Healthcare Settings
When transitioning patients from one healthcare setting to another, it’s not uncommon to encounter gaps in care that have the potential to negatively impact their health. To remedy this problem and reduce associated costs, organizations are taking steps to better plan for a patient’s care transitions and close these gaps in care. These simple strategies can have a significant effect on health outcomes, likelihood of readmission and ER visits, cost to patients, providers and insurers and the burden on caregivers and family members. This white paper from the Healthcare Intelligence Network (HIN) is based on HIN’s April 2009 e-survey in which respondents were asked to share their organization’s experiences with care transitions.
To download this complimentary white paper, please visit:
http://www.hin.com/library/caretransitions.html
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Healthy Habits May Be Associated With Reduced Risk of Chronic Disease
Four healthy lifestyle factors — never smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly and following a healthy diet — together appear to be associated with as much as an 80 percent reduction in the risk of developing the most common and deadly chronic diseases. Researchers from the CDC assessed data from 23,513 German adults age 35 to 65. At the beginning of the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition–Potsdam (EPIC-Potsdam) study — between 1994 and 1998 — participants completed an assessment of their body weight and height, a personal interview that included questions about diseases, a questionnaire on sociodemographic and lifestyle characteristics and a food frequency questionnaire.
Most participants had one to three of these health factors, fewer than 4 percent had zero healthy factors and 9 percent had all four factors. Over an average of 7.8 years of follow-up, 2,006 participants developed new cases of diabetes (3.7 percent), heart attack (0.9 percent), stroke (0.8 percent) or cancer (3.8 percent). Individuals with more healthy lifestyle factors were less likely to develop chronic diseases. Participants who had all four factors at the beginning of the study had a 78 percent lower risk of developing any of the chronic diseases during the follow-up period than those who had none of the healthy factors. The four factors were associated with a 93 percent reduced risk of diabetes, 81 percent reduced risk of heart attack, 50 percent reduced risk of stroke and 36 percent reduced risk of cancer.
The largest reduction in risk was associated with having a BMI lower than 30, followed by never smoking, at least 3.5 hours of physical activity per week and then adhering to good dietary principles.
"Our results reinforce current public health recommendations to avoid smoking, to maintain a healthy weight, to engage in physical activity appropriately and to eat adequate amounts of fruits and vegetables and foods containing whole grains and to partake of red meat prudently," the authors write. "Because the roots of these factors often originate during the formative stages of life, it is especially important to start early in teaching the important lessons concerning healthy living."
To learn more about this research, please visit:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090810161906.htm
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Patient Education and Outreach
Educating patients about their health conditions, plan of care and wellness and prevention strategies not only empowers them to manage their condition and care but also can reduce medical complications, medication costs and unnecessary healthcare utilization. Complete HIN's Survey of the Month on Patient Education and Engagement by August 31 and receive a free executive summary of the compiled results. Your responses will be kept strictly confidential.
To participate in this survey and receive its results, please visit:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/...
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A four decade study of 9,844 men and women from the Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research and the University of Kuopio in Finland found that elevated cholesterol levels in midlife — even levels considered only borderline elevated — can increase the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) later in life, according to researchers at Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research and the University of Kuopio in Finland. The study found that having a high cholesterol in midlife (240 or higher milligrams per deciliter of blood) increases, by 66 percent, the risk for Alzheimer’s disease later in life by as much as 66 percent.
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The opening sessions of the Medical Home Open House webinar series delivered tips for improving care continuity, quality and access for patients assigned to a medical home.
