Western Pennsylvania Healthcare News

Covering healthcare news in the Pittsburgh region and beyond.

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Forget CRNP Regulations—The Answer is Telemedicine

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By Syed Kaleem

Last month, the Pennsylvania State Senate surpassed expectations, based on previous years, and passed SB 25 – an amendment to the state’s Professional Nursing Law that includes expanding Certified Registered Nurse Practitioners’ (CRNPs’) scope of practice to include independence from physicians. However, in the context of its goals of increasing access to care in rural areas, valuable time and energy is being wasted with efforts to push this legislation instead of telemedicine regulations. A framework for telemedicine would move Pennsylvania’s healthcare landscape into the future would significantly increase access to care. 

The Pennsylvania Medical Society sent a letter to Committee members before the bill passed stating their position that, “Removing physicians from the care team will not improve care nor will it improve access to care in remote areas of the state.” 

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Intraprise Health Launches Software Service to Battle Security Breaches in Healthcare Organizations

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BluePrint Protect™ Security Risk Management Software Manages and Automates Security

Utilizing more than a decade of expertise in security and technology for healthcare clients, Intraprise Health has created BluePrint Protect™ Security Risk Management Software. BluePrint Protect™ was created to help organizations efficiently manage and automate their security program, starting with one of the most pressing needs for any organization, Third-Party (Security) Risk Management, or TPRM. 

Utilizing its intuitive, modern interface, BluePrint Protect™ customers gain a comprehensive, ongoing and dynamic view of their enterprise-wide third-party risks by automating TPRM processes and leveraging Intraprise Health’s third-party/vendor knowledge base, or “Third-Party Assessment Cloud.” Security team members, users from across an organization’s supply chain and their third parties can access or be connected to the platform to collaborate and communicate in real-time. BluePrint Protect™ drives task management and reporting to accelerate milestone completion, thereby reducing the resource burden and time commitment for all involved, especially customer’s security team.

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Cost of Pressure Injuries Continues to Strain Healthcare Providers

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By Martin Burns

Hospital-acquired conditions— everything from adverse drug events to accidental falls to surgical site infections—have historically been tremendously expensive for patients and hospitals alike. But according to data recently released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the overall picture is starting to improve. The new data show a reduction in hospital-acquired conditions of 910,000 (about 13 percent) between 2014 to 2017, which not only helped prevent 20,500 U.S. hospital deaths but also saved $7.7 billion in healthcare costs.

Yet among this positive news regarding the dropping rates of most hospital-acquired conditions, one area, pressure injuries—also known as pressure ulcers and bed sores, and often classified as “never events”—continue to exact an exorbitant cost on the budgets of healthcare providers. The same AHRQ report shows that the rate of pressure injuries actually increased by six percent during the same time period as the rates of other conditions were on the decline.

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How to Become an Emergency Medical Technician

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If you spend a lot of time wishing your regular nine to five job could be more exciting, it may be time for a career change. The job of Emergency Medical Technicians is expected to grow fifteen percent over the next decade, and you could be a part of this ever-changing, fast-paced world.

Wondering how to become an EMT? Read on.

Understanding the Role of an EMT

EMTs are just one rung of the field-based emergency medical provider ladder. There are several layers of emergency medical technician:

Emergency Medical First Responder

EMRs are trained to the most basic level of life-saving skills. They can control bleeding, set a fracture, perform CPR, and other very basic functions while waiting for a higher level provider to arrive on the scene.

Emergency Medical Technician

EMTs possess all the skills of the EMR but are also trained to use many non-invasive tools in the field. They can take blood pressures, evaluate oxygen levels in the blood, help patients take prescribed medications, and perform other basic life-saving interventions. When people research EMT school or how to become an EMT, it is usually at this skill level.

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Duquesne University School of Nursing Hosts Symposium on Homelessness

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Duquesne University School of Nursing will host its 10th annual McGinley-Rice Symposium on Justice for Vulnerable Populations, a unique scholarly forum for health care professionals to address social justice issues in health care, on Oct. 17-18, 2019. 

Organized by Sr. Rosemary Donley, PhD, APRN, FAAN, professor of nursing and the Jacques Laval Endowed Chair in Justice for Vulnerable Populations at Duquesne University, this year’s symposium will look at The Face of the Person Who is Homeless. The two-day symposium will feature lectures, panel discussions, and dialogue sessions with clinicians, researchers, educators, and advocates working with persons who are experiencing homelessness. 

Sr. Donley hopes that the symposium will educate attendees about the homeless plight in this country, awaken awareness and stimulate action on behalf of justice. “It’s difficult to change attitudes,” she says. “But the people who typically come to our symposium are open to being changed. They already know and understand the population, so we want to give them a toolbox for some of the things they can do as well as some people they can call.” 

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