Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study: If Your Doctor Is Burned Out, Your Safety May Be At Risk
Patients being treated by burned-out doctors may face additional risks when they receive care, a new study suggests. A new review concluded that doctors experiencing burnout are twice as likely to be involved in patient safety incidents such as medication errors and "suboptimal care". (Pickover, 9/14)
"The challenges that we highlighted around the fatigue and the mental well-being of nurses continue to this day," said Zina Gontscharow, a senior policy adviser at the American Nurses Association. "Nurses are really feeling a lot of stress with not having adequate (staffing) on the floor, overtime and long shifts." (Alltucker, 9/14)
A legislative-ordered report aimed at shining a light on Colorado’s payment system for mental health care has done little to calm the ongoing frustration of therapists and psychologists in private practice. (Brown, 9/14)
As violence against healthcare workers continues to rise, healthcare administrators asked Wyoming lawmakers to enhance the penalties for violence against their employees. Lawmakers rejected that request. (Victor, 9/14)
In legal news —
A New York hospital has agreed to pay about $2.6 million to settle claims that a former physician affiliated with it performed and billed for unnecessary implantable defibrillator battery replacements, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn announced Wednesday. (Pierson, 9/14)
Leaders of Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, N.H., told employees on Wednesday that they will launch a full review of how the hospital oversees medical care after a Boston Globe Spotlight Team series revealed that a former surgeon there racked up one of the worst surgical malpractice records in the country and that administrators did little to address repeated warnings by employees. (Fernandes and Saltzman, 9/14)
