Care notes
Jacki Scuffle, Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Trust
"Information systems in the NHS tend to reflect working practices of their time, and therefore legacy systems concentrated mainly on administrative activities, gathering data on spells, events and attendance, for export to financial systems and NHS Central Returns. However, there are now real benefits in clinicians taking advantage of technology to improve the level and quality of information available to them about their patients. The widespread use of computers amongst clinical teams requires enormous investment, not only in the supply and installation of equipment and a suitable network, but also in the training of clinical staff to become computer competent, and in the change management issues around transparency and information sharing."
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Report, in Adobe Acrobat format, in Health Affairs - "Health care spending per privately insured person increased 7.4 percent in 2003. While lower than the 2002 increase, it still outpaced growth in the overall economy by a margin that exceeds the historical average. The trend for drug spending decelerated the most. Meanwhile, hospital spending grew 9 percent in 2003—1.8 percentage points less than the 2002 increase. This reflected a sharp deceleration in growth of hospital use, while growth in hospital prices accelerated for the sixth year in a row. The trend for health insurance premiums fell in 2004. Employers raised patient cost sharing for the third year in a row." See also, in the same issue, U.S. Health Spending In An International Context.
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Newsday story - "Antidepressants are back in the news, with Americans, as usual, being tormented by contradictory messages about the drugs, now prescribed to more than 10 million children and adolescents annually, largely without Food and Drug Administration approval. This month, the National Institute of Mental Health issued a study showing that one member of the family of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, was effective for treating adolescent depression. That was comforting. The next day, the attorney general of New York sued GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of another SSRI, Paxil, for fraud, saying the firm had covered up unappealing safety problems in kids who took the medication, including some who had experienced suicidal thoughts or committed suicidal acts. That wasn't so comforting. The reasons behind these conflicting messages can and do fill millions of pages of legal briefs and clinical trial reports, with varying levels of clarity and veracity in both domains."
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Copyright 2003 © Bill Davis.
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