Iowa news
SCC receives its single largest gift; it will boost the school’s nursing program
Southeastern Community College has signed a partnership agreement with the Great River Health Foundation to help educate more aspiring nurses in the region. Great River Health Foundation is providing a grant of up to $10 million to fund the partnership. This gift is the single-largest donation SCC has ever received. The funding will be distributed for the next five years to help SCC expand support to faculty and students and provide tuition assistance to students entering the nursing program. (Iowa Public Radio)
MercyOne launches patient-provider matching tool in central Iowa
MercyOne has piloted a new patient-provider matching tool that aims to make it easier for patients to connect with a primary care physician. MercyOne worked with Patient Bond, started by former Procter and Gamble employees, to develop the online tool, said Janell Pittman, chief marketing and digital strategy officer for MercyOne. The 11-question quiz was developed from an inventory of 384 different attributes that the company narrowed down to the ones that best characterize people’s health attitudes. Pittman said to her knowledge, it’s the first tool like it offered by a health system in Iowa. (Business Record)
Iowa hospital prepares for CEO, CFO to exit
Boone County Hospital’s CEO and CFO both have plans to retire around the same time the hospital’s contract with QHR Health, a Brentwood, Tenn.-based management and consulting firm, expires. The hospital has partnered with QHR Health since 1993, and the contract is set to expire in January 2023. The board said during a March 25 meeting that the contract will not be renewed. (Becker’s Hospital Review)
National news
Poor behavior ranging from the impolite to the violent is having a moment in society right now. Stress is one likely explanation for the bad behavior. Keith Humphreys, Ph.D., a psychiatry professor at Stanford, said the pandemic has created a lot of “high-stress, low-reward” situations, in which someone who has experienced a lot of loss due to the pandemic may be pushed over the edge by an inoffensive request. Not only are people encountering more provocations — like staff shortages or mask mandates — but their mood also is worse when provoked. (Becker’s Health IT and CIO Report)
Ivermectin does not reduce risk of COVID hospitalization, large study finds
Anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, which has surged in popularity as an alternative treatment for COVID-19 despite a lack of strong research to back it up, showed no sign of alleviating the disease, according to results of a large clinical trial. The study, which compared more than 1,300 people infected with the coronavirus in Brazil who received either ivermectin or a placebo, effectively ruled out the drug as a treatment for COVID-19, the study’s authors said. (Seattle Times)
Physicians spending nearly 2 hours a day on EHR tasks outside work
U.S. physicians who use electronic health records spend an average of 1.84 hours a day completing documentation outside work hours, according to research published March 28 in JAMA Internal Medicine. The researchers analyzed responses to the 2019 National Electronic Health Records survey to learn more about the documentation burden being borne by physicians. Their findings represent 301,603 physicians across the U.S.(Becker’s Health IT and CIO Report)