Where a patient receives care in a hospital has a lot to do with what types of care the patient values most.
In inpatient settings, for instance, patients value nursing care the most. In the emergency department, overall personal safety and continuity of care are most important. For pediatric care, factors affecting patient satisfaction vary a lot depending on which department patients are in, according to a study published this month in the American Journal of Medical Quality.
The Complex Role of Physician-Patient Empathy
Examining Empathy (The Lancet)
Empathy has become a hackneyed term in medicine. It's generally understood that a physician's ability to sense and understand the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of patients is valuable in clinical encounters, but questions remain. Is it always beneficial for doctors to feel and display empathy? What happens when doctors and patients have different expectations about how and when empathy is expressed? Can empathy really be taught and learned in medical schools? Such questions will never yield to quick and easy answers.
Telehealth
Latest Telehealth Developments on Capitol Hill (HealthCare Chaplaincy Network)
Recently the Alliance held a conference call to discuss Senate legislation being drafted by a bipartisan group including Senators Schatz (D-HI), Wicker (R-MS), Cochran (R-MS), Thune (R-SD), Warner (D-VA) and Cardin (D-MD). The legislation would establish a transitional payment for current telehealth reimbursement, explore areas to expand telehealth within hospital systems, establishes a new telehealth benefit for dialysis performed in the home and requires Medicare Advantage plans to incorporate telehealth as part of the basic Medicare Advantage benefits package.
Future issues of this e-newsletter will keep you apprised of this and other legislative developments relevant to patient-centered care.
The IDC-10 Billing Codes and Reimbursement for Spiritual Care (PlainViews.org)
Recently there has been much discussion and speculation among chaplains about the advent of ICD-10 and the fact that it contains billing codes for some spiritual interventions that chaplains do. Experts George Handzo, Lerrill White, and Sue Wintz, in this timely article, clear up misunderstandings and identify work to be done.
Now Online to Read
The new Fall 2015/Winter 2016 issue of HCCN's
Caring for the Human Spirit® magazine.
In This Issue:
- Special Section on Pediatrics
- Let's Seat "Chief Spiritual Officers" at Decision-Making Tables
- Disaster Chaplaincy in a World on Fire
- The Goals of Medicine: Health or Joy? And Lessons Along The Way
- A Snapshot of Chaplaincy Standards
- The Chaplain Goes Virtual
- And More....
Plus this online bonus: a
video interview with Rev. Paul Nash, senior chaplain, Birmingham Children's Hospital, U.K., co-author of "Interpretive Spiritual Encounters Offer Children Space to Explore Spiritual Needs."
