Increasing demand for services

Although the total U.S. population is projected to grow at a moderate annual rate of less than 1.0% over the next decade (2010-2020), the over-65 age cohort, which consumes the greatest level of healthcare resources, is projected to grow at more than three and a half times that annual rate during the same time period and is expected to increase from 13.0% of the U.S. population in 2010 to 16.3% in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

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Obesity rates in 31 states have gone up since last year, and no state showed a decline, says a report from the Trust for America's Health research group in Washington, DC.

Mississippi is currently the top state, with 30% of its adult residents considered obese, closely followed by West Virginia and Alabama, says The Boston Globe.

Colorado is the nation's skinniest state, with 17.6% obese adults, with Massachusetts at 19.8% and other New England states Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island below 21%.

A majority of pharmacies who reported the ability to provide written information in languages other than English say they do so using computer software. Those who provide verbal communication in other languages report using a bilingual staff (66%) or telephone interpreters (33%). One in nine reported using a family member or friend of the customer to interpret conversations, HealthDay says.

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Two months after Hurricane Katrina caused damage that forced the evacuation of patients and staff, Kindred Hospital in New Orleans, reopened 17 of its 90 long-term acute-care beds. The hospital sustained wind damage and shut down temporarily after evacuating all 54 patients and 240 staff on September 2, 2005.

Kindred spent $500,000 on repairs to the hospital and expects to spend $1.5 million more in the next six months, according to published reports.

High blood pressure is a leading health ailment in the United States, but the likelihood of patients seeking treatment depends in part on where they live.

Scarborough Research in New York City conducted an analysis of Medicare participants and found that Lexington, KY, is the leading local market for high blood pressure medication purchases among Medicare participants. In Lexington, 64% of Medicare participants purchased such medications during the past year and are 24% more likely than all Medicare participants to have done so.

The future of emergency departments and their ability to treat all visitors continues to look grim, warns a new report by the Center for Studying Health System Change in Washington, DC.

But the study also revealed steps some hospitals have taken to reduce avoidable emergency room (ER) visits through patient education.

The Maryland Healthcare Commission in November 2005 approved a certificate-of-need request for a new patient tower and obstetric (OB) services at Baltimore Washington Medical Center (BWMC) in Glen Burnie, MD, 272 beds.

The approval will allow the hospital to pursue its goal of expanding emergency services as well. Groundbreaking on the $112 million project will begin in early 2006 with the opening expected in 2008. It includes a six-story patient tower, a new women's health center, and an expanded emergency department (ED).

The quest for quality healthcare is getting a shot in the arm from the power of Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Six Sigma.

Consumerism is driving a return to traditional values for evaluating quality with an emphasis on customer-driven measures, and to stay competitive, medical providers must have more than an informal estimate of how their patients view the care they provide, writes James, an expert on business administration and instructor at Parkland College in Champaign, IL.

Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, IL, 386 beds, earned accreditation for the quality of its nuclear medicine, vascular ultrasound, and echocardiography laboratories, one of only five hospitals in Illinois to achieve this status.

The Intersocietal Accreditation Commission granted the accreditation to laboratories demonstrating high standards in all aspects of patient care.