California’s health care providers have a workforce challenge. The state is going to need 11,000 medical coders between now and 2024—that’s about 1,600 job openings a year.
The proposed California online community college has announced its first partnership to establish a program pathway in the health care industry to meet needs like more coders.
The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare West & Joint Employer Education Fund met with reporters Tuesday to discuss the agreement.
The statewide online community college has been proposed by Governor Brown to help California’s stranded workers, those who lack job credentials and skills because they are unable to attend colleges because of family and work responsibilities.
If approved by the Legislature this summer, the college is expected to be activated by 2019.
Medical coders start at $30 per hour and can make as much as $50 per hour. Their task includes reviewing medical charts and assigning codes for insurance billing.
“These are attractive jobs to enter the health care industry,” said Rebecca Hanson of the SEIU UHW-West & Joint Employer Education Fund.
Lorraine Maisonet of Elk Grove, California was on the conference call. She works for Dignity Health and commutes two hours to work every day. She doesn’t have time to go to school but indicated that an online college would let her learn at her own speed when she could.
Alma Hernandez is the executive director of SEIU California, which represents more than 700,000 members. She said that many workers are stuck in dead-end jobs and don’t have access to the education opportunities that are already available. She also pointed out that the for-profit colleges that offer similar certificate programs are expensive and often result in workers being in debt.
“This is responding to the needs of California workers,” she said.
Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley indicated that the system is working on other pathways as the system focuses on how to help California workers improve their economic mobility and rebuild the state’s middle class.
Dignity Health’s chief digital officer explains why he thinks Apple can succeed for population health and precision medicine efforts where other PHR launches have not.
As a longtime collaborator with Apple – since before it even beta-tested its Health Records project, live now at 39 hospitals – San Francisco-based Dignity Health is in sync with the iPhone developer’s vision, said Shez Partovi, MD.
A screensnap of Apple’s personal health record feature with iOS 11.3.
As part of the Health Records launch, Dignity will leverage HL7’s FHIR standard to securely move patients’ health data from own electronic health record system to the iPhones of patients using iOS 11.3 – enabling them manage meds, labs, allergies, conditions and more, and notifying them when the health system makes changes to their health information.
For those patients managing an illness or a chronic condition, “a big part of your life is self-managing that condition,” he said.
Luckily, nowadays there are “more and more tools out there that will be enhanced if they have your data.” A tool like Apple’s Health Records, that puts valuable EHR data right onto a person’s smartphone, can only be a boon.
The idea of personal health record is nothing new, of course. Most providers offer at least a basic patient portal that can be accessed via computer or smartphone, although utilization of them remains underwhelming.
Columbus, OH — One out of five teachers who experiences physical or verbal violence on the job does not report it to school administrators, according to a study led by researchers at Ohio State University.
25 percent reported actual physical abuse or assault.
20 percent reported threats of physical violence.
37 percent described verbal insults, disrespectful language or inappropriate sexual advances.
However, 20 percent never informed an administrator about the incident, approximately 14 percent did not tell a co-worker and nearly 24 percent kept the news from family.
The researchers also found that teachers were more likely to talk with co-workers about violence than with administrators – 8 percent described a lack of support when they reported violence.
“Some schools may need to re-evaluate how they can support and help teachers who are victims of violence,” Anderman said.
If you knew a certain behavior put your employees at a four-times greater risk of injury would you encourage it? Probably not. Yet many employers allow and even encourage workers to use cell phones while driving, despite the evidence showing the danger.
In addition to putting workers at risk, employers have been held liable for up to $25 million for employee crashes — even when they were using hands-free devices. Companies can protect their workers, greatly reduce their workers’ compensation costs, and steer clear of liability by implementing and enforcing distracted driving policies.
Motor vehicle crashes are the #1 cause of work-related deaths each year, and distractions are one of the main reasons for accidents. Cell phone use while driving results in 1.6 million auto accidents annually.
Studies show people who drive while talking on the phone are 4 times more likely to have a crash, and those who text are 8 times more likely. Distracted driving also presents risks for workers in the area. In fact, distraction is the top cause of accidents in work zones.
The problem is our brains are not equipped to fully concentrate on both driving and cell phone use simultaneously. Driving and communicating via cell phone both require significant brain power. But the brain cannot focus it’s complete attention on more than one task, so it must choose where to focus attention, or split attention between two or more mental activities.
The effect is the area of our brain that processes moving images decreases by one-third when we are talking on the phone — whether it is a hand-held or hands-free device, since both are more cognitively demanding than having a conversation with someone in the car.
Drivers who use cell phones can miss seeing up to 50 percent of their driving environment. Several studies have shown talking on a cell phone (hands-free or not) while driving is comparable to driving while drunk.
A jury found that a driver and the company that owned the vehicle were liable for $21.6 million because testimony revealed that the driver may have been talking with her husband on a cell phone at the time of the fatal crash.
With only 9% of medical schools teaching students about medical marijuana, new graduates are ill-equipped to prescribe the substance and field questions on the topic, a new study suggests.
Researchers surveyed deans at over 100 medical schools and residents and fellows at one large academic center; scoured a national medical curriculum database; and found a paucity of education on an increasingly used treatment for pain and other conditions.
The federal government prohibits marijuana prescribing, but the substance is legal in 29 states as well as the District of Columbia. More states are in the process of legislating in favor of recreational or medical marijuana legalization.
Despite the increased legal availability of the substance, as co-investigator Carolyn Dufault, PhD, assistant dean of education at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and her colleagues found, medical schools are not keeping up with recognition of the medical value of marijuana.
They surveyed 101 deans at 82 allopathic and 19 osteopathic medical schools in the United States, 258 residents and fellows at Washington University, and analyzed curricula from 2015 to 2016 as listed in the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Curriculum Inventory.
The results of the survey (Drug Alcohol Depend 2017;180:151-155) showed that two-thirds of deans believed their graduates were not prepared to prescribe medical marijuana, and 25% said their students were not ready to answer questions about it.
With autism rates growing nationally, and even more dramatically in New Jersey, where one in 41 children receive an autism diagnosis today, it is no surprise that the jobless rate is higher for young adults that are living on the spectrum. While this statistic underscores a challenge, it also reveals a meaningful opportunity for New Jersey’s employers who seek to create a more inclusive workplace.
However, with top talent increasingly in demand, companies such as Microsoft, Walgreens, Zinburger, Capital One, and Procter & Gamble, are actively recruiting people with autism, especially in technical jobs. Consider SAP which has a formal program to recruit those with autism spectrum disorder; the Silicon Valley giant already has 130 such employees, as shown recently on CBS News.
At The Phoenix Center, young adults with autism are also meaningfully contributing to workplace; through its Transition and Community-Based Instruction programs, the school facilitates employment opportunities for students with autism, with positive results for employer and student alike. “Our students and graduates are placed in jobs throughout NJ in companies such as Walgreens, Shop Rite, a Kia automotive dealership, and Liberty Science Center, for example, and have shown real aptitude for computer programming, computer design and math problem solving, for example,” Mower said.
Do Online Medical Results Do More Harm Than Good?
But in the past few years, hospitals and medical practices have urged patients to sign up for portals, which allow them rapid, round-the-clock access to their records. Lab tests (with few exceptions) are now released directly to patients. Studies estimate that between 15 and 30 percent of patients use portals.Bottom of Form.