FEWER THAN HALF OF U.S. HEALTHCARE WORKERS GET FLU SHOTS

More than 36,000 people died between 1990 and 1999 from influenza. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend vaccinating healthcare workers who have direct patient contact as a priority in preventing spread of the disease. However, UCLA and Harvard Medical School found that fewer than half of healthcare workers get flu shots.

Using data analyzed from the 2000 National Health Interview Survey to measure flu vaccination rates among U.S. healthcare workers, the researchers said the overall vaccination rate for healthcare workers was only 38 percent. The rates were particularly low in health aides, African-American workers and those under 50. 

The low vaccination rate among healthcare workers increases their likelihood of contracting the flu and passing it to patients. Healthcare workers, especially those who are minority, poor or young, need both better education and improved access to primary care to reduce the spread of flu. The study appears in the February edition of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

INCREASED NURSE STAFF IMPROVES HOSPITAL QUALITY

A recent study in the journal health affairs makes a clear case for increased nurse staffing to improve quality and patient safety in hospitals.

“The growing body of evidence linking hospital workforces to patient outcomes suggests that one way to improve quality is to increase nurse staffing,” the report says. Boosting the number of nurses without changing licensed hours would save nearly $242 million in short-term costs. Raising staff levels also would prevent 6,700 in-hospital patient deaths. The researchers acknowledge that “from a hospital’s perspective, increasing nurse staffing is costly.” However, they point out, greater use of nurses (registered nurses in particular) “pays for itself.”

HOSPITAL PROFITS HIT SIX-YEAR HIGH IN 2004

Profit margins for the nation’s hospitals reached a six-year high in 2004, with an average of 5.2 percent, according to data from the American Hospital Association, USA Today reports. Profits were driven by strong bargaining power with insurers, slowing expenses and an improving stock market that pushed investment income, according to the paper. In addition, the industry is in the middle of its biggest construction boom in 50 years, with $100 billion being spent in inflation-adjusted dollars in the past five years for new and improved facilities.

Moody’s Investors Service, which tracks more than 500 hospitals, reported similar results, saying that the median overall margin in 2004 was 4.5 percent while the median operating margin, which doesn’t include investment income, was 2 percent. Lisa Goldstein, a senior vice president at Moody’s, told USA Today that those margins were the best she’d seen since Congress reduced Medicare payment rates in 1997. Profits remained strong in 2005, said Goldstein, noting that profit margins were helped by favorable Medicare reimbursements and higher negotiated rates with private insurers; more expensive surgeries being performed, such as cardiac surgery, orthopedics and neurosurgery; strong outpatient revenue; and more controlled costs for pension, malpractice insurance and other expenses.

REALITY (WEB) TV TACKLES THE NURSING SHORTAGE

A Web-based reality show hopes to recruit more nurses by sharing the lives of six travel nurses living together in a California beach house. The travel-nurse industry, which suffered with the economy in recent years as staff nurses sought overtime and hospitals balked at travel-nurse costs, is on the rebound. Recruitment is so competitive that the travel nursing company, Access Nurses, decided to launch a travel-nurse reality show, “13 Weeks,” on www.nursetv.com. The nurses placed in Southern California hospitals will soak up the lifestyle at a beachside mansion supplied by Access and have their work and play videotaped for seven-minute webcasts.

“Our objective is to let young people know travel nursing is a viable career, and you can have an exciting lifestyle,” says Access CEO Alan Braynin. Hospitals say they have mixed feelings about the travel-nurse industry. The nurses fill in when staff nurses take leaves of absence. And they provide continuity for weeks at a time compared with per-diem nurses who are usually hired on a day-to-day basis. While travel nurses may be highly skilled, they also may be less familiar with a hospital’s procedures and doctors.