July 18, 2014

California healthcare costs will significantly increase with new proposition(PDF)

The Medical Staff Executive Committees of the Stanford Health Care (SHC) and the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (the "MECs"), representing the over 2500 physicians who care for patients at these hospitals and clinics, formally oppose Proposition 46 dealing with patient drug checks, physician screening and medical malpractice lawsuits. The MECs believe that this initiative will compromise patient privacy, limit access to needed healthcare services, increase healthcare costs, foster baseless lawsuits, and create significant inefficiencies. Click here to read the joint statement of SHC and LPCH Medical Staff Executive Committees. 

What's New and Coming Soon in Epic
Level of Service (LOS) speed buttons have been added to make documentation more efficient in the LOS navigator section (Starting: 7/24/14) 

New Blood Culture Media (PDF)
Starting on Tues July 15th 2014, the clinical microbiology laboratory will switch to a new automated blood culture system (known as Becton Dickinson BACTEC FX system) for detection of bacteria and fungi in blood. The new system utilizes resin in the media (BACTEC Plus Aerobic/F and Plus Anaerobic) to remove antibiotics from the blood culture solution, thereby facilitating more rapid detection of non-fastidious bacteremia (Clin Infect Dis 2013:56). Click here to read more.