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Edison, NJ (PRWEB) August 31, 2012

As America?s Baby Boomers continue to age, so does the rate of spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spaces in the spine (particularly the openings, called foramen, that surround the nerve roots). Foraminal stenosis typically occurs in the lumbar region (the lower back), although it also strikes in the cervical spine (the neck). Between 250,000 and 500,000 Americans have symptoms, and some medical leaders expect that number to top 2 million by 2021. Lumbar foraminal narrowing is already the most common cause for back surgery in older adults, and the rates of stenosis surgery are expected to double in the coming years.

As we age, our spines typically undergo a few changes that can spell trouble, says Kaixuan Liu MD, PhD, chief surgeon at Atlantic Spinal Care in Edison, N.J. ?The spinal discs gradually lose flexibility and can herniate, or bulge,? he explains. Other age-related problems, such as bone spurs, arthritis, and thickened ligaments, also can cause foraminal narrowing. Symptoms are tied to the location of the stenosis: If a cervical foramen is affected, you?ll feel pain, tingling, or other symptoms in your shoulders, arms, and hands. If a lumbar foramen is affected, you?ll have symptoms in your buttocks, legs, and feet. ?Impinged nerves also can cause loss of sensory or motor function,? Dr. Liu explains. And if the impingement persists ? and muscles are deprived of nutrients for an extended period of time ? the nerves can die.

Therefore, it?s important to identify and treat foraminal stenosis early. And if conservative treatments ? non-steroidal drugs, exercises, and injections ? don?t help, surgery can. ?Foraminal stenosis surgery is generally reserved for patients whose pain and weakness have significantly impacted their quality of life,? Dr. Liu says. ?If you find your activities are significantly limited, you should consider it.?

Newer (and better) options

Today?s surgical procedures can fix a case of foraminal stenosis like never before. In fact, there are several studies, including the new SPORT, or ?Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial,? which have shown that surgical intervention has a higher success rate than nonsurgical modalities.

While foraminal stenosis surgery has traditionally been performed as an ?open surgery,? with general anesthesia, big incisions, and a lengthy recovery, today?s surgeons use a considerably less invasive technique that allows the patient to go home immediately (and, in most cases, resume normal activities within a few weeks).

In an endoscopic foraminotomy, the surgeon makes a very small incision and gently inserts a small metal tube, about the size of a pencil, into the affected foramen. Through this tube, he inserts a small camera and uses it to guide him as he removes the tissue that?s causing the stenosis. Afterwards, the tube is removed and the incision is closed with only one or two stitches. ?This procedure allows us to relieve the pain and other symptoms of foraminal narrowing without major surgery,? Dr. Liu explains. ?It delivers big benefits without the big operation.?

About Dr. Liu: Kaixuan Liu, M.D., Ph.D., is a renowned endoscopic spine surgeon and founder of Atlantic Spinal Care, LLC, in Edison, New Jersey (http://www.atlanticspinecenter.com). Dr. Liu is certified by The American Board of Pain Medicine and The American Board of Anesthesiology, and is a member of The International Society for Advancement of Spine Surgery, The American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP), The American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM), The International Intradiscal Therapy Society (IITS), and The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). He also serves as an international surgeon for The Spinal Foundations in England.

Atlanta (PRWEB) May 07, 2012

Organizations using Business Computer Applications? (BCA) electronic medical records (EMCs) to speed patient care are also providing feedback that enables the Atlanta-based firm to improve its product line and help others unclog systems choking on paper.

?While the U.S. has the best healthcare in the world the current system, clogged with paper records, makes it difficult to coordinate care, routinely measure quality, or reduce medical errors,? says Albert Woodard, CEO of BCA, a company devoted to digitizing medical records.

He says the situation is getting worse with 80 million aging baby boomers now landing on Medicare roles at a rate of 7,000 a day and the federal government?s planned overhaul of healthcare expected to flood the system with 32 million more patients. ?And this doesn?t even count healthcare for the rapidly increasing prison population which is chewing up an average of 10 percent of every state?s corrections budget,? he says.

He says BCA is continually enhancing its programs with input from its customer base. For example, Jackson Medical Clinic (JMC) in Jackson, Mississippi, a longtime BCA customer, recently beta tested and field-tested the newest version of BCA?s electronic medical record software that enables a new reporting system module to fit into its existing electronic medical record system. The new clinical data analysis and reporting tool enables clinics to practice preventive medicine which improves the quality of patient care through the ability to perform in-depth clinical analysis; create and evaluate productivity comparisons; and develop comprehensive reports. For example, clinics utilizing the enhanced reporting system can generate a list of all patients that require medical procedures. It also produces daily, monthly and yearly comparative reports, as needed. The Jackson tests also discovered that new features will make it easy for public and private health care facilities to report data to federal, state, and local governments.

BCA clients around the U.S. that are using EMR systems to increase efficiencies, save money, generate cash flow and boost productivity including the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) andTexas? CentroMed Health & Wellness Center.

UTMB successfully converted over 120 Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities including the implementation of ten years? worth of millions of offender health records, updating 3,500 computers, and training over 3,000 users across widely and geographically dispersed facilities in Texas. The statewide system serves some 120 state, 15 youth, and 3 federal prisons and has been recognized for helping the state of Texas realize a 45% reduction in medical tests deemed to be unnecessary. It has also resulted in a 70% reduction in the number of transfers from prison facilities to physician offices and a 38% reduction in transfers from inmate housing to emergency rooms. The EMR system covers 145 locations and handles 19 million interactions a month. Due to the program inmate medical cost-per-day has been drastically reduced to $ 9.67. This compares to $ 41.25 for California, the only state with a higher incarceration rate than Texas.

Another Texas organization, CentroMed Health & Wellness Center, has shown significant improvement in their cash flow and productivity. In just over two years, the nonprofit center went from 12 days in cash reserves to more than 80 days, reflecting an additional $ 5 million in cash.

?We need dramatic change in the U.S. healthcare system to overcome one of the most inefficient and deadly aspects of the current system: the fragmentation of care, where treatment occurs in isolation with virtually no information about a patient?s past,? Woodard says. ?Organizations such as UTMB and CentroMed are examples of how EMRs can help reduce errors, provide better access to health information, save millions of dollars and make it easier to retrieve test results and review medical records.

?Tools like electronic medical records (EMR) are the ?grease? because they enable primary care physicians to connect with other stakeholders in the system, share information, and better coordinate the delivery of care,? he says. He backs up his comments saying that studies show the United States trails a number of other countries in the use of EHR systems with only 15?20 percent of U.S. physicians? offices and 20?25 percent of hospitals adopting such systems.

?Hospitals, doctors, clinics and others are reluctant to adopt systems due to standardization; concerns about privacy; but mostly uncertainty about what?s happening in the health care industry, particularly the health care law currently being reviewed by the Supreme Court,? Woodard says. ?But regardless of what happens it will not change the deluge of patients the system will be forced to cope with the next few years.

?It is obvious then that system will still be forced to turn to more efficient measures to reduce errors, realize cost efficiencies and improve patient?s health and we have those tools,? said Woodard. Hospitals, private practices and government agencies are increasingly turning to electronic medical records. For example, physicians can take laptops, iPads and smart phones from room to room or building to building. On-call staff can log in from anywhere?home, office, hospitals, or elsewhere?via a secure virtual private network to access patient information. The tools exist now to give every provider and patient access to all information necessary to prevent errors, improve patient satisfaction and improve outcomes.

?We will continue to see more marriages between computers and healthcare with hospitals and clinics as information technology begins to move from the billing departments and other back office functions into the examining room. The 2008 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act directs the healthcare industry to transition from being paper dependent to Information Technology (IT).

So far the transition has been slow. Less than 10 percent of U.S. hospitals have adopted electronic medical records even in the most basic way, according to a study authored by Ashish Jha, associate professor of health policy and management at Harvard School of Public Health, and published in the April 16, 2009 New England Journal of Medicine. The report says only 1.5 percent had adopted a comprehensive system of electronic records that includes physicians’ notes and orders and decision support systems that alert doctors of potential drug interactions or other problems that might result from their intended orders.

The Department of Health and Human Services is offering financial incentives to hospitals and doctors’ practices that can achieve what it calls “meaningful use” of electronic records by certain dates. On the other hand, doctors and institutions that don?t comply or fall behind in the ?meaningful use? category will receive lower reimbursement rates for treating Medicare patients.

About BCA

Business Computer Applications, Inc. (BCA) is a leading provider of health information technology solutions and has served hundreds of clients in public, private, and correctional healthcare. The company offers electronic medical record, practice management, financial management, scheduling, accounting, and case management information systems along with a wide range of consulting and technical services. For more information on BCA visit http://www.bca.us.

Pasadena, CA (PRWEB) January 8, 2009

The healthcare industry is hale and hearty compared to other industries that have experienced massive layoffs lately. NursingCrossing, a job site catering to nursing professionals, added 12,255 nursing jobs in a single week, bringing the site’s job count to a staggering 89,923. With the growing job count in the nursing profession, NursingCrossing aims to update its website with each and every job opening.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs related to nursing and residential care facilities grew by 19,600 from January to August 2008. However, the national study on nursing home social workers revealed that the applicants for nursing jobs are still so scarce that recruiters have been forced to get increasingly inventive. The University of Iowa survey of 1,071 nursing home social service directors shows that recruiters across the country are so desperate to hire nurses that they have tried various techniques to lure them for newer jobs, offering chair massages, lavish catering, and contests for flat-screen TVs worth $ 1,000. The survey reveals that training of those interested in nursing is also a pivotal factor, which has not yet received its due. Only half of the nursing home social workers have a degree in social work, and 20% do not have a four-year degree, the survey shows.

More importantly, despite their desire to learn, two-thirds of nursing home social workers report they do not belong to a professional organization that helps to keep them up to date on nursing home social work issues, and only 38% are licensed in social work. Experts agree that nurses qualified to teach aspiring nurses are scarce mainly because they can make at least 20% more working at a hospital.

“The recession has hit the recruiters with scarcity of nurses, so much so that they are offering $ 50 gas cards for calling them for interviews,” said A. Harrison Barnes, CEO of NursingCrossing. “The government should look into improving the working conditions of nurses, their average pay, and should create plans for forming nursing institutes which assures quality training for the nurses.”

Barnes adds, “NursingCrossing shows job seekers information that is completely unbiased. We are also taking nursing jobs from every employer site and job site we can find and putting them on our site.”

Unlike other job-search and career sites, NursingCrossing weeds out spam and jobs outside one’s niche, allowing job seekers to search efficiently and specifically. The number of nursing jobs present in the database is expected to get an additional boost in a few days. For more information on NursingCrossing, please visit http://www.nursingcrossing.com.

About NursingCrossing:

NursingCrossing is an affiliate of EmploymentCrossing, a powerful and comprehensive organization dedicated to helping professionals find jobs that will enhance their careers. NursingCrossing consolidates every nursing job opening it can find in one convenient location. The website also offers a seven-day free trial to new members.

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