March 2008 - Posts

Rate Your Provider. A Good Idea?
March 27, 2008 9:26 AM by Jill Rollet

Angie's List has plans to let consumers rate their health care providers. The 12-year-old Indianapolis-based company maintains lists of consumer ratings for all kinds of local businesses and services. According to a company press release, the 600,000 Read More...

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Over-the-Counter Paternity Test
March 26, 2008 1:21 PM by Jennifer Ford

Now you lucky folks in the west can film your own episode of The Jerry Springer Show at home. According to a New York Times article today, the first over-the-counter paternity test is now being sold in Rite Aid stores in California, Oregon, and Washington. Read More...

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The Name Game
March 26, 2008 8:44 AM by Jill Rollet

We can keep pointing out the differences between NPs and physician assistants, but other health care professionals often want to speak about the two groups together. When they do, they encounter a language problem. Instead of referring to the single group Read More...

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One NP's Many Hats
March 24, 2008 12:27 PM by Jennifer Ford

NPs wear many hats! While I was speaking recently about legislation with Marie Lindsey, an NP who is co-chairperson for the reimbursement committee of the Illinois Society for Advanced Practice Nurses (and was the organization's first president), she Read More...

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Lip Sewing Trend?
March 24, 2008 11:05 AM by Jill Rollet

ADVANCE editors know a lot, but apparently we don't know everything. (What else is new?) We got an e-mail message last week from an NP protesting an ad in our March print edition . (You might have trouble viewing the ad if you're not a subscriber to ADVANCE.) Read More...

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Boomer Nurses Retiring; Who Will Replace Them?
March 19, 2008 3:39 PM by Jennifer Ford

Baby boomers are approaching retirement age. This means there will be many more geriatric patients to care for in the near future. However, many NPs are also in the baby boomer generation and will retire with the rest, leaving an even greater shortage Read More...

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Corporations Embracing Retail Health: New Opportunities for NPs
March 18, 2008 1:42 PM by Jennifer Ford

Two recent stories portend continued evolution in the retail health industry. First, Wal-Mart announced that it planned to open 400 of its own convenient care clinics, called The Clinic at Wal-Mart, by the year 2010. The clinics will be owned and operated Read More...

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Do You Need Your Own Malpractice Policy?
March 18, 2008 9:40 AM by Jill Rollet

Conventional wisdom says that NPs shouldn't rely on an employer-provided malpractice policy. The reasoning is this: The responsibility of an insurance provider is to the person or entity who pays for the policy. In a lawsuit that names both the NP and Read More...

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NP’s Book Tells How She Did It
March 13, 2008 10:27 AM by Jill Rollet

Family nurse practitioner Anne Boston Parish, owner of Queen Street Clinic in Alexandria, Va., has just published a book outlining the secrets of her clinic's success. Confronting America's Health Care Crisis: Establishing a Clinic for the Medically Uninsured Read More...

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Going to the Chiropractor
March 12, 2008 11:47 AM by Jennifer Ford

In true "Jen" form, I fell a few weeks ago. I hurt my shoulder. The pain didn't seem to dissipate much. After much "arm twisting" by both of my parents, I decided to visit their chiropractor. I was nervous about it; I didn't know much about chiropractic, Read More...

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NPs and PAs: The Same?
March 12, 2008 11:37 AM by Jennifer Ford

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a story today about the differences between NPs and PAs . The general consensus in the article was that while education differs, differences in the daily work of NPs and PAs is indistinguishable to the untrained eye. NPs Read More...

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"Retail Health" in the U.K.
March 11, 2008 1:05 PM by Jennifer Ford

Americans aren't the only ones who want convenient care. According to a New York Times article, J Sainsbury, a national chain of supermarkets in England, has launched a pilot program to open convenient care clinics in its stores. As opposed to American Read More...

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MinuteClinic Hits 500 Mark
March 10, 2008 10:44 AM by Jennifer Ford

MinuteClinic announced March 5 that it opened its 500th clinic, with the opening of several clinics in the Dallas, Los Angeles, and Orlando areas. MinuteClinic, owned by CVS/Caremark, now has clinics in 25 states and plans to open 150 to 250 more locations Read More...

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Follow-up to MinuteClinic Visit
March 7, 2008 3:34 PM by Jennifer Ford

I just wanted to report that yesterday in the mail I received a follow-up card with a nice handwritten note from the NP I saw at MinuteClinic. I am thoroughly impressed. It also looks like the U.S. isn't the only country embracing the retail health model: Read More...

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Study Says We Want Change
March 6, 2008 2:40 PM by Jennifer Ford

A recent survey by Deloitte revealed that Americans want health care to change. This may come as no surprise, but some of the study's findings, taken from a sample of 3,000 respondents, are of interest: 66% were in favor of a state-mandated health insurance. Read More...

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My First Trip to a Retail Clinic
March 5, 2008 11:56 AM by Jennifer Ford

Although I have, over the last two months, acquired a great deal of knowledge about retail health clinics, I had never actually visited one. Last night that changed--I'd been having some persistent sinus issues, but had been putting off seeing someone Read More...

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Health Fair Screening Pays Off
March 5, 2008 8:37 AM by Jill Rollet

Yesterday morning my spouse's high school friend, John, had prostate cancer. By afternoon he didn't — at least we hope the prostatectomy did the trick. John found out he might have something to worry about when he got his PSA level checked last fall at Read More...

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NPs: First Line in London?
March 4, 2008 2:35 PM by Jennifer Ford

A new model for health care is being introduced in the UK that includes NPs as front-line care providers. Two physicians who started a clinic called Concordia Healthcare in London believe that with this model, a practice could operate efficiently for Read More...

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