“This book will be a terrific introduction to the field of clinical IT and clinical informatics” — Kevin Johnson

“Dr. Braunstein has done a wonderful job of exploring a number of key trends in technology in the context of the transformations that are occurring in our health care system” — Bob Greenes

“This insightful book is a perfect primer for technologists entering the health tech field.” — Deb Estrin

“This book should be read by everyone.?” — David Kibbe

This book provides care providers and other non-technical readers with a broad, practical overview of the changing US healthcare system and the contemporary health informatics systems and tools that are increasingly critical to its new financial and clinical care paradigms. US healthcare delivery is dramatically transforming and informatics is at the center of the changes. Increasingly care providers must be skilled users of informatics tools to meet federal mandates and succeed under value-based contracts that demand higher quality and increased patient satisfaction but at lower cost. Yet, most have little formal training in these systems and technologies.

Providers face system selection issues with little unbiased and insightful information to guide them. Patient engagement to promote wellness, prevention and improved outcomes is a requirement of Meaningful Use Stage 2 and is increasingly supported by mobile devices, apps, sensors and other technologies. Care providers need to provide guidance and advice to their patients and know how to incorporated as they generate into their care. The one-patient-at-a-time care model is being rapidly supplemented by new team-, population- and public health-based models of care. As digital data becomes ubiquitous, medicine is changing as research based on that data reveals new methods for earlier diagnosis, improved treatment and disease management and prevention.

This book is clearly written, up-to-date and uses real world examples extensively to explain the tools and technologies and illustrate their practical role and potential impact on providers, patients, researchers, and society as a whole. 

Health care in the United States is more expensive than in other developed countries, costing $2.7 trillion in 2011, or 17.9 percent of the national gross domestic product. Increasing costs strain budgets at all levels of government and threaten the solvency of Medicare, the nation’s largest health insurer. At the same time, despite advances in biomedical science, medicine, and public health, health care quality remains inconsistent. In fact, underuse, misuse, and overuse of various services often put patients in danger.

Many efforts to improve this situation are focused on Medicare, which mainly pays practitioners on a fee-for-service basis and hospitals on a diagnoses-related group basis, which is a fee for a group of services related to a particular diagnosis. Research has long shown that Medicare spending varies greatly in different regions of the country even when expenditures are adjusted for variation in the costs of doing business, meaning that certain regions have much higher volume and/or intensity of services than others. Further, regions that deliver more services do not appear to achieve better health outcomes than those that deliver less.

Variation in Health Care Spending investigates geographic variation in health care spending and quality for Medicare beneficiaries as well as other populations, and analyzes Medicare payment policies that could encourage high-value care. This report concludes that regional differences in Medicare and commercial health care spending and use are real and persist over time. Furthermore, there is much variation within geographic areas, no matter how broadly or narrowly these areas are defined. The report recommends against adoption of a geographically based value index for Medicare payments, because the majority of health care decisions are made at the provider or health care organization level, not by geographic units. Rather, to promote high value services from all providers, Medicare and Medicaid Services should continue to test payment reforms that offer incentives to providers to share clinical data, coordinate patient care, and assume some financial risk for the care of their patients.

Medicare covers more than 47 million Americans, including 39 million people age 65 and older and 8 million people with disabilities. Medicare payment reform has the potential to improve health, promote efficiency in the U.S. health care system, and reorient competition in the health care market around the value of services rather than the volume of services provided. The recommendations of Variation in Health Care Spending are designed to help Medicare and Medicaid Services encourage providers to efficiently manage the full range of care for their patients, thereby increasing the value of health care in the United States.

Edited by a professor at Harvard Medical School who has extensive experience in this field, this important and timely book presents a variety of perspectives on the organization of patient medical records around patient problems, presenting a more effective problem-oriented approach rather than the traditional data-oriented approach. It is comprehensive, covering the history and importance of the electronic health record, the attitudes toward and use of problem lists, strategies to improve the problem list, and applications in practice of the problem list.

The application of Lean tools appears relatively simple, but the change in culture required to turn Lean into a lasting success requires strong leadership. Previously published books about Lean in health care illustrate success stories, lessons learned, and challenges for the future. This book continues where those books leave off by describing the essence of and success factors for Lean in relation to leadership.

Practical Lean Leadership for Health Care Managers guides you on a journey to discover the secrets of successful Lean leaders. It is about Lean in healthcare and specifically examines the demands for making Lean successful and how the manager plays a key role in achieving this. Although the book is based on the authors’ experiences in health care, the principles presented are applicable in other sectors, both public and private.

The book uses a case study to illustrate the results of the authors’ quest for the common factors and characteristics of successful Lean leaders. The case study follows the introduction and development of Lean in a large hospital. Demonstrating the familiar struggles involved in applying theory to daily practice, the case study is supported by theory presented in side boxes.

What causes that condition?

What does it mean?

Organised by body system, Mechanisms of Clinical Signs, 2nd Edition explains the underlying mechanism and value of the clinical signs you are expected to know, and the conditions they indicate. Each chapter contains descriptions of clinical signs, a list of the conditions they are associated with (what conditions the signs indicate), an explanation of the mechanism and the ‘value’ of those signs (how reliable they are as an indication of a condition).

There is a uniform set of subheadings for each sign:

• Description
• Condition/s associated with
• Mechanism/s
• Sign value

The explanations for the mechanisms underlying each sign are brief but accurate and informative, and provide sufficient information for the reader to understand the mechanism:

• Signs are ordered alphabetically within each chapter outlining a specific body system.

• Extensive reference lists of up-to-date literature strengthen the authority of the content.
• Video and audio content presents real life evaluation scenarios of clinical signs.

• Clinical Pearls highlight the main signs which students and trainees should look out for to help them identify conditions with which the patients present.
• A Student Consult eBook is available with the purchase of a print book, and provides access to a total of 200 multiple choice questions covering the 7 body systems, to test students and trainees’ knowledge of the content.
• The eBook contains links to audio and video examples of particular signs which have to be heard or observed over a period of time in order to be identified correctly, e.g. Agonal respiration in Chapter 2 Respiratory Signs.
• New images are added to depict clinical signs where no images were present in the previous edition.

“An excellent foundation text for first year pre-registration nurses. The accompanying DVD encourages application of the theory and helps consolidate learning.”
Janine Lee, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK

“This book provides an excellent alternative to other Clinical Skills books. The most obvious and most useful difference is the addition of a CD Rom. The book itself is clearly laid out from the beginning, with the table of contents detailing all the essential areas of nursing that are often forgotten. It is often assumed that nursing students already know the basics so the inclusion of how to bed bath a patient or how to feed a patient was welcomed. While primarily aimed at those following the common foundation program (1st year) it has also been of great use to myself during my 3rd year.”
Jackie Sheridan, Student Nurse, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK

“I found this book useful for a backup from clinical skills sessions to refresh my mind. It uses simple easy understandable language with key ideas highlighted and uses pictures and diagrams where necessary. I found the cd-rom invaluable as it uses step to step guides of skills used and although we all learn them in skills sessions we sometimes forget the gold standard way as we learn to cut corners. It is easy to use and well designed … It covers all branches of nursing with case studies to back up understanding and provide real-life examples of using skills in practice.”
Becky Gray, Student Nurse, University of Worcester, UK

“I was very impressed by this textbook. It reads very well, is easy to follow and is suitable for students within the common foundation programme. Allowing these students to see alternative aspects of other branches which they may not have seen within practice is valuable and the DVD material naturally adds to the learning and helps to show theory within practice.”
Conleth Kelly, Lecturer in The Faculty of Health and Social Care, The University of Chester, UK

“This is an impressively comprehensive guide to clinical skills drawing from the expertise and real life experiences of a variety of contributors with health and social care backgrounds … The edge to the book that I feel raises it above other clinical skills guides, is the free interactive DVD. Designed to be used at certain points during the reading of the book, it provides the reader/viewer with extensive further reading and resources … Additionally, and perhaps most usefully, it provides the student with video clips of the clinical skills being performed, which show how the best evidence based methods can easily be applied in practice.”
Daniel Gill, Student Nurse, University of Salford, UK

Clinical Skills: The Essence of Caring is an innovative new textbook and integrated Media Tool package which makes teaching and learning nursing interactive! Based on the Essence of Care, this book covers the core clinical skills curriculum and takes a holistic approach to the importance of delivering excellent nursing care.

Key Features:

Comprehensive coverage: An accessible account of all fundamental skills is provided, including Record Keeping, Communication and Pressure Ulcers.

Pedagogy: A multitude of activity and case study boxes, a glossary, self-test questions and 25 patient scenarios really bring the topics to life.

Inside every book is a free Media Tool DVD offering a wealth of fully integrated interactive material that is versatile enough to use in solo study, group assignments or classroom sessions. The DVD includes:

Case studies: This section contains a video case study for each nursing branch (Adult, Child, Mental Health and Learning Disability) which follows a patient journey to highlight the importance of empathic caring.

Skill Sets: This section includes video demonstrations and self-test questions for the clinical skills covered in first and second year nursing programmes, including: Infection Control, Wound Care, and Administration of Medicines.

Chapter Resources: This section contains extra supporting chapter material and includes questions, links, key learning resources and examples of both good and bad practice.

This comprehensive package offers a unique way of relating theory to practice, making it an essential learning resource for all CFP and nursing students.

Visit www.openup.co.uk/clinicalskills for a preview of the DVD and updated material.

Surgical Tips & Skills, written by leading plastic and reconstructive surgeon Felix Behan, offers medical students and professional surgeons a comprehensive go-to guide for a range of surgical procedures and techniques.

Perfect for:

• – Medical Students

• – Surgical Trainees

• – Professional Surgeons

Benefits:

• – Clearly structured based on competency: Basic, Intermediate and Advanced.

• – More than 100 tutorials based on real-life cases.

• – Each tutorial is chronologically structured from Introduction, Problem, Solution to Outcome.

• – Highly visual with step-by-step instructions.

Benefit from highly graphic procedural photographs and make the most of the notes section, which provides space for your own comments alongside Behan’s instructions inside this medical textbook. Enhance your hands-on learning with Surgical Tips & Skills, which explores preoperative, intraoperative, postoperative and non-operative surgical procedures in a logical step-by-step layout.

Grounded in the principles of evidence based medicine, in conjunction with the extensive experience of Behan, Surgical Tips & Skills assists you in delivering a high standard of medical surgical treatment for optimal patient outcomes.

The core areas of undergraduate study are covered in a logical sequence of learning activities: each case is followed by a detailed answer, along with a number of OSCE-style questions to help you practise for the exam. Related OSCE counselling style questions and answers also feature at the end of each section.

Key concepts and important information are highlighted, and the reader-friendly layout reflects exactly the type of question you will encounter, making the perfect revision aid for all types of case-based examination.

Core Clinical Cases in Paediatrics provides the reader with a highly structured case history text wholly appropriate for all types of case-based examination. Fully comprehensive the book covers all aspects of the course from neonatal examination and potential problems to developmental issues, medical conditions and behavioural problems.

Develop the skills you need to effectively and efficiently document patient care for children and adults in clinical and hospital settings. This handy guide uses sample notes, writing exercises, and EMR activities to make each concept crystal clear, including how to document history and physical exams and write SOAP notes and prescriptions.

This edition has been completely revised and upgraded with more in-depth coverage of documentation and its ramifications, more documentation samples to analyze and emulate, and even more learning tools. You’ll also find access to our special version of Amazing Charts, online at DavisPlus. Amazing Charts is a fully functional, Windows-based, professional EMR software package currently being used by more than 3,200 medical practices nationwide.

• Presents a series of clinical problems with an emphasis on the surgical approach to the management.
• Appropriate for all students needing to demonstrate their clinical expertise in surgical cases.
• A companion book to the highly-commended “Core Clinical Skills for OSCEs in Medicine”.

The handbook is structured to allow rapid reference of key information, and to aid understanding with concise and practical clinical guidance. Full colour throughout, it includes over 140 detailed photographs and diagrams of all common examination skills to show you exactly what you need to do and the theory, practice and complications for each. More photos have been included, with over half completely new and specially produced for this edition. Each system chapter covers applied anatomy, history, examination, and the presentation of common and important disorders. Data interpretation covers the basics of x-rays, ECGs and other key areas. A new chapter on the eyes is included along with the sections on body language and non-verbal communication, and the section on practical procedures has been expanded. This handbook will help to ensure you have the confidence and skill to carry out an ‘A’ grade examination every time.