Nursing unions in Scotland have announced plans for consulting their members on the 2025-26 NHS pay offer, with some ballots launching today. Unison and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) have now launched consultations on the latest Agenda for Change pay offer put forward by the Scottish Government last week. “We believe this offer is the best that can be achieved through negotiation in the current climate” Emma Currer The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will also begin to consult its members from next week. If accepted by unions, nurses and other NHS staff will receive a 4.25% increase for…
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have once again postponed its forced provider re-resolution program for nursing homes. This time, until August 1st, you will be able to report to your provider more organizational relationships than you previously needed. A spokesperson for the American Healthcare Association confirmed the delay late Tuesday, with the words that CMS is expected to officially update the deadline via its agency's Medicare Learning Network website, “SOON.” The domestic provider organization recently told McKnight's Long Term Care News that, despite the looming deadline of May 1, only about 20% of the country's roughly 15,000 nursing…
Nurses across the world are “at breaking point”, experiencing burnout, wage stagnation and increased levels of violence at work, according to a major new report. The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has called on global healthcare leaders to prioritise long-term sustainable investment, over short-term solutions, to address the root causes of the health workforce emergency. “We must take urgent and decisive action to put nurse wellbeing at the centre of health systems” Pamela Cipriano It comes as the body today published a report and a survey that have laid bare the scale of the crisis in nursing across the globe.…
Sally Ragab, CEO @Neunetix. Getty All healthcare providers, pharmacists and patients in the United States are afraid to say or hear “pre-authorized permission is required for that.” Advance approval is a bottleneck that delays care, irritates staff and awaits patients. Pre-approval is a cost control process that has been implemented for reasons. It guarantees that your doctor or other healthcare provider will be refunded by your insurance company for costly procedures. Insurance companies want to protect their profits and process claims for less patients. All these steps are introduced to ensure that patients really need expensive treatments or medications. However,…
A hospital worker sentenced to life for attempted murder after he attacked a stranger with a needle filled with muscle relaxant was not a nurse, despite being labelled as one, Nursing Times can reveal. Nursing campaigners have said that the misidentification of 58-year-old Darren Harris as a nurse by police, prosecutors and national media is an example of why the ‘nurse’ title must be protected in law. “This case is a good example of why the term nurse should be protected in law” Alison Leary On Friday, 11 April, North Yorkshire Police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) published press…
A recent nationwide workforce survey has revealed that care providers across the adult social care sector are continuing to face significant staffing challenges, with a concerning 71% reporting difficulties in recruiting new team members. The survey, which ran from mid-August to mid-September 2024, gathered responses from nearly 5,000 registered care locations, spanning residential care homes, nursing homes, and domiciliary care services. Responses were geographically widespread, with a notable concentration from providers in the North East and Yorkshire. While recruitment remains a top concern, more than a third of respondents (37%) expressed doubt about whether they could maintain current service levels…
Donald Trump on Tuesday directed his health department to work with Congress on a revamp of laws that would allow Medicare to negotiate prices for prescription drugs, and tried to introduce the changes the pharmaceutical industry has been lobbying for.Drugmakers are primarily pills and pushing for the four years of small molecule drugs, which account for most drugs, to delay the timelines for which drugs are subject to price negotiations.This coincides with a 13-year wait until more complex biotech drugs are subject to Medicare price negotiations.The broad executive order signed by Trump aims to cut healthcare costs. It comes a…
With termination notices rising for special focus facilities (SFF) list nursing homes, operators and lawyers close to this issue say they are ripe for overhauling the program. First of all, independent dispute resolution (IDR) processes need to be revised, and a more timely appeal process should be essential. Furthermore, changes made to the deficiency criteria during the Biden administration must be reversed as SFF list facilities have made it more difficult for others to be added to the list. And finally, we need to provide incentives to allow star operators to flip through facilities on the SFF list. Bill Miller,…
The heart of HCA Healthcare lies in the unwavering commitment and collaborative spirit of our nursing colleagues. Today, we are proud to announce the recipients of the 2024 HCA Healthcare Unit of Distinction (UOD) Awards, celebrating exemplary nursing units across our sites of care. The Unit of Distinction designation is achieved through measurable, exemplary performance in the strategic areas of advocacy and leadership, consistency in nursing practice and operations and leveraging scale to improve patient care.“True innovation happens at the bedside and the Unit of Distinction program celebrates the best of HCA Healthcare. Today, we recognize and celebrate exemplary nursing…
Maryland bills that require skilled nurses to pay and maintain recording equipment in the facility's general spaces have been shot down. However, while operators were very pleased with the outcome, some industry experts wonder if it is a test run that will lead to better efforts in the future. Providers across the country are keeping an eye on Maryland's efforts as they have surpassed more general debate about families with surveillance cameras in patient rooms. The provider said if Senate Bill 465 was passed, it presented multiple costly challenges to 216 nursing homes and more than 1,700 assisted living communities…