hospital

A Caregiver’s Hospital Survival Kit: 20 Must-Have Items

Posted on 04/17/2012 by | Aging, Home & Family Expert | Comments

Caregiving | Home & Family | Personal HealthIn the past year, I’ve spent close to 40 overnights in the hospital with my parents, plus roughly 10 emergency room visits with them. I dislike going to hospitals … a lot. I think I’ve developed some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder around hospital visits. I find that I am great in the moment and deal with crises easily, but afterwards I am exhausted and when the time comes to venture off to the hospital again I tense up, feel a sense of …

Older Workers, Take Heart; Employers, Take Note

Posted on 02/22/2012 by | AARP Blog Author | Comments

WorkI love seeing people who love their jobs  – especially since many consider themselves lucky just to have a job in this tough economy. A short segment from CNNMoney paints a hopeful and heartening picture…and not just for older workers. Know how some people light up when they talk about their work? Nurse Ann Doshi of Atlantic Health System, who teaches new Operating Room nurses the intricacies of the O.R., definitely lights up. After you watch the clip below, you’ll probably agree that Ann would …

Dementia Patients Over 65 More Likely To Be Hospitalized

Posted on 01/12/2012 by | Personal Health and Well-being | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal HealthSeniors with dementia are more likely to be hospitalized for illnesses that could have been prevented or treated with better outpatient care, a new study has found. In the study, which followed 3,091 adults age 65 or older for eight years, researchers found that the 427 seniors who developed dementia had roughly twice the annual hospitalization rate of participants without dementia. Overall, 86 percent of seniors with dementia went to the hospital at least once compared with only 59 percent of …

Medicare Patients: Harmed By Unreported Hospital Errors, Report Finds

Posted on 01/6/2012 by | Personal Health and Well-being | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal HealthAn alarming new federal study finds that hospital employees report only one out of seven errors, accidents and other mix-ups that harm Medicare patients while they are hospitalized. The New York Times reports that even after hospitals investigate preventable injuries and infections that have been reported, they rarely change their practices to prevent these problems from happening again, according to the study by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Of the 293 cases in which patients had been …

I’ll Be at the Hospital for Christmas

Posted on 12/25/2011 by | Aging, Home & Family Expert | Comments

Caregiving | Relationships | Your LifeThe brilliant red Poinsettia is on the table, Christmas card beside it. Visitors come and go bringing hugs and Christmas cheer. There is turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie in the dining room. In the background, I hear the sound of vintage 1949 Bing Crosby filling the air with “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” and with all my heart I wish we were. But we’re not – we’re at the hospital for Christmas. The table decorated with Poinsettia and Christmas cards …

The Four Drugs Most Likely To Send You To The Hospital

Posted on 11/28/2011 by | Personal Health and Well-being | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal HealthFour drugs commonly prescribed to seniors — two blood thinners and two diabetes drugs — are the cause of the most emergency hospital visits for Americans over 65, a new study has found. An estimated 100,000 older adults are hospitalized annually for harmful drug reactions, but two-thirds of those hospitalizations are from accidental overdoses of just a handful of familiar medications, according to new research by the CDC’s  Medication Safety Program. And in half of those overdoses, the patient was …

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