Breaking Down MIPS for PTs, OTs, and SLPs

2019 is coming, and so is Medicare’s Merit-Based Incentive Payment System. Here’s an easy-to-follow breakdown of what PTs, OTs, and SLPs need to know.

from WebPT

Medicare’s Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)—the forthcoming payment mechanism that will provide annual updates, based on performance in quality, resource use, clinical practice improvement activities, and meaningful use of an electronic health record system—has two main questions that surround it for therapy professionals: whether or not all physical, occupational, and speech therapists need to report, and if there is a penalty, how to avoid it. Heidi Jannenga, PT, DPT, ATC, over at WebPT breaks down what you can actually expect in terms of MIPS, without any over-dramatization or scare tactics.

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Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Holiday Gift Guide for Children with SPD

The holidays can be hard on children with sensory processing disorders. Here is a guide of sensory-friendly items your patients’ families might want to add to their lists this year.

The holidays can be hard on children with sensory processing disorders—everything from being surrounded by strangers at holiday dinners to sitting on Santa’s lap can be hurdles for your patients and their families to climb, or events for them to flat out avoid—but as awareness of SPD grows, more and more options are available to help children better enjoy the gifting aspects of the upcoming holiday season. Below is a guide of well-reviewed, sensory-friendly items your patients families might want to add to their lists this year.


Photo credit: Amazon.com

Abilitations Teacher’s Pet Weighted Lap Dog

Featured Review:
“This was perfect in every way for my son with autism and sensory processing disorder.”


Photo credit: Amazon.com

Educational Insights Playfoam Pals Wild Animals 6-Pack

Featured Review:
“These are great special treats that are a wonderful alternative to a traditional “surprize egg”. You get the initial excitement of “what toy did I get” coupled with the long term sensory play of the foam!”


Photo credit: Amazon.com

Educational Insights Playfoam Combo 8-Pack

Featured Review:
“I work with kids who have autism, and this a great alternative to Playdoh.”


Photo credit: Amazon.com

CoolSand 3D Sandbox – Dino Discovery Edition

Featured Review:
“Great sensory play toy for my 2 and 5 year old boys. This helps them to calm down and play together nicely.”


Photo credit: Amazon.com

BizyBeez MagStix Sensory Magnetic STEM Toys Building Set for Kids

Featured Review:
“I like all of the different pieces: straight, curved, balls, half spheres, and wheels. I also appreciate the different textures of the items for my son with sensory processing.”

Please note: HealthJobsNationwide.com receives no compensation for recommending these items and makes no warranties regarding their safety. Items listed above should be evaluated individually for potential risks and hazards.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Healthcare CEOs Made an Average of $4.6M in ’17

Healthcare CEOs took home, on average, a staggering $4,631,579 in total direct compensation in 2017, a .9% increase over the previous year.

Total direct compensation afforded to healthcare CEOs in 2017, including salary, bonus, and annual incentives, stock options, full-value stock awards, and other long-term incentives, clocked in at an average of $4,631,579, according to a study from BDO, a professional services firm.

The study, which looked at total direct compensation for executives across eight industries, as well as data provided by Salary.com and proxy statements, found that the average salary for healthcare CEOs was $750,584 in 2017, a 2.5% increase from $732,461 in 2016.

CFO compensation was also analyzed, and it was found that, on average, in 2017, their total direct compensation was $1,630,613 and their average salary was $428,480.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Healthcare Hiring Remains Strong—Yes, Again.

Over the past 12 months, health care employment has grown by a staggering 323,000 positions, and October was another strong month for the industry.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ October jobs report released Friday, it was another strong month for healthcare hiring. The healthcare sector added a total of 35,600 jobs last month, which is about 39% more than it contributed in September and 4,000 more than the manufacturing industry.

The majority of jobs added in healthcare last month were in hospitals and ambulatory healthcare services, accounting for 13,000 and 14,200 new healthcare hires, respectively.

Over the past 12 months, health care employment has grown by a whopping 323,000 positions.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Nurses, Nursing, and the Nature of Suffering

Nurses are no strangers to the illness, suffering, and death of others. But how a nurse navigates their own personal suffering plays a role in how they approach life, work, and the overlapping of the two.

From Nurse Keith’s Digital Doorway

In the course of many nurses’ healthcare careers, witnessing the illness, suffering, and death of others is commonplace. From dialysis and med-surg to home health and the ICU, nurses create therapeutic relationships with patients and their families, providing spiritual and emotional comfort, compassion, and expert skilled care based on many decades of nursing science and evidence-based interventions.

Aside from witnessing the challenges faced by others, nurses are themselves human beings with their own life experiences, victories, and suffering. How a nurse navigates their own personal suffering plays a role in determining how they approach life, work, and the overlapping of the two.

Life is Suffering

In Buddhist studies, it has been said that life is suffering. I believe that this expression refers to the notion that our emotional attachment to the things that make up our lives (relationships, money, success, possessions, family) are what cause us suffering, and the ability to live in the present without grasping for what we don’t already have can help to alleviate that suffering. In other words, our desires cause us to suffer.

Aside from our attachment to things and people, there is also the reality that bad things often happen to good people — we see children with incurable cancer, elders living alone and destitute, and many other situations that seem both untenable and patently unfair.

In nursing, medicine, and healthcare, what we’re grasping for is the health and well-being of our patients, sometimes against all odds. We grow attached to patients and their families, our compassion goes out to them in their hour of need, and we can feel like failures when things don’t go the way we wished they would.

I’ve lost many patients over the years, and I did indeed sometimes blame myself when they suffered or died, especially when it seemed almost impossible to alleviate their suffering. I’ve seen patients consumed by cancer, heart or liver disease, dementia, stroke, multiple sclerosis, ALS, diabetes, and the opportunistic infections that transform an HIV+ patient into someone living with AIDS.

Suffering is also witnessed by so many of us when we turn on the evening news, listen to the radio, or scroll through a news app on our phone or our Facebook feed. War, famine, terrorism, politics, the economy — each of these aspects of 21st-century life can reveal to us the crueler side of human nature and existence.

Our Own Suffering

I’ve lived with chronic pain for more than a dozen years, and I admittedly suffer to some degree every day. Like many other people with physical pain, I power through my days and then rest at night as best I can.

Throughout my many years of providing career coaching and professional support to nurses, I’ve heard many stories that have nearly broken my heart. Nurses with all manner of conditions have passed through my orbit, and I’m consistently inspired by the courage and persistence embodied by these incredibly strong human beings. From burnout and depression to cancer and brain trauma, nurses are themselves patients too.

As nurses who serve the ill, injured, and vulnerable, how do we tend to our own suffering while also being present for our patients? How do we allow ourselves the space to feel our own feelings and deal with our personal issues without feeling guilty for being vulnerable ourselves?

Nurses often feel they need to be invincible, uncomplaining, and stoic, but we’re human beings, not angels and saints. We nurses need to honor our own suffering, challenges, and pain — by doing so, we can then be even more available for our patients through the simple fact of our own compassionate understanding of their plight and our very human experience.

Our Own Humanity

As nurses, healthcare professionals, and human beings living in a complex and often stressful 21st-century world, our own humanity matters, even when we’re determined to deny our own pain and suffering in the interest of being the strong nurse helping others. Denying our humanity and our pain does us no good, but nurses are experts at doing so.

We nurses are fallible and prone to all of the ills that are visited upon our fellow citizens. Like everyone else, we have our existential anxieties about family and friends, the environment, politics, our finances, our futures, our careers, and anything else under the sun.

Nurses too live with debt, personal tragedy, and grief and loss — we also strive to create the best lives we possibly can for ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities. At times, admitting that we don’t have the answers is a very human thing to do. The ability to say “I don’t know” is a sign of strength, even for a nurse who prides herself on always having the answers to life’s vexing questions.

Our humanity has meaning, no matter our efforts to be superhuman and carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. As nurses, we must strive to recognize, accept, and celebrate our own fallibility, and create lifestyles and careers that honor our needs, our pain, our suffering, and the forward thinking personal and professional lives we strive to live.

Keith Carlson, RN, BSN, NC-BC, is the Board Certified Nurse Coach behind NurseKeith.com and the well-known nursing blog, Digital Doorway. Please visit his online platforms and reach out for his support when you need it most.

Keith is co-host of RNFMRadio.com, a wildly popular nursing podcast; he also hosts The Nurse Keith Show, his own podcast focused on career advice and inspiration for nurses.

A widely published nurse writer, Keith is the author of “Savvy Networking For Nurses: Getting Connected and Staying Connected in the 21st Century,” and has contributed chapters to a number of books related to the nursing profession. Keith has written for Nurse.com, Nurse.org, MultiViews News Service, LPNtoBSNOnline, StaffGarden, AusMed, American Sentinel University, the ANA blog, Working Nurse Magazine, and other online publications.

Mr. Carlson brings a plethora of experience as a nurse thought leader, online nurse personality, podcaster, holistic career coach, writer, and well-known successful nurse entrepreneur. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his lovely and talented wife, Mary Rives.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

“The Jewish Nurse” Who Treated Tree of Life Gunman Speaks Out, Urges Love

After the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history, stories emerged about “The Jewish Nurse” who treated the alleged gunman. Now, Ari Mahler, RN, tells his side.

In the days following the tragic shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in suburban Pittsburgh that left 11 Jewish people dead, stories spread of “The Jewish Nurse” who treated Robert Bowers, the alleged gunman. “Death to all Jews,” Bowers reportedly yelled as he was wheeled into the ER at Allegheny General Hospital, and still, “The Jewish Nurse” cared for him.

Now, “The Jewish Nurse” has a name—Ari Mahler, RN—and a message, and he has taken to the internet to tell his side of the events that transpired on October 27th in a powerful and moving social media post.

“I am The Jewish Nurse. Yes, that Jewish Nurse. The same one that people are talking about in the Pittsburgh shooting that left 11 dead. The trauma nurse in the ER that cared for Robert Bowers who yelled, “Death to all Jews,” as he was wheeled into the hospital. The Jewish nurse who ran into a room to save his life,” the post, which has been shared more than 166,000 times since it was published on Saturday, began.

Mahler went on to explain how he found empathy for the man who stands accused of the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.

“Love. That’s why I did it,” he said in the post. “Love as an action is more powerful than words, and love in the face of evil gives others hope. It demonstrates humanity. It reaffirms why we’re all here. The meaning of life is to give meaning to life, and love is the ultimate force that connects all living beings. I could care less what Robert Bowers thinks, but you, the person reading this, love is the only message I wish to instill in you.”

Mahler’s poignant message can be found in full below.

Can’t see the post above? Click here to view it directly on Facebook.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

“Physician Misery Index” Climbs to 3.94/5

Despite efforts being made to raise awareness of physician burnout, a healthcare analytics company has announced their Physician Misery Index is now a 3.94 out of 5.

Last week, Geneia, a healthcare analytics company, revealed their Physician Misery Index, a tool the company created to measure national physician satisfaction, has increased to 3.94 out of 5, up from January 2015’s score of 3.78, despite the efforts being made to raise awareness of physician burnout.

To determine the score, the company conducted a nationwide survey in July of 2018 of 300 full-time physicians, all of which have been practicing post-residency medicine for more than four years.

The survey’s findings, which contributed to the bump in the Index, include:

  • 80% of surveyed physicians said they feel they are personally at risk for burnout at some point in their career.
  • Nearly all respondents (96%) reported they have personally witnessed or personally experienced negative impacts as a result of physician burnout.
  • 66% said the challenges of practicing medicine in today’s environment have caused them to consider career options outside of clinical practice.
  • 89% said the “business and regulation of healthcare” has changed the practice of medicine for the worse.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Physicians Take a Stand Against Gun Violence

Three days before a physician became a victim of the 372nd mass shooting in the U.S. in 2018, the American College of Physicians updated its position on firearms.

Three days before Nancy Van Vessem, MD would become a victim of the 372nd mass shooting in the United States in 2018, the American College of Physicians updated its position on firearms in an effort to prevent further gun violence in a policy paper published on October 30th in Annals of Internal Medicine.

The organization, which has advocated for the need to address firearm-related injuries and death for over 20 years, first published its policy on gun violence in 2014, which included nine evidence-based methods to reduce firearm-related injuries and deaths—the 2018 update retains six of the original recommendations, as well as suggesting new strategies.

Updates to the policy include:

  • Strengthening and enforcing state and federal laws to prohibit domestic violence offenders, including dating partners, cohabitants, stalkers, and those who victimize other family members, from purchasing or possessing firearms.
  • Supporting legislation to regulate and limit the manufacture, sale, transfer, and possession of firearms designed to increase rapid killing capacity, including large-capacity magazines and devices such as bump stocks.
  • Supporting extreme risk protection order laws which allow family members and law enforcement to petition a court to temporarily remove firearms from individuals who are at risk of harming themselves or others while providing due process protections.

“The U.S. has one of the highest rates of gun violence in the world, and as physicians, we have a responsibility to advocate for firearms measures that will keep our patients and their families safe and healthy,” ACP President Ana María López, MD, said in a press release.

To read the policy in its entirety, please click here.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Report: PAs/NPs Provide Similar or Better Care than Doctors

A new report from a World Health Organization team indicates that non-physicians, such as PAs and NPs, provide comparable care to that of physicians.

Nurse practitioners, physician assistants, midwives, and other non-physicians deliver care that is comparable to or better than that provided by MDs, and are often more well-liked than physicians, according to a new report from a World Health Organization team.

It was noted in the WHO bulletin that they are especially effective in delivering babies, caring for AIDS patients, and helping people care for chronic diseases, like diabetes and high blood pressure.

“While some physician groups have resisted wider use of such professionals, they should embrace them because they are often less expensive to deploy and are far more willing to work in rural areas,” the WHO experts are quoted as saying.

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Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Rebranding of PA Title Moves Forward

The AAPA has announced they have selected a world-renowned branding firm to begin investigating rebranding the physician assistant title.

The AAPA has announced they have selected and retained WPP, a world-renowned research, branding, and communications firm, to conduct an independent investigation of the physician assistant title and suggest potential alternatives. This is a significant step forward in the PA Title Change Investigation, which was put to a vote earlier this year by the AAPA House of Delegates.

Given continued public confusion regarding what PAs can do, and as the position of assistant physician—which is constantly written online with the words “not to be confused with a physician assistant” following it—picks up steam, rebranding the physician assistant title to more clearly reflect the scope of the profession almost seems like an overdue initiative.

However, the process will be slow going, and the rebrand will be strategic—WPP is not expected to present an interim report on the Title Change Investigation to the AAPA’s House of Delegates until May of 2019.

What do you think of the possible title change?

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.