Not the retiring kind
A surge in the number of nurses’ delaying retirement may have forestalled but not prevented a nursing shortage from taking place, a Health Affairs study concludes. From 1991 to 2012, registered nurses, on average, retired at 64, up from the average of 61.5 years seen in 1969–1990. The shift in retirement age resulted in an increased RN workforce of 136,000 in 2012, contributing to a supply of nurses that is currently 500,000 people greater than what had been estimated 12 years ago, according to the study. But the boomer generation may start to withdraw in greater numbers from the workplace as the effects of the recent recession fade, bringing on a shortage as was expected, the authors wrote.
Do this, not that
The American Association of Medical Colleges released guidelines outlining the skills that graduating physicians should be able to perform on their first day of residency. The guidelines are made up of 13 activities that they should be able to perform, regardless of specialty. The AAMC will pilot the guidelines with medical schools this summer and develop a learning community geared toward spreading the word on the guidelines. “Our goal, ultimately, is to produce entering residents who are better prepared to do the tasks or activities of residency, without direct supervision,” says Robert Englander, M.D., senior director of competency-based learning and assessment for the AAMC.
Doc pay tied to quality, satisfaction
Close to 8 percent of primary care physician compensation in 2013 was tied to quality or patient satisfaction, according to a Medical Group Management Association survey. The survey results, which include physicians not in an accountable care organization or a medical home, show that, on average, 5.96 percent of primary care physician pay was based on quality and 1.94 percent was linked to patient satisfaction. Among specialists, on average, 5.7 percent of pay was linked to quality and 2.31 percent was tied to patient satisfaction. The 2014 report, based on 2013 data, is called “MGMA Physician Compensation and Production Survey.”
