Lauren Hersch Nicholas, PhD, MPP, is corresponding author of an investigation that analyzed the experiences of more than a million people receiving Medicare-funded services in the last six months of their lives. Co-authors from our campus are Stacy M. Fischer, MD, Marcelo Coca Perraillon, PhD, and Christine D. Jones, MD.

Nicholas and colleagues found that the kind of Medicare a patient is enrolled in can make a difference in whether that patient gets certain treatments, and whether the patient dies in a hospital or in hospice care.  “For patients near the end-of-life, Medicare Advantage incentives may reduce potentially burdensome care and encourage hospice,”  Nicholas’ paper says, “but could also restrict access to costly but necessary services.”   The School of Medicine Newsroom features an article about this research.  Read the JAMA publication>>

When a patient comes to the hospital with a serious infection or fever, one of the first things done is to draw two sets of blood cultures to try to identify the source of the infection and the antibiotics that will most specifically target the bacterial (or fungal) culprit.  This blood culture bottle shortage will result in difficult triage and rationing decisions, and both physicians and patients will be hurt, although in different ways.

Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH, notes, “there have been dozens of reports written about how to address drug shortages, all of which include the recommendation that we really ought not have sole source for anything. You need diversification of your supply chain.”  Wynia says, “We may never fully recover psychologically from the pandemic and the moral distress associated with having patients who needed something, and we couldn't give it to them because we didn't have it.”  He sees the same thing happening now with this critical shortage of blood culture bottles.  He also questioned what, if anything, patients will be told.  Read article>>