| Environment: Surviving Summer's Noxious Brew
The oppressive summer heat may provide the perfect excuse to indulge in ice-cold drinks, lazy weekends and outdoor dining. But for many residents of Beijing and other congested Chinese cities, it's also a season to struggle with dry cough, irritated sinus or even a general fear of going outside. As summer starts to sizzle, the air quality also suffers. And in places such as Beijing, the combination of smog, dust particles, sand and heat all add up to what could seem to be a noxious brew. On occasion, with a little focus, you could actually taste the air. Dr Brent Powis, the World Health Organisation's Beijing environmental consultant, says the hot air fuels "the cocktail chemical mix" that is common during warmer days devoid of wind or rain. "It is worse in the summer," Powis says. "The increasing temperatures can actually increase the levels of ozone in the atmosphere, which can have significant health effects." Medical experts agree the government's push to close or move some large factories out of Beijing, in order to reduce air pollution for next year's Olympic Games, seems to be working.
National Data Points To Improved Nursing Home Quality, USA
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) release of its second annual State Snapshots based on the National Healthcare Quality Report highlights the improved quality in our nation's nursing homes - improvements made possible by an unprecedented ongoing partnership and cooperation between QIOs and individual nursing homes in every state. The QIOs are state-based organizations that provide hands-on assistance to local health care providers and entities to help them improve the health care system.
Though the AHRQ data illustrate significant improvement in select patient outcomes, it does not reveal how the culture of cooperation between nursing homes and QIOs is accelerating the quality gains in America's long term care system.
"We are fully committed to improvement efforts that ensure the frail, elderly and disabled have access to the highest quality nursing home care and services," stated Bruce Yarwood, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association.
Goodwill to sell Comsn, five other nursing-care operations
Goodwill Group Inc. announced Wednesday it will sell all of its nursing-care operations, including those of scandal-hit Comsn Inc., as early as next April. Goodwill made the announcement after a board meeting. It said its six nursing-care firms would continue to operate until the end of next March in order to not inconvenience clients. Goodwill said it has decided to sell to take responsibility for Comsn's certification fraud. .
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