Nurse Park

Now here's something you don't see every day. Pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingeheim is working with a hospital and a humanitarian group to create a free clinic for some of Connecticut's uninsured.

Boehringer Ingeheim, which donated $400,000 to the launch, has partnered with Danbury Hospital and AmeriCares to offer clinic services at no charge to Connecticut residents who don't have health insurance. The clinic, which is part of AmeriCares' ongoing Free Clinics program, has become the busiest in the AmeriCares network.

As part of its participation in the clinic program, Boehringer recently conducted a survey of U.S. residents regarding healthcare attitudes, which concluded that six out of 10 Americans believe the state of the economy is likely to affect their own health or wellness in the future. 

Not surprisingly, the study also found that 62 percent of Americans would use a free clinic if they lost or couldn't afford health insurance or didn't qualify for a government health program.

Generally when you think of a nurse you think of what you have seen on television - those that are in the Emergency Room of a local hospital or those who are caring for patients in their rooms. But in fact there are many types of nurses or specialty areas that a person can venture into. When you think about your career path you might want to consider some of these:

Ambulatory - care for individuals in an ambulance or travel by air or other transportation
Burn - working with these patients requires very specialized treatment
Developmental disabilities - working with handicapped patients
Emergency - can be very fast paced with lots of variety and rapid decision making
Geriatrics - working with the elderly
Home care - working with patients who have been released from hospital or are being cared for at home - often terminal patients
Intensive care - this can be surgical, cardiovascular, medical or neonatal and is often with critically ill patients
Mother/baby care - working with patients giving birth and with newborns
Oncology - working with cancer patients
Operating Room - assisting doctors in the operating room
Pediatrics - working with children
Recovery - working with patients recovering from operations or illnesses
Rehabilitation - therapy for patients after surgeries, illnesses or other traumas
Renal - working with diabetes patients and those undergoing dialysis
Research - working in research hospital

As you can see there are countless paths that a nurse can take besides the standard one of taking your temperature in a hospital bed. Many specialized areas require nurses who are experienced in handling certain types of patients so specialties are becoming more and more popular as nurses branch out into areas that didn’t use to offer a career path and people are finding that they enjoy the non-traditional roles.

CMS disappointed supporters this week when it announced that it was ending Medicare coverage for virtual colonoscopies.
The procedures, known as CT colonographies, use X-ray images and software to create images of the colon.

Advocates argue that virtual colonoscopies should be covered, as such procedures are more efficient, less costly and more comfortable for patients than standard colonoscopies.

CMS officials, for their part, conceded that while VCs may be better than standard procedures at finding larger polyps, they're concerned that the procedures don't work as well for beneficiaries ages 65 and older. They also noted that polyps can be removed during the standard procedure, but not during a VC.

CMS said that additional studies are needed that focus on the benefits of VCs for the Medicare population.

For a while, it was beginning to look like the retail clinic phenomenon was peaking or perhaps even petering out, with a handful of clinics even being forced out of business. But maybe the truth is that the battleground is shifting--from growth fueled by pharmacy chains and independent operators to a gradual encroachment by hospitals.

While hospitals have been dabbling in the retail clinic market for years, a growing number are dipping their oar in. For example, the Cleveland Clinic has lent its impeccable brand and services to several CVS clinics in Ohio, and the Mayo Clinic is operating two clinics in Rochester, MN supermarkets.

Among the highest-profile retail clinic efforts by hospitals are those connected with Wal-Mart, which opened its 26th hospital-linked clinic last week, and plans to add dozens more. Wal-Mart's partners include Aurora Health System in Wisconsin and CoxHealth in Missouri, as well as the Christus Medical Group.

Hospital-backed clinics may someday turn out to be the predominant model. After all, while it's very hard to make money on high-cost, low-margin clinics, they can make sense as a feeder for hospital business. On the other hand, if too high a percentage of clinic patients are uninsured, it won't be such a great proposition for hospitals. We'll just have to see how it shakes out.