A typical joint venture is structured as a limited liability company (LLC). Under this nontaxable structure, income passes directly through to the owners, which benefits both physicians and hospitals. For taxable owners, such as physicians, the income is not subject to “double taxation” (where earnings are taxable both to the corporation and to the individual investor). And for a nonprofit enti...

challenges to physicians – those with specific business interests as well as those whose sole focus is patient care. Understanding the law and knowing which, if any, of the many Stark exceptions apply to your arrangement is essential. Part I of this series explained the purpose of the Stark statute, how it differs from the anti-kickback statute and how you can determine whether it applies to ...

OBJECTIVE The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) traumatic brain injury (TBI) clinical prediction rules identify children with minor blunt head trauma who are at low risk for clinically important traumatic brain injuries. We measured the agreement between the registered nurse (RN) and physician (MD) assessments. METHODS We performed a cross-sectional study of all child...

OBJECTIVE 1) To evaluate the relationship between physician-pharmacist agreement about the off-label drug use and 2) and to identify the most common off-label medication category/indications and prescriber clinical disciplines in private settings in Baghdad area, Iraq. METHODS This study evaluated 980 off-label use requests in the private clinical settings within Baghdad area, Iraq from Octob...

PURPOSE To determine the agreement between occupational physician (OP) ratings of an employee's readiness to return to work (RRTW). METHOD Anonymized written vignettes of 132 employees, sick-listed for at least 3 weeks, were reviewed by 5 OPs. The OPs intuitively rated RRTW as the ability (knowledge and skills) and willingness (motivation and confidence) of sick-listed employees to resume wor...

BACKGROUND Data about tobacco and alcohol consumption are essential in many types of studies. These data can be obtained by directly questioning patients or by using the information collected from physicians. Agreement between these two sources varies according to the characteristics of patients but probably also those of physicians. The purpose of this study was to analyze the characteristics ...

Background: Managing patients with chronic rheumatic diseases is increasingly relying on the collaboration of a multidisciplinary team, including rheumatology nurse who can aid assessment disease activity among other healthcare tasks. However, this practice, although common in Europe and North America, still poorly implemented Middle eastern Arab countries (MEAC). Objectives: To evaluate concor...

The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association February 2015 | Vol 115 | No. 2 e2 Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). First, the single GME accreditation system is not a merger of the osteopathic and allopathic medical professions. The agreement with the ACGME streamlines the accreditation of GME programs but preserves and perpetuates the distinctive elements of the osteopathic...

introduction: triage is one of the most important systems in patients prioritizing at the time of arrival to hospital. based on the severity of the injury and the need for treatment, this system manages patients in the least time which could lead to rotation of patients with high reliability and safety. currently, the most accepted method for triage is emergency severity index (esi) system, con...