Minnesota medicine
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A handoff is the transfer of a patient's care from one provider to another. It usually involves both a verbal and written exchange of information. Although written handoff sheets are critical to good patient care, there is little data on the quality of information they contain. ⋯ The most common error was one of omission on the medication list (69% of the handoff sheets contained a medication omission). The percentage of patient handoff sheets with code-status errors was 5.7%, and the percentage with medication allergy errors was 2.8%. Important problems were omitted from the problem list in 22% of cases.
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Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common problem that plays a role in a number of other chronic health concerns including hypertension, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, and gastroesophageal reflux disease to name a few. In this article, we discuss the relationship between OSA and these conditions as well as how OSA is diagnosed and treated.
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The Minnesota Prescription Monitoring Program, which was launched by the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy last year, is collecting data on prescriptionsof controlled substances. Reporting is required from in-state pharmacies and others including physicians who dispense medications as well as from out-of-state pharmacies that ship controlled substances to Minnesota residents. This article describes the program, how it works, and how it can benefit physicians.