Oklahoma latest state to approve use of medical marijuana
Oklahoma became the latest state to approve the use of medical marijuana with a vote on a ballot question this week.
Voters in that state Tuesday approved one of the country’s most progressive medical marijuana bills, making it the 30th state to permit the use of cannabis with a doctor’s approval.
While most states specify certain medical conditions for which doctors can recommend marijuana, in Oklahoma doctors will be able to authorize its use for any condition. The law makes it legal to grow, sell and use marijuana for medicinal purposes. (Associated Press article)
In survey, 11% of nurses, NPs and PAs say they experienced sexual harassment
It’s not just doctors who face sexual harassment. A survey by Medscape found 11% of nurses, nurse practitioners (NPs) and physicians assistants (PAs) said they experienced some form of sexual harassment within the past three years. And 14% of respondents said they witnessed such behavior in the workplace.
Not surprisingly, more females said they experienced harassment than males. The survey included more than 1,000 nurses, almost 300 NPs and almost 800 PAs.
PAs said about one-half of the perpetrators of sexual harassment were physicians (49%). Over one-third of PAs were harassed by “others,” a group that included hospital administrators or supervisors, as well as patients. Nurses and NPs said perpetrators were more often “others.” But physicians were guilty a third of the time. (Medscape report)
Policy experts blame provider consolidation, lack of price transparency for skyrocketing medical costs
Lawmakers and experts agree: U.S. healthcare costs are way too high.
The solutions, however, aren’t as clear, even for the country’s foremost health policy experts.
“There’s nobody I know that has all the answers, and what we need is lot more experimentation,” Ashish Jha, M.D., director of the Harvard Global Health Institute and senior associate dean at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told the Senate Health Education Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee on Wednesday during a hearing to address healthcare costs. (Fierce Healthcare)