California RN’s, PA’s, and therapists see decrease in job openings from August to September

healthcare

The number of job openings in California for nurses, therapists, and physician assistants decreased from 16,994 in August 2014 to 16,537 in September 2014. The searcher-to-job opening ratio also decreased from 1.90 to 1.24 in the same span.

nurse_2014_09

Source: BLS

Image source: http://pediatric-nurse-practitioners.blogspot.com/2012/12/top-5-cardiac-care-nursing-jobs-for-we.html

Texas RN’s, therapists, and PA’s see increase in job openings from July to August

nursing_symbol

The number of job openings in Texas for nurses, therapists, and physician assistants increased from  10,068 to 10,464 from July 2014 to August 2014. The searcher-to-job opening ratio decreased from 1.48 to 1.36 during that same span.

nurse_2014_08

Source: BLS

Image source: http://www.carrollhs.org/s/1253/index.aspx?pgid=877

Texas healthcare jobs increased by 0.6% from August 2014 to September 2014

healthcare

The health care and social assistance industry gained 8,100 jobs from August 2014 to September 2014. Compared to September 2013, the cumulative number of jobs added in this industry is 43,600, an annual increase of 3.3%.

Source: http://www.tracer2.com/admin/uploadedPublications/2120_TLMR-October_14.pdf

Image source: http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2012/01/06/health-care-sector-adds-jobs-as-overall-employment-picture-looks-healthier/

Working with large data sets: The new CMS medial records files

The new data files released by the CMS regarding the payments made to U.S. medical doctors by drug and medical device manufacturers contains a treasure trove of information.  However, the large size of the data will limit the use and the nuggets that can mined for some.

Using the statistical program STATA,  which is generally one of the fastest and most efficient ways to handle large data sets, required an allocation of 6G of RAM memory to just read in the program. STATA is efficient at handling large wage and hour, employment, and business data sets (like ones with many daily prices)

The table below shows what STATA required in terms of memory to be able to read the data:
Current memory allocation

current                                 memory usage
settable          value     description                 (1M = 1024k)
——————————————————————–
set maxvar         5000     max. variables allowed           1.947M
set memory         6144M    max. data space              6,144.000M
set matsize         400     max. RHS vars in models          1.254M
———–
6,147.201M

 

 

 

 

VA wait times are out of line but not that out of line with other types of hospitals

Overall, across established and new patients, VA wait times are actually not that out of line with other types of hospitals.

Highlights from the June 2014 VA wait time data,

Average VA wait time across hospitals and specialities: 22.78 days.

96% of VA patients have a wait time of 30 days or less to see a physician (significantly less for established patients (most less than 4 days))

Nearly 85% of 141 VA hospitals in the data have wait times less than 30 days

Longer wait times are concentrated in 15 out of 141 VA hospitals

In comparison, Merrit Hawkins 2014 study on hospital wait times for non-VA hospitals finds:

– Finds 18.5 day avg. wait times for all medical specialties, which is about 4 days shorter than wait times at VA hospitals

– Wait times vary significantly by location

 

 

 

California RN’s, PA’s, and therapists see increase in job openings from July 2014 to August 2014

healthcare

The number of job openings in California for nurses, therapists, and physician assistants increased from 16,429 in July 2014 to 16,994 in August 2014. The searcher-to-job opening ratio decreased from 2.10 to 1.90 in the same span.

nurse_2014_08

Source: BLS

Image source: http://pediatric-nurse-practitioners.blogspot.com/2012/12/top-5-cardiac-care-nursing-jobs-for-we.html

Examining the distribution of industry payments made to medical doctors

The Center for Medical and Medicaid Services (CMS) new Open Payments database shows the consulting fees, research grants, travel and other reimbursements made to medical industry in 2013

There are 2,619,700 payments in the CMS data made to 356,190 physicians.   The average payment made to physicians was $255.22.   The median payment was $15.52

Table 1: Summary of Payments – STATA  output

table1

 

The physicians received an average total  of $1,877.11 in payments.  The median total payment for the 356,190 physicians in the data was $94.15

Table 2: Summary of Payments – STATA  output

tabl2

 

Below is the STATA code for the results:
count gen
bysort phy: gen hj =_n
bysort physician_p: gen hj =_n
sum hj, det
count if hj==1
sum tot, det
bysort physician_p: egen hj2 = tot(total)
bysort physician_p: egen hj2 = total(total_am)
sum hj2
sum hj2, det
sort physcian_p
sort physician_p
sum hj2 if _n==1, det
sum hj, det
sum hj2 if hj==1, det

Medical care commodities inflate at a lower rate than general inflation from July to August

cpigeneral_inflation_2014_08

The consumer price index (CPI) went down from 37.909 in July 2014 to 237.428 in August 2014, an annualized rate of 1.79%.

medical_commodities_2014_08medical_services_2014_08

The price index for medical care commodities went up at an annualized rate of 1.45% from July 2014 to August 2014. During the same period, the price index for hospital and related services went up at an annualized rate of 1.32%, whereas medical care services and professional services went down at an annualized rate of 0.46% and 3.04%, respectively.

Source: BLS

Image source: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-54762670/stock-photo-background-concept-illustration-consumer-price-index.html

Texas RN’s, therapists, and PA’s see increase in job openings from June to July

nursing_symbol

The number of job openings in Texas for nurses, therapists, and physician assistants increased from  9,298 to 10,068 from June 2014 to July 2014. The searcher-to-job opening ratio decreased from 1.52 to 1.48 during that same span.

nurse_2014_07

 

Source: BLS

Image source: http://www.carrollhs.org/s/1253/index.aspx?pgid=877

Healthcare jobs increased from July 2014 to August 2014

healthcare

The health care and social assistance industry gained 10,900 jobs from July 2014 to August 2014. Compared to August 2013, the cumulative number of jobs added in this industry is 33,200, an annual increase of 2.5%.

Source: Tracer

Image source: http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2012/01/06/health-care-sector-adds-jobs-as-overall-employment-picture-looks-healthier/