Bulgur Wheat Salad with Caramelized Pears and Sweet Potatoes

The concept of including whole grains, fruits, and vegetables into our diets has gained momentum resulting in easily accessible whole grains in supermarkets.  Some of these include farro, buckwheat, quinoa, and bulgur wheat.  Whole grains have crept into home pantries and find their way into baked goods, soups, stews, casseroles, etc.  A little bit of imagination and creativity can end up in a beautiful meal that is light, nutritious, and beautiful too, making you want to dig in even if you hate bulgur wheat (in this case).

I recently used up a solitary sweet potato and a pear to create this salad.  I wasn’t planning this salad at all, until I started caramelizing the boiled sweet potato. I thought it would be great in a couscous salad, but decided to go with bulgur.  Its sturdiness stood up to the sweet caramelized goodness and I had leftovers for lunch the next day.  Hope you will enjoy it…..

Ingredients I used:
1 medium sweet potato, peeled, and cut into chunks
1 pear, peeled and diced into small cubes
1/2 cup bulgur wheat
1 cup hot water
1 small chilli, finely minced (optional)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
1/2 tbsp butter
Salt to taste

A few simple steps and you are done:

1. Soak the bulgur wheat in one cup hot water, close the pan, and set aside.
2. Boil the sweet potato chunks and dice it.
3. Heat a medium skillet and add butter, diced pears, and sweet potato.  Add minced chilli and salt.
4. Continue cooking until the pears and sweet potatoes begin to caramelize and look yummy….
5. Remove from heat and set aside.
6. Uncover the bulgur wheat and fluff with a fork.  Add a pinch of salt and mix well.
7. Toss the caramelized goodness into the bulgur and toss gently – do not mash up the lovely brown diced pears.
8. Sprinkle with lemon juice and chopped cilantro.  Enjoy warm or at room temperature.

I posted it on my food blog last week as well.

 

Can You Guess What Was The Costliest U.S. Hospital Condition in 2009?

According to a recent report released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), septicemia was the costliest medical condition treated in 2009, with costs totalling approximately $15.4 billion.  Septicemia or sepsis occurs due to blood infections caused by bacteria.  The most common bacteria responsible for sepsis are E. coli and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

The report, Septicemia in U.S. Hospitals, 2009, notes that elderly patients account for over 50 percent of patients hospitalized with infection.  Sepsis was the sixth most common primary cause of hospitalizations in 2009.  Between 2000 and 2009, the number of cases of infection almost doubled from 337,100 to 836,000.  Some other interesting findings were:

• The inpatient septicemia death rate was 16% in 2009, nearly eight times more than causes of other hospital stays
• Complications from medical devices, implants, or grafts accounted for nearly 20% of septicemia stays
• About 40% of patients were between ages 65 and 84; approximately 27% of patients were between ages 45 and 64; 14% of patients were age 85 and older; 11% of patients were between ages 18 and 44; and less than 2% of patients were in the age group of 1 to 17
• Nearly one of every 23 patients hospitalized in 2009 had a primary or secondary diagnosis of septicemia
• 4,600 new patients were treated each day for septicemia in U.S. hospitals in 2009
• Septicemia-related hospitalizations increased by 153 percent overall from 1993 to 2009, an annual increase of 6 percent
• The predominant payer for septicemia-related hospital admissions was Medicare, covering nearly 58 percent of patients with sepsis
• E. coli was the most common organism for primary diagnosis of septicemia, and MRSA was the cause of secondary diagnosis.
• Inpatient mortality rates in 2009 was about 16 percent, nearly 8 times higher than for other stays (2 percent), which has remained unchanged since 2000.

Hospitals across the nation are coming together to address the increased mortality due to sepsis.  In New York State, two notable collaboratives are working toward improving recognition and treatment of sepsis.

• The Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS), is coordinating a unique initiative to improve identification and management of sepsis called Assessment of Improvement Methodology in Sepsis (AIMS).
• The Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) and the United Hospital Fund (UHF) launched a collaborative to address the challenges presented by sepsis.  The collaborative, Strengthening Treatment and Outcomes for Patients, STOP Sepsis Collaborative, is designed to work with hospitals to implement standardized processes for recognition and treatment of sepsis to improve care and reduce mortality in patients.  The collaborative includes 56 New York City hospital currently, with more hospitals coming forward to join the group.

 

Low-performing hospitals care for greater numbers of elderly minority patients

A recent study,  Low-Quality, High-Cost Hospitals, Mainly In South, Care For Sharply Higher Shares Of Elderly Black, Hispanic, And Medicaid Patients,  published in Health Affairs reported some previously unknown statistics that could have serious implications for Medicare‘s Value-Based Purchasing Program.   In the Commonwealth Fund supported study, the Harvard researchers led by Ashish K. Jha found that low-performing hospitals with high costs have double the proportion of elderly black patients compared to high-quality, low-cost hospitals. Similar disparities were also found for elderly Hispanic and Medicaid patients.

The researchers report that the lower-performing hospitals are the typical small public or for-profit institutions in the South, while the higher-performing facilities are mostly nonprofit institutions in the Northeast.  According to the authors of the study “The fact that the worst hospitals have more than twice the proportion of elderly black patients than the best hospitals is both startling and unknown.”

Hospital data was drawn from different sources including Hospital Compare, Medicare, the American Hospital Association, and the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). Process measures were used to assign quality of care scores for acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, pneumonia, and prevention of surgical complications. 

Because the Affordable Care Act authorizes Medicare to give out higher payments to hospitals that achieve better performance while cutting reimbursements for those hospitals that fail to perform better, hospitals that can simultaneously provide high-quality care and manage their costs well are likely to come out ahead under health reform, the authors say.  Financial penalties  incurred by lower-performing hospitals may inadvertently worsen existing disparities in health care unless these hospitals improve on quality and cost of care.

 

A beginning…….finally……

I created this blog over a year ago……it was one of those days, the do-nothin’ days…I’m sure you all have those days.  I was browsing and checked out WordPress…..and before I knew it, I owned a WP blog   Now that I had my own space to rant, I’d to decide its theme, i.e. should I showcase my baked goodies here or write a travelogue, or write about healthcare.  As you can see, a decision was never made.  So, why am I here now?

An arm surgery last week has me homebound and browsing with one hand…and I stumbled on WP and our paths crossed again.  Is WP sending me a message that I should be back?  OK, I’m now on medical leave for 3-4 weeks, can type with one hand, and have all the time in the world to blog, so here I am, blogging my first post.  So, have I decided what to blog about?  I am leaning toward healthcare given our current healthcare climate in the nation.  Let us see if I succeed…..

See y’all soon.

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