RAND Urges More Patient Input in Hospital Rankings
Hospitals closely watch their rankings on sites like CMS’s Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings System, available on Hospital Compare, because they can have significant impact on consumer choices and even reimbursement levels.
Q&A: Joint Commission Focuses on Dialysis
Jennifer Cowel, RN, MHSA, is president of Patton Healthcare Consulting in Naperville, Illinois, and Kathleen Good, MSN, RN, is an associate of the company. They are both Joint Commission alumni and spoke with PSMJ about maintaining a safe dialysis program.
IHI Launches Maternal Care Improvement Project
Supported by a grant from Merck for Mothers, the project’s goals are to spread the use of evidence-based care practices to reduce complications such as hemorrhaging, hypertension, and blood clots.
A Novel Approach to Hospital Efficiency
While recognizing the value of many traditional utilization management processes, including labor productivity, staffing ratios, bed type assignments, throughput initiatives, and supply chain management, the team’s goal was to find new opportunities for improved resource management in bedside care delivery.
5 Ways Nurses Can Improve Patient Mobility
To ensure patients were getting the ambulation they needed to achieve optimal outcomes, the hospital revamped its mobility program, including creation of a designated mobility team.
CMS Reverses Plan to Cut Reporting of HAIs
A new rule, published last week, restores reporting of data through the Inpatient Quality Reporting Program, including infection rates of Clostridium difficile, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and post-surgery sepsis.
ECRI Report Details How IT Can Reduce Testing and Med Errors
Health IT Safe Practices for Closing the Loop was put together by a Partnership-convened work group that sought to address safety issues related to tracking diagnostic tests and medication changes.
International Graduates Will Help Fill the Gap With U.S. Physician Shortages
With the U.S. healthcare system already feeling the effects of the shortage, some estimates say that the country needs 14,000 new doctors to enter the workforce in order to rid the country of primary care shortages in rural and urban environments.
Improving Language Access for Limited-English-Proficient, Deaf, and Hard-of-Hearing Patients
Several hospital systems and long-term care facilities across the country have started to implement electronic interpreter systems, called video remote interpreting devices, in their health centers.
When Nurse Staffing Lags, ER Performance Does, Too
In a retrospective observational review of the electronic medical record database from a high-volume, urban public hospital, researchers compared nursing hours per day with door-to-discharge length of stay, door-to-admission LOS, and the percentage of patients who left without being seen.