CMS Delays Hospital Star Ratings Update, Again
No date was given for when CMS anticipates activating the ratings updates. Typically, the updates are issued every July and December. However, CMS has a history of delaying the updates, most recently in May.
AHRQ Data Shows Drop in Hospital-Acquired Conditions
The AHRQ National Scorecard on Hospital-Acquired Conditions estimated that 350,000 HACs, including adverse drug events and injuries from falls, were avoided and the rate was reduced by 8% from 2014 to 2016.
What’s Your Biggest Challenge to Creating a Culture of Quality in Patient Care?
By: Evan McLaughlin, Minitab The role of quality improvement in healthcare is more critical today than it ever has been. It is a top driver at any clinic or hospital system, regardless of size. It’s a major factor not only when it comes to the performance of a department or institution, but also overall patient … Continued
Alleged Healthcare Consulting Huckster Released on Bond in California
Sonja Emery, 52, who has been known to use a long list of aliases, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit on 11 counts of fraud and tax evasion, for a scam that ran from 2011 through 2014. She’s been accused of continuing to deceive her employers since.
Annual Industry Survey: Quality Improvement Initiatives
Once a quality improvement initiative has been launched, it can be difficult to keep it on track. Survey respondents were asked about the biggest challenges in maintaining quality initiatives in their organizations. The most cited challenge was the complexity of collecting and communicating a mass of rapidly shifting information with 50%.
Are Second Victims Getting the Help They Need?
A 2013 review of healthcare professionals as second victims, published in Evaluation & The Health Professions, concluded that nearly half of healthcare providers would fit this label at least once in their career. A 2017 survey of surgeons found that 80% recalled having at least one intraoperative adverse event within the past year of their practice. Those affected reported having experienced a substantial emotional impact on their well-being, including strong feelings of sadness, anxiety, and shame.
National Guidelines, Quality Measures Clearinghouses Shutting Down
Both online clearinghouses will go dark after July 16 as federal funding runs out. Neither site is accepting new guidelines or quality measure sets in anticipation of shutting the databases down.
Memorial Healthcare Rolls Out New Protocol to Eliminate Wrong-Site Nerve Blocks
A 2015 article in Current Opinion in Anesthesiology puts its best guess of the frequency of wrong-site blocks as 7.5 per 10,000 procedures. A 2018 review of publications reporting on at least 10,000 blocks found a rate of 0.52 to 5.07 wrong-site nerve blocks per 10,000 blocks, unilateral blocks, or “at-risk” procedures.
Study Calls for New Look at Hospital Readmissions
Published in Annals of Internal Medicine this week, the study led by researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center looked at readmission records for 822 patients treated at 10 academic medical centers in the U.S.
Leapfrog Report Card Finds Improvement in Errors, Accidents, Infections
Leapfrog issues the report cards twice a year, grading hospitals on an “A through F” scale based on their patient safety efforts.