CMS Suspends Enforcement of Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare Workers
According to the memo, CMS “will not enforce the new rule regarding vaccination of health care workers or requirements for policies and procedures in certified Medicare/Medicaid providers and suppliers (including nursing facilities, hospitals, dialysis facilities and all other provider types covered by the rule) while there are court-ordered injunctions in place prohibiting enforcement of this provision.”
What’s Actually Driving Safe Healthcare?
Over the last 20 years, much more focus has been placed on areas such as safety and efficiency rather than equity, resulting in inconsistent or episodic progress in each area. For example, safety has arguably received most of the attention and focus, but somehow, preventable harm is still frequent across the continuum of care.
PSQH: The Podcast Episode 42 – The Evolution of Healthcare Quality
On episode 42 of PSQH: The Podcast, Rachel Biblow, senior vice president and partner for strategic integration and transformation at Press Ganey and Dr. Tejal Gandhi, Press Ganey’s chief safety and transformation officer, talk about the evolution of healthcare quality over the last 20 years.
Securing Healthcare Data: Protecting Mainframes During COVID and Beyond
Hospitals and other healthcare organizations must look for new ways to secure their data, but one area in their IT infrastructure is often overlooked: mainframe security. Ray Overby, co-founder and CTO of Key Resources, Inc., says that while the current healthcare environment has brought attention to the cybersecurity threats facing healthcare organizations, mainframes still fly under the radar.
In a Post-Pandemic World, Let’s Take a Holistic Approach to Patient Health
As we recover from a worldwide pandemic—a crisis that has cost millions of lives and crippled economies, infrastructure, and governments—many healthcare organizations are realizing that they can achieve far better outcomes if they consider all of the social determinants of health.
Addressing Referral Leakage for Post-Surgical Care
If money were no issue, building more clinics would be a great way to prevent referral leakage, but short of that, organizations have to find a way to differentiate their network’s care as better, safer, and more convenient than the competition.
OSHA Extends Public Comment On COVID-19 Vaccine Rule
The ETS, according to OSHA, is designed to “protect workers from the spread of coronavirus on the job.” Employers with 100 or more employees “must develop, implement and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, unless they adopt a policy requiring employees to either get vaccinated or undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work.”
Share Your Innovative Quality Improvement Ideas
Whether you’re a seasoned educator in search of a broader platform to share your expertise or a yet-to-present professional with big ideas, you should apply to the 2022 PSQH Innovation Awards. Deadline to apply is January 7, 2022 and the application is free.
Coronavirus Pandemic Inflicts Moral Injury on Healthcare Professionals, Study Says
The research article, which was published by JAMA Network Open, is based on survey data collected from more than 1,300 healthcare professionals in 2020 before vaccinations for COVID-19 were available. The surveys were conducted in two phases from April 24 to May 30, 2020, and Oct. 24 to Nov. 30, 2020.
Substance Abuse Treatment Expert on Overdoses: ‘You Have a Recipe for Disaster’
Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that provisional data show 100,306 overdose deaths occurred in the country in the 12-month period ending in April, representing a 28.5% increase over the overdose deaths that occurred during the same period the year before. The data show opioid overdose deaths increased by nearly 20,000.