Institutional change is undoubtedly hard, but in an industry where people's lives are at risk every second of every day, there is no excuse for not prioritizing and tackling patient safety head on. How quickly is healthcare changing if attention…

Hand hygiene compliance rates remain generally low despite the well-documented connection between improper hand hygiene and healthcare-associated infections — but there are many varied reasons healthcare workers don't comply to hand hygiene protocol, a study published in The Joint Commission…

A targeted approach to hand hygiene improvement — focusing improvement efforts on specific issues of noncompliance — can be more effective than a "one-size-fits-all" strategy, according to an article in the January issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality…

The Washington State Hospital Association has redesigned its website, Washington Hospital Quality, which makes hospital quality data available online.

Memorial Hospital in Jasper, Ind., will see its Medicare funds cut from the Medicare Hospital-Acquired Conditions Reduction Program, but hospital officials are blaming improper documentation, not a high rate of infections, for the penalty, according to a report by The…

When surgical units have a higher proportion of nurses with certain certifications, the rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections in surgical patients decreases, according to a study in the AORN Journal.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments waiver to allow a nucleic acid-based influenza test to be used in physician offices, emergency departments, health department clinics and other healthcare facilities.

Medicare's Hospital Compare quality reports may impact how insurance companies negotiate prices for hospital procedures, according to a recent study published in Health Affairs.

The majority of physicians are most concerned with getting penalized for factors they cannot control.

While medical schools revamp curriculum and test innovative learning strategies, most physicians and physicians-in-training believe medical school should still last four years, according to a survey of faculty, students and alumni residents and physicians from Ohio State University College of…