States with lower breast cancer screening rates often report higher shares of breast cancers diagnosed at a regional or distant stage, according to U.S. Cancer Statistics data released in June by the CDC. The CDC classifies breast cancer stage at…
Patient Safety & Outcomes
FMOL Health, a 10-hospital system based in Baton Rouge, La., measures two patient safety metrics most other hospitals do not: whether patients leave the hospital as mobile as they arrived, and whether they acquire any bloodstream infection. CMS requires hospitals…
The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network made two changes to transplant rules aimed at improving communication and safety, but critics say they may raise ethical and patient care issues, NPR reported Oct. 28. On Aug. 20, the OPTN board of…
Older adults who received two weeks of home-delivered meals post-discharge were 69% less likely to be readmitted within 14 days, a Durham, N.C.-based Duke University study found. The study, published on Sept. 19 in Journal of Hospital Medicine, analyzed data…
Near-miss patient safety events may be one key to creating safer care, but many go unreported. Hospitals have sophisticated dashboards to measure patient safety events, but that data is not complete without the near misses, workarounds and bedside observations that…
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Many patient safety initiatives are missing a key component that can mean the difference between long-term change and abandoned projects: executive follow-through. “Patient safety is not an initiative problem in American healthcare,” Kriti Shree, a healthcare performance improvement and transformation…
HHS updated its national plan for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias this week, emphasizing prevention and earlier detection. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the update Oct. 22 at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Four things…
Receiving a personalized mRNA-based cancer vaccine alongside immunotherapy lowered the risk of recurrence or death by 42% versus immunotherapy alone in a phase 3 clinical trial of patients with surgically resected stage 2B to 4 melanoma. The vaccine, called intismeran…
Actor Christina Applegate revealed Oct. 20 that she was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The revelation underscores how elusive an MS diagnosis can be and highlights the persistent challenge of diagnostic errors across the healthcare industry. Seven notes: 1. Ms. Applegate,…
New Orleans-based LCMC Health will launch a no-cost genetic screening initiative to help 100,000 adults identify inherited risks for certain cancers and heart disease. The Uniquely You program, in collaboration with genomics company Helix, will allow participants to provide DNA…