Patient Safety & Outcomes

Research indicates that frequent reeducation of staff and multidisciplinary teamwork can significantly decrease central-line bloodstream infections, according to an Anesthesiology News report.

Washington State recently approved a provision within its Medicaid program in which it will no longer pay hospitals for any emergency department visit deemed as "unnecessary," and the American College of Emergency Physicians said this approach will put potential ED…

Greater continuity of care with a specialist and greater comprehensive care by a family physician were associated with less use of the emergency department, according to a study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Emergency department admissions for stroke among Medicare beneficiaries increased 2.2 percent while admissions for heart attack decreased 1.7 percent from 2008 to 2010, according to a study (pdf) by HealthGrades.

Post-stroke aphasia generates a one-year cost of approximately $1,703, according to a study in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Hospital emergency department visits are up in almost every hospital in the country right now, and implementing a capacity alert response system can help assuage the high volumes, according to a whitepaper from CEP America.

A recent study by researchers at the Medical University of Austria, in Vienna, in collaboration with Daniel I. Sessler, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Outcomes Research at the Cleveland Clinic described in Clinical Anesthesiology, suggests gargling with…

A new case study by Somnia Anesthesia describes how one well-respected, non-profit hospital in Pennsylvania optimized its anesthesia services toward a quality-focused, cost-efficient program.

Breast cancer patients who directed their treatment decisions had better decision-related outcomes compared with patients who did not direct treatment decisions, according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Rhode Island's Senate Commission on Emergency Department Diversion has issued a report recommending the development of a pilot program to divert substance abuse and mental health patients to alternative care centers instead of hospital EDs, according to a Rhode Island…