Efficient patient through-put is an important part of any healthcare venue's success because it ultimately impacts patient satisfaction and long-term profitability. Ralph McKibbin, MD, FACP, medical director of Allegheny Regional Endoscopy Center in Altoona, Pa., and Amy Reighard, RN, MSN,…
Patient Safety & Outcomes
The National Quality Forum has endorsed eight additional outcome measures for "high-impact" areas of hospital care, expanding the original outcome measures it endorsed for conditions and care in the intensive care unit in Sept. 2010, according to an NQF news…
Two recent studies by Healthways Center for Health Research published in Population Health Management suggest that proactive interventions, such as chronic health management and telephone outreach reduce hospital admissions and readmissions and result in "considerable" cost savings, according to the…
Researchers found that indoor air quality in operating rooms differed significantly from month to month and other parameters, including number of OR personnel, affected indoor air quality in ORs, according to a study published in American Journal of Infection Control.
Private rooms in intensive care units can substantially reduce rates of hospital-acquired infections, according to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The study makes a case for single-rooms not only being more comfortable for patients and families,…
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Thomas Schares, MD, MBA, an anesthesiologist with Somnia Anesthesia who serves as chief of anesthesiology for Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, Calif., discusses the phenomenon known as "normalization of deviance" and how it is impacting healthcare and the…
Preoperative cerebral oxygen saturation could accurately assess risk for adverse outcome in cardiac surgery patients, according to a study published in the Jan. 2011 issue of Anesthesiology.
Special precautions must be taken to ensure anesthesia safety in ambulatory surgery on infants, very young children and elderly patients, according to a SAMBA report.
Elderly patients given a short-acting opioid analgesic for treatment of arthritis pain are twice as likely to experience a fracture in the next year, compared to elderly patients given a long-acting opioid or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, according to a study…
Delays in elective surgeries of hospitalized patients increase the risk of infections and raise hospital costs, according to a study in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.