The health reform law will shift from making payments of hospitals for reporting quality indicators to reducing payments to hospitals with the highest rates of medical errors and infections, according to a report by CNN Money.
Patient Safety & Outcomes
The American Society of Anesthesiologists' Ambulatory Surgical Care committee issued a statement, advising anesthesiologists to consider monitoring patients for exhaled carbon dioxide in procedures using propofol, especially involving the upper GI tract.
In 2006-2008, there were nearly 1 million patient safety events among Medicare patients, costing $8.9 billion, according to a new study by healthcare ratings organization HealthGrades. The number of incidents was virtually the same as reported in last year's study.
The trend over the last five years has been a continued, dedicated effort to establishing standards and steps for improving patient safety. Major accreditation agencies have become increasingly active in establishing guidelines and are joined by hospitals and surgery centers…
Richard F. Collins, MD, is vice president for medical affairs of Jefferson Regional Medical Center, a 390-bed hospital in Pittsburgh that is participating in a new pilot project to lower readmissions, sponsored by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. Here he…
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New England Sinai Hospital in Stoughton, Mass., is suspending new patient admissions in order to train and educate staff after state public health officials found patient care problems, including improper treatment of wounds and not properly following infection control procedures,…
A recent study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that weekend hospital care is not as prompt as weekday care, due largely to lower hospital staffing levels and services availability on the weekends, according to an AHRQ…
Nearly 58 percent of the surgeries performed in hospitals during 2007 were done as outpatient procedures, according to a recent statistical brief from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
Around 175 nurses from across Florida rallied in Tallahassee to ask state lawmakers to base nurse-to-patient ratios on patient acuity, according to a report in the St. Petersburg Times.
A review by Johns Hopkins researchers recently published in the journal Critical Care, says although it's clear that use of aviation-like safety checklists based on scientific evidence can work and that more hospitals should use them to help prevent errors…