Patient Safety & Outcomes

Hospital readmissions are tough to track as patients increasingly opt for other hospitals when they’re not satisfied with their care. Vizient developed the CMS Qualified Entity Public Report last month and Kaufman Hall highlighted findings in a Sept. 5 article.…

Mass General Brigham, based in Somerville, Mass., and eGenesis have received FDA approval for a clinical trial testing genetically engineered pig kidneys.  The trial will evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of EGEN-2784, a genetically engineered pig kidney, after 24…

Key Takeaways Genetic testing is rapidly moving genomics from a niche specialty to becoming more integrated into mainstream clinical practice. Once deployed primarily to diagnose rare and inherited conditions after initial clinical evaluations, genetic insights are now shaping real-time treatment…

The fall mortality rate among older adults in the U.S. has more than tripled over the last 30 years, despite steadily decreasing in other high-income countries, according to an opinion paper published Aug. 8 in JAMA Health Forum.  One possible…

To increase patient safety, Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare takes staff on “field trips” to learn from other high-risk industries, such as chemical manufacturing, according to an American Hospital Association podcast published Sept. 3.  Randy Fagin, MD, chief quality officer of…

York, Pa.-based WellSpan Health is enhancing security at its facility, including creating a private police force. “With this initiative, WellSpan Health is continuing to take a proactive approach to enhancing our security efforts and the safety of our patients, their…

Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers found there is no standard definition for what constitutes contamination in a blood culture, which could lead to more false positives and CLABSI infections. “We found variation in how hospitals define blood culture contamination, and…

A new study commissioned by the American Hospital Association has found patients treated in hospital outpatient departments typically are sicker and require more medically complex treatment than those seen in independent physician offices.  The study, published in September and conducted…

Rural, independent hospitals are teaming up to keep from shutting down, joining large health systems or reducing services, NPR reported Sept. 2. What to know: 1. Since 2010, about 153 rural hospitals have closed or stopped offering inpatient services, according…

“First, do no harm” may be the most well-known adage in the medical profession, but it’s far more than an admonishment. Preventing harm by investing in patient safety is a smart business strategy that returns incalculable direct and indirect financial…