Quality & Patient Safety

America’s hospitals are committed to sharing meaningful, accurate hospital quality information with the patients they serve. Hospitals also support well-designed pay-for-performance programs that can help move the health care delivery system from volume to value.At the same time, however, hospitals…
Trustee talking points Three percent of patients admitted to children’s hospitals are at least 18 years old, and trends indicate that their numbers will only grow. As these children with once-fatal diagnoses such as congenital heart disease survive well into adulthood, a treatment…
Trustee talking points An ever-increasing amount of data is available for health care leaders to use in making decisions about drugs, devices and procedures. The flood of data can lead to poor results if it's not interpreted correctly. Board members need to be alert to randomness…
The women and men who work in America’s hospitals witness the toll of the opioid epidemic on patients and the health of their communities every day. While prescription opioids can be a safe and necessary part of pain management, these drugs also carry serious risks of harm because of the…
Hep C deaths at all-time high19,659: Number of U.S. deaths related to the hepatitis C virus in 2014, the highest number in history. The number of acute HCV cases hit 2,194 in 2014, more than 2.5 times the number in 2010.Increased testing and increased access to treatment are considered the best…
Hospitals and health systems throughout the country face many of the same challenges. One of the most dangerous — and almost always overlooked (if an organization is even aware of it) — is the persistent use of inconsistent terminology. When there are a lack of rules guiding…
You might conclude, judging by the media fixation on whoever says the most incendiary and idiotic things the loudest, that deep thinking about hard issues has gone utterly out of style. Emily Friedman proved otherwise. In her writing for this publication and others, she challenged us to examine…
One in four Americans experiences a mental illness or substance use disorder each year, and the majority of those also have a comorbid physical health condition. Hospitals provide essential behavioral health care services to millions of Americans every day. In recent years, the challenges of…
Trustee Talking Points Trustee Talking Points Health systems now require enterprise data warehouses to create a foundation for future analytics. The shift from fee-for-service to value-based reimbursement is driving the need for sophisticated analytics systems that can…