Quality & Patient Safety
Hospitals are making “substantial progress in improving safety,” according to an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality report that found a 17 percent decline in hospital-acquired conditions from 2010 to 2014. That saved 87,000 lives and nearly $20 billion in health costs. HACs include adverse…
The number of new cases of diabetes diagnosed in the United States declined significantly from 2009 to 2014 after steadily rising for 25 years, according to data released in December by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The country recorded 1.4 million new cases in 2014, down from 1.7…
The American Hospital Association last month awarded its 2015 Shirley Ann Munroe Leadership Award to Vince Oliver, CEO and superintendent of Island Hospital in Anacortes, Wash. The award honors small or rural hospital leaders who have improved health care delivery in their communities through…
Misprescribed in Pediatrics
50%: An estimated half of antibiotic prescriptions given during pediatric office visits are inappropriate.
Source: Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report, Aug. 20, 2015
• Patient experience is growing in importance as a performance measure for hospitals, especially as patients become more savvy health care consumers. • Medicare holds back part of its reimbursement, and doesn’t pay it back until the end of a payment period, based partly on HCAHPS…
Health care executives and boards no longer can lead with only one organization in mind. Value-based payment, along with a renewed emphasis on developing healthy communities, makes care coordination among community providers in multiple entities a necessity.
Hospitals and health systems are extending their efforts to embrace environmental sustainability, especially when it comes to energy consumption, according to the 2015 Health Facilities Management Sustainable Operations Survey conducted with the American Society for Healthcare Engineering and the…
“The Association Between Patient and Family Engagement Practices and Patient Experience” is a slide presentation that covers the findings of a 2013–2014 survey conducted by the Health Research & Educational Trust and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The survey examined patient and family…
What’s your blood pressure? Do you check it yourself at home? Terrific, if you do! But how do you know if your device is reading your pressure accurately? And how do you know if you are actually using it correctly? As we all see every day, medical technology is not only increasingly embedded…
A 30 percent reduction in the effectiveness of antibiotics could increase infections and associated deaths for certain U.S. surgical and chemotherapy patients by 120,000 and 6,300 per year, respectively, finds a study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Antibiotic stewardship programs andf improved…