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Quality managers agree that establishing and maintaining a culture of quality and safety is one of the toughest challenges they face. One facility that appears to have successfully met that challenge is Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, MI, which recently received the 2008 AHA-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize.
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Major findings of a recent report by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured include the following:
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As expected, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in August announced a proposed regulation that would replace the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) code sets now used to report health care diagnoses and procedures with greatly expanded ICD-10 code sets. If adopted, the new regulation would take effect in October 2011.
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When Congress passed the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 amending Title XVIII of the Social Security Act, included in the more than 30 provisions of the act are several that impact discharge and transfer from an acute-care setting.
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A California hospital that settled a lawsuit claiming that it dumped an indigent, paraplegic patient in downtown Los Angeles' Skid Row in 2006 will be monitored by a former U.S. attorney for up to five years to ensure the hospital won't engage in patient dumping again.
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Every year, more than 115 million patients enter hospital emergency rooms (ER) in the United States. And many of them – as many as 75% leave the ER not really clear about what happened and what they should do next, a University of Michigan study reveals.
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No matter how positive their experiences during the discharge process, patients can feel that once they exit the hospital doors, they're in "no man's land" if issues arise later. But a process tested at Somerville (MA) Hospital showed success at bridging the gap between hospital and primary care.
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Citing improved efficiency and consistency, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has begun transitioning the handling of hospital claim reviews from quality improvement organizations (QIOs) to fiscal intermediaries (FIs) and Medicare administrative contractors (MACs).
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In a 2005 survey of case managers and social workers who handle discharge planning in almost a dozen Florida hospitals, 30% of those surveyed described registered dietitians as "not important," to discharge planning, and 45% said they consult dietitians infrequently or not at all.
