When the Supreme Court released its opinion upholding the bulk of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) at the end of June, most of the commentary focused on what the law would mean to consumers.
It happened six months later than first expected, but on July 1 organizations became responsible for meeting the requirements of the standards for patient-centered communications, Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient- and Family-Centered Care: A Roadmap for Hospitals. An exception was the visitation standards, which went into effect July 1, 2011.
It's been 17 years since the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was signed into law, but despite that, there are still plenty of organizations that aren't complying with its rules and are ending up paying millions in fines for their errors.
Three years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American College of Surgeons (ACS) each brought a proposal to the National Quality Forum (NQF) related to measuring surgical-site infections.
Every now and then at Sunnybrook Health Sciences in Toronto, Canada, there was talk about getting ventilated patients up and about even if they were still intubated.
