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Sometimes the best response to regulatory and payer changes in health care is to improve the discharge planning process.
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Case management salaries are on the rise, but the vast majority of case managers are working far more than the typical 40-hour week, according to the 2008 Hospital Case Management salary survey.
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Discharge planning for orthopedic surgery patients at one major hospital begins well in advance of patients being admitted for surgery.
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In announcing its final rule for the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) for calendar year 2009, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reiterated its intention to strengthen the tie between quality of care furnished to people in hospital outpatient departments and the payments hospitals receive for those services.
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The emergency department at Middle Tennessee Medical Center (MTMC) in Murfreesboro certainly qualifies as busy: It sees nearly 63,000 patients a year and averages more than 170 patients a day. Yet the average time it takes a patient to get to triage from entry into the ED is 14-17 minutes, and its door-to-doc time averages 35-40 minutes.
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Before developing a protocol that delegates authority for determining patient status to case managers, a multidisciplinary team at Good Samaritan Hospital in Dayton, OH, spent several months researching the process, seeking advice from the Florida Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) and hospitals in Florida that had piloted a case management admission status protocol.
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The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has designated the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) of Horsham, PA, as one of the first 10 Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs), according to a news release by ISMP.
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For many hospital pharmacy departments, decentralization is an important goal for the purpose of improving patient care and safety and encouraging greater collaboration between pharmacists, nurses, and physicians.
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There's very little excitement for Floridian hospital pharmacists when it comes to holding disaster drills for hurricanes. It's old hat, second nature to the hurricane-weary pros that have dealt with this for years.
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When Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, FL, recently held a disaster drill that was intended to prepare staff for a highly infectious disease outbreak, the hospital put a pharmacist in charge.