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When cutting costs in your facility, other programs, your physicians, and even your staff can be partners. Consider these suggestions from Terry Hawes, RN, vice president of Dallas-based National Surgical Care:
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When trying to find ways to cut costs with your supplies and equipment, consider working with one specific vendor within a group purchasing organization (GPO) and reduce your purchasing orders (POs), advises Terry Hawes, RN, vice president of Dallas-based National Surgical Care.
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A 4% annual increase for the life of the facility is not a typical offer from a payer negotiating a contract with an outpatient surgery facility, but that is exactly what was offered to, and quickly accepted by, one facility.
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Let's have a show of hands of those who have real concerns about the economy and the overall health of business today. (Cue to author who is waving both hands in the air).
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In every element of the revised 2009 "Universal Protocol for Preventing Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure, Wrong Person Surgery," including verification of procedure, marking of site, and taking time out, The Joint Commission (TJC) has "gotten a bit more specific about who does what and when," says Peter Angood, MD, vice president and chief patient safety officer for TJC.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed a 3% payment increase for hospital-based outpatient programs for calendar year (CY) 2009, while ambulatory surgery specialties will see payment changes ranging from -6% for procedures on the digestive system to 19% for procedures of the musculoskeletal system.
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Despite being pressured, The Joint Commission (TJC) has not dictated in the revised "Universal Protocol for Preventing Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure, Wrong Person Surgery" that surgeons must be the ones who mark the surgical site.
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North Dakota faces health care challenges common to many rural areas of the United States, but the state is facing them with an innovative, cooperative approach that has implications for other rural and even urban areas, a recent Commonwealth Fund report emphasizes.
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Ceftobiprole, a novel broad-spectrum cephalosporin with activity against MRSA, was non-inferior to vancomycin plus ceftazidime in a study of complicated skin and skin-structure infections. This is the first β-lactam with reliable activity against methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) to be evaluated in advanced-stage clinical trials.
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Elevated troponin i is a nonspecific finding, but suggests a poor prognosis regardless of its cause.
