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In yet another sign that infection control is becoming a national priority across a wide range of accreditors, regulators and state and federal agencies, The Joint Commission has created a new web portal to combine its full array of initiatives to prevent health care associated infections (HAIs).
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The first hospice in the country, The Connecticut Hospice, opened its doors in 1974 and started a movement. Now in a serendipitous turn of events, that hospice was the first one to receive advanced certification under a new program from The Joint Commission.
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With all the talk about needing more outcomes measures rather than process measures, there are some well-loved projects that could get left out in the cold, simply because it is hard to prove they have a direct impact on improved outcomes.
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It has been seven years since Medicare started requiring hospitals to publicly report their performance for core measures related to heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia. Ask the hospitals participating in Hospital Compare whether this has affected their quality improvement and patient safety efforts and the vast majority will answer in the affirmative.
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If you have patients waiting for long periods of time in your emergency department, you better start thinking about ways to cut those times.
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Perhaps the saddest thing about the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2012 User Comparative Database Report, released in February by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is not that so many people believe the culture in their hospitals is an impediment to error reporting, but that so many people who work in the patient safety arena are not surprised at the high number of people responding that way.
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Some employers are taking advantage of people's tendency to post explicit and sometimes disparaging information about themselves on Facebook and other media by demanding access to those sites before hiring. After incidents in which patient information was posted on Facebook, some healthcare providers might consider monitoring employee sites on an ongoing basis.
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An autopsy determined that Anna Brown's death in a jail cell in September 2012 was caused by blood clots that formed in her legs and migrated to her lungs, according to authorities in St. Louis, MO. Police say Brown went to three hospitals complaining of leg pain in the days leading up to her death, including her visit to St. Mary's Health Center that led to her arrest for trespassing.
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Continuing reports of security breaches resulting in the loss of sensitive patient data show the weaknesses of some healthcare organizations, and some experts say criminals are targeting healthcare for cyber attacks.
