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If your hospital receives high scores on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), 30-day readmission rates are likely to be low, according to a study by Press Ganey, a South Bend, IN, health care performance improvement organization.
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The focus on patient flow in the hospital setting began in the 1990s, when emergency department (ED) overcrowding became a serious threat to patient safety and quality of care.
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The American Hospital Association reports that 88% of all hospitals responding to its RACTrac Web-based survey have received an audit under the Recovery Auditor (RA) program.
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After Springfield Regional Medical Center in Springfield, OH, began daily multidisciplinary team huddles to facilitate patient care, the hospitals performance on targeted core measures rose to the 95th quartile compared to a range of 75% to 81% when the project began, and the housewide ratio of the observed-to-expected length of stay decreased from 1.15 to 1.07.
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The multidisciplinary team on each unit at Springfield Regional Medical Center in Springfield, OH, holds short team huddles at a specific time every day and reviews each patient, the plan of care and goals, and what needs to happen each day.
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Hospitals that appeal their denials by the recovery auditors (RAs) recoup their money 75% of the time, according to data provided by the American Hospital Association. But, only 40% of denials are appealed.
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Hospitals may eventually receive some relief from the burdens of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Recovery Auditor (RA) program (previously called the Recovery Audit Contractor [RAC]) program but dont think the RAs are going away.
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Safe patient handling should be standard practice, not best practice. That is the message behind new, draft standards issued by the American Nurses Association (ANA).
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(This is the first part of a two-part series on avoiding liability with documentation, see story, below. This month, we discuss the case of a surgeon who was charged and jailed regarding mistakes he made in the medical record that did not impact billing. Next month, well cover the specific lessons that can be learned from the case.)
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