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ED managers have the opportunity to increase reimbursements under the proposed 2009 rule for the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS), but they also will come under greater scrutiny by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for the quality of their care.
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A leading official from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in Boston says that the impetus behind its list of hospital-acquired conditions for which it will no longer pay the "bump-up" in the complexity rate is a desire to improve quality of care. Some of the fears expressed by ED experts may be unfounded, he says.
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In a move that has generated great concern in the ED community, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing to more than double the list of hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) for which it will no longer pay hospitals at a higher rate for the resulting increased costs of care.
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On April 10, 2008, 360 nurses in EDs nationwide began using the Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) program, an alcohol screening and intervention tool kit provided free by the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA).
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The "child-friendly" environment of the pediatric ED at Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Children's Hospital in Charleston is a dead giveaway as to the kind of patients the department sees.
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ED managers are well aware of the need for triage protocols during a disaster and have incorporated them into their disaster response plans. However, plans vary among facilities and within regions.
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A New York City jury has decided that a hospital did nothing wrong when it tried to examine the rectum of a construction worker who had been hit on the head by a falling wooden beam.
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Although EDstat, a new eight-bed area that was added to the ED at Reston (VA) Hospital Center about a year ago, is only open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., it has helped to improve the performance of the entire ED.
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In the wake of a series of media warnings about the deadly health care-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA) comes a new study in Annals of Emergency Medicine that outlines the emergence of its "cousin," community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA).
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As the old adage goes, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." That's exactly what the ED leaders at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle did about one year ago when they noticed the rapid growth of urgent care clinics within local pharmacies.
