Employee Management
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Discharge Navigators Facilitate More Efficient Transitions
SNF beds were limited in one hospital’s region, even before the COVID-19 pandemic decimated nursing home staffing across the United States. ECU Health’s solution has been to assign a discharge navigator to work on obtaining authorizations for transferring patients to SNFs. Instead of waiting for the SNF to obtain authorization for a particular patient, the discharge navigator handles this task.
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Standardized Process for SNF Transitions Helps Prevent Readmissions
Using Lean methodology, Monument Health in Rapid City, SD, created a care transition process that reduces excess hospital days, prevents readmissions, and shortens the time it takes from discharge order to the patient leaving the hospital.
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Hospital Cuts Readmissions in Half with Process Improvement Strategy
Employees at HonorHealth Network in Phoenix work toward reducing readmissions. This is why the health system created a process improvement program that addresses the challenges of frequent users. In 2022, the program reduced readmissions among patients with complex care plans by 51%.
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Health Systems Improve Post-Acute Transitions
Transitioning patients from the hospital to skilled nursing facilities has become more difficult for case managers since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Case management leaders from several different hospitals have developed solutions.
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Unified Defense Not Always Possible in Malpractice Claim
Defense counsel must be aware of competing interests in any case. Attorneys should engage in frank discussions with the hospital and any employed staff who are named defendants. There must be a cohesive strategy. Individual staff members named in lawsuits should not be speculating on whether a staffing shortage existed, or whether a staffing shortage caused or contributed to a patient’s alleged injury.
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Emergency Physician’s Testimony Could Legally Expose Hospital
Airing grievances against the department, hospital, or health system will not serve the defendant in the long term. If a patient experienced a delayed diagnosis because of long waits, some providers might editorialize in the chart about why the delays happened or describe their personal efforts to bring the boarding crisis to the attention of leaders. A “just the facts” approach is better.
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Emergency Medicine Physician Groups Pledge to Tackle Workforce Challenges
Many experts note the burdens placed on frontline providers during the COVID-19 pandemic have taken a toll, and the apparent fall-off in demand for emergency medicine residency positions is not necessarily surprising. Nonetheless, there is concern suggesting solutions are needed to address multiple workforce challenges.
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Legal Exposure for EDs if On-Call Consultant Refuses to See Patient
There are multiple tactics to secure a consult, even if a specialist is busy. However, if a bad outcome occurs because there was no consult, clinicians should not play the blame game.
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Report: Nearly 100,000 Nurses Quit During Pandemic
Stress, burnout, and retirements drove exodus.
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Surgeon Prevails When Patient’s Expert Cannot Tie Injury to Allegedly Negligent Surgery
The failure to admit medical records was a big problem for the plaintiff’s case, as was the expert’s failure to directly address how the mesh plug caused the patient’s pain. In defending these kinds of cases, it is important for defendants and their counsel to force the plaintiff to honor the rules of evidence to admit their exhibits and to prove causation, whether through expert testimony or otherwise.