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In today's health care environment, hospitals are challenged on all fronts. The Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) are carefully scrutinizing hospital records, looking for inappropriate admissions, incorrect level of care, and inaccurate coding in the charts of Medicare patients.
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With a vaccine shortage projected for novel H1N1 influenza A, only the highest priority groups are likely to be offered the shot when initial lots are cleared for distribution this fall.
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A mentoring program for staff members who have already completed orientation is seen as a key strategy in the programs of Carolinas Medical Center (CMC) in Charlotte, NC, which recently was named the winner of the 2009 Franklin Award of Distinction by The Joint Commission and the American Case Management Association.
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By assigning an anticipated date of discharge to every patient within 24 hours of admission, the clinical resources management staff at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, FL, have been able to shave three hours off the hospital's average discharge time, freeing up beds and dramatically decreasing the amount of time patients wait for a bed in the emergency department.
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Is a patient's account uncollectible? Is your self-pay patient eligible for financial assistance? Both of those scenarios are becoming more common due to the recession and if the answer to either of those questions is "yes," you should know sooner rather than later.
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Through a series of initiatives aimed at increasing patient throughput, Bay Medical Center in Panama City, FL, has lowered its average discharge time by two hours.
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A robust emergency department case management program is becoming essential as hospitals struggling with capacity and payer sources clamp down on inappropriate admissions, says Toni Cesta, RN, PhD, FAAN, senior vice president, operational efficiency and capacity management at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY.
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As emergency department case manager, Janeice Garrison, RN, MSN, BC, sees herself as the "point guard" for the hospital in a large, mostly rural area where the population is growing by an average of 22.4% a year and the percentage of uninsured, undocumented, and homeless patients is increasing.
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By involving patients and family members in the treatment plan and discharge process before they are admitted to the hospital for treatment, the staff at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL, within a five-month period of time decreased length of stay by almost two days and achieved a 7% increase in the number of admissions involving hematology patients.
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Faced with a high census and backups in the emergency department, Bay Medical Center in Panama City, FL, created two discharge areas where patients who were waiting for transportation to home or a nursing home could wait, freeing up much-needed beds on the units.