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Three institutions recently were honored by the Health Improvement Institute for their contributions to enhancing the protection of research subjects.
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Tufts University researchers studying immigrant workers in a nearby community engaged local leaders and teens to help them create a survey and recruit and translate for the immigrant population. It was an example of community-based participatory research (CBPR), involving the community from start to finish.
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While federal regulations require that subjects be informed of the possible alternatives to their participation in a clinical trial, often subjects don't learn enough about those alternatives to make an informed decision, says a bioethicist who has studied the issue.
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A new process for managing radiological discrepancies in the ED at Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory, NC, has significantly improved the efficiency with which notifications are received and acted upon.
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Although the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) made several minor modifications to the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) for 2010 with impact on the emergency department, none result in a significant change in ED facility coding. However, there are references to several planned projects required to provide data to be used in future reporting and/or rate changes.
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As of January 2010, The Joint Commission has incorporated into its Quality Check web site (www.qualitycheck.org/consumer/searchQCR.aspx) the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS') 30-day readmission rates for heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia Medicare patients.
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Recognizing and re-emphasizing the fact that children are a distinct population of patients in the ED, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) have released a joint policy statement that includes guidelines for the care of children in EDs. The statement was published online in the journal Pediatrics.
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A few hours after a chest pain patient was worked up and discharged with a noncardiac diagnosis in a Virginia ED, he was brought back dead on arrival.
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(Editor's note: This is the second article in a two-part series. In the first article, we discussed the decision of the leaders of the EDs at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene, OR, to begin posting their waiting times on the Internet. In this installment, we examine the process they used to make sure the system was running smoothly before they officially started.)
