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According to Jill M. Steinberg, a health care attorney with Baker Donelson in Memphis, TN, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) would prevent an ED physician from discussing a patient's HIV status with any other person, even if that person could be potentially exposed to an infectious disease.
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A growing number of hospitals are allowing patients to view their own medical records electronically. Does this increase liability risks for emergency staff?
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Joint Commission Resources (JCR) has launched a "Flu Vaccination Challenge" to underscore the responsibility that hospitals have to help keep their employees and patients healthy this flu season and to increase flu vaccination rates among health care workers.
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In light of the importance of having health care workers immunized against influenza, some facilities have instituted mandatory vaccination programs.
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The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new test to diagnose human flu infections, including the avian flu virus (H5N1), which scientists fear could cause a pandemic.
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A new simplified scoring process that The Joint Commission will use for all accreditation and certification programs as of Jan. 1, 2009, was created in conjunction with The Joint Commission's Standards Improvement Initiative (SII).
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The anticoagulants cited most frequently in medication error reports are unfractionated heparin, warfarin, and enoxaparin, classified as low molecular weight heparin (LMWH), says The Joint Commission.
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This was the stuff of an ED manager's nightmare: A 36-year-old woman with measles, thought to be the source of an eventual outbreak of measles in February 2008, was kept in the ED of Northwest Medical Center in Tucson, AZ, for more than 12 hours after a physician had ordered that she be placed in isolation.
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(Editor's note: This is the third in a three-part series on innovative approaches to documentation that can significantly enhance your department's revenues without making any changes in patient flow and throughput processes. This article discusses the use of experienced coders and improved documentation. In the previous two articles, we discussed effective documentation tools, proper staffing to optimize their use, and incentive programs for improved documentation.)
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[Editor's note: With this issue, we begin a quarterly column on coding in the ED by Caral Edelberg, president of Edelberg Compliance Associates. If there are coding issues you would like to see addressed in this column, contact: Caral Edelberg, CPC, CCS-P, CHC, Edelberg Compliance Associates, Baton Rouge, LA. Phone: (225) 454-0154. EFAX Number: (225) 612-6904.]
