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One thing the robot has not yet performed, but articulated handheld laparoscopic instruments have, is single port access (SPA) surgery in which three or four trocars are placed within a single opening in the abdomen, usually the umbilicus.
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As concern grows over antibiotic-resistant organisms, health care workers never have been under greater scrutiny for their compliance with hand hygiene.
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The Institute of Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) free How-to Guide: Improving Hand Hygiene, includes monitoring checklists. To monitor hand hygiene compliance, IHI suggests the following measures.
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Another advance in general laparoscopic surgery that was launched at the recent annual meeting of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons and received an innovation award was the Free Hand robotic camera holder from Prosurgics of Cupertino, CA.
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The Endoscopy Center of Colorado Springs (CO) has won a national award for its improved system of reporting and explaining pathology results to patients. One year after implementing the new reporting system, 100% of patients surveyed received their pathology reports, were informed of the results, and knew their recommended follow-up dates.
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Of the nearly $1 billion the Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) identified in improper payments to hospitals and other providers, nearly 40% was the result of medical necessity denial for inpatient admissions, points out Deborah Hale, CCS, president, Administrative Consultant Service LLC, a Shawnee, OK, consulting firm.
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If your hospital frequently uses Condition Code 44 to change a patient's admission status, you may need to take a fresh look at your admissions process, according to Deborah Hale, CCS, president, Administrative Consultant Service LLC, a Shawnee, OK, consulting firm.
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At DCH Health System in Tuscaloosa, AL, clinical documentation improvement efforts go far beyond just making sure the documentation supports the most appropriate MS-DRG for the purpose of Medicare reimbursement.
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When Chesapeake General Hospital began exploring ways to improve patient throughput and further reduce its length of stay, Roxana Ballinger, RN, BBA, CCM, director of care management, conducted research to discover what other hospitals had done to improve patient throughput and determined that nurse practitioners could play an important role in moving patients through the continuum.
