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Several states are re-energizing hospital board member education efforts with moves to certify and mandate educational requirements. Minnesota has started a voluntary certification program, and New Jersey has passed laws to require education.
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The Joint Commission requires a "thorough and credible" root cause analysis (RCA) for all Sentinel Events, but the process is sometimes less effective than hoped. Quality leaders at the Mayo Clinic came up with a novel solution: An oversight group to keep the process on track.
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With the arrival of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid's no-pay rules, The Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals, and the ever-growing emphasis on quality improvement on patient care, prevention has become the name of the game.
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Members of the American Psychological Association in Washington, DC, have approved a resolution to prohibit psychologists from working in settings where "persons are held outside of, or in violation of, either International Law or the U.S. Constitution."
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As with many professional positions, personal referrals from other health care providers are what typically lead to an opportunity to serve on the ethics committee at Beaumont Hospitals in Royal Oak, MI.
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Every study participant has seen some variation of this assurance in informed consent documents: "You are free to participate in this research or to withdraw at any time without penalty or loss of benefits you are entitled to receive."
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One health care provider is using its approach to ethics to combat what one ethics leader in the organization calls "a perfect storm" of intense regulatory scrutiny, increased litigation, a large population of chronically ill patients in hospitals for long periods of time, and public mistrust of the health care system.
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Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) should re-examine their specialty services as they enter 2009 reimbursement, which will be 50% of the hospital outpatient department (HOPD) rate, according to Judith L. English, vice president of business operations and partner at Surgery Consultants of America (SCA) and Serbin Surgery Center Billing, both in Fort Myers, FL.
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Earlier this year, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an updated Safety and Health Information Bulletin on latex sensitization and latex allergy. In it, OSHA suggests the following measures to reduce health care worker exposure to latex:
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The following information is excerpted with permission from the April 2008 issue of SAMBA Talks, published by the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia:
