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The length of stay for patients being discharged to skilled nursing facilities from St. Joseph's Hospital progressive ventilator care unit dropped by 7.5 days (a 47% reduction) following a Six Sigma pilot project that focused on better ambulation of patients, earlier screening for potential skilled nursing admissions, and timely discharge.
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When it comes to non-compliance by physicians for core measure requirements, quality professionals often feel powerless they have plenty of data but not enough clout.
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The Joint Commission's new Leadership standards aren't effective until Jan. 1, 2009, but quality professionals will need to start preparing now to address new requirements for conflict management and disruptive behavior, skills required of leaders, communication among leaders, and creation of a culture of safety.
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Effective patient discharge is a priority area for all hospitals. Yet many patients who returned home after their hospital stay believe their discharge was inadequate in terms of the information they received and the information sought about their need for assistance at home.
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The Joint Commission's 2007 report "Improving America's Hospitals: A Report on Quality and Safety" had some good news hospitals are achieving 90% or better on about half the quality measures tracked since 2002.
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Hospital-based quality professionals have a golden opportunity to step into new leadership roles, due in large part to the growing impact of pay for performance.
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When it comes to implementation of rapid response teams, organizations fall into three distinct groups, says Kathy Duncan, RN, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's faculty expert for the rapid response intervention.
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The Joint Commission's new 2007 medical staff standards require you to collect performance data for all practitioners. For most practitioners, this will be a simple and straightforward matter, but for others, it could prove to be a daunting challenge.
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The new medical staff and upcoming leadership standards from The Joint Commission and the recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ruling stopping reimbursement for certain preventable conditions have something in common: All are strong incentives to involve physicians in quality initiatives.
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With studies showing that 10% of patients are using 90% of the nation's health care resources, traditional case management must move to a disease management model.