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Todays discharge planners face the challenge of finding post-acute services for patients who, thanks to improvement treatments and technology, survive more catastrophic illnesses and injuries than ever before. However, many of these patients are medically stable and need to go to a lower level of care. Finding a facility that will take clinically complex patients often is difficult for hospital discharge planners.
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When patients at Haywood Regional Medical Center in Clyde, NC, need post-discharge services, they can look for information about the providers they are considering in the hospitals Western North Carolina Provider Directory, a binder compiled by the case management staff and filled with information on home health services, skilled nursing facilities, and durable medical equipment providers.
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Your hospital could lose its Medicare or Medicaid certification if you dont take care to ensure that patients who need home health services or a referral to skilled nursing facilities are given a choice of providers and not just steered to those in which your facility has an interest.
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You may think your hospital is doing a good job of preventing common errors that result in patient deaths, but the American Medical Asso ciation (AMA) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) think you can do better. In fact, they think hospitals in the United States can save 100,000 lives between now and June 2006.
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The link between a persons religion or spirituality and physical condition is one that has gained increasing recognition and consideration in health care discussions, and hospital chaplains have been in the thick of the debate.
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Its illegal, it may undermine international treaties, and there are warnings that patient safety is at risk but for many, the cost savings of buying re-imported drugs outweighs all the arguments against it.
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Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) are lifesaving devices, as demonstrated by a 2004 study that showed ICDs reduced death by 23% in people with moderate heart failure and poor pumping function, compared to patients who did not receive ICDs. But what if that lifesaving device outstays its welcome and prolongs death because its users havent discussed when their ICDs should be deactivated?
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In a new report, the Institute of Medicine calls for conventional medical treatments and complementary and alternative medical (CAM) treatments to be held to the same standards for demonstrating clinical effectiveness to make it easier for health care providers and the public to make evidence-based decisions about CAM use.
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Women increasingly are electing to give birth by cesarean when there is no medical necessity to do so; meanwhile, the debate about the safety to the mother continues.
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To comply with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations new National Patient Safety Goal to reduce the risk of patient harm resulting from falls, you must assess and periodically reassess each patients risk of falling including the potential risk associated with the patients medication regimen and take action to address any identified risks.
