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Reprocessing of single-use devices is becoming increasingly popular among U.S. health care organizations, which are drawn to the potential cost savings and, more recently, the effort to go green by reducing waste. But do those benefits bring liability risks?
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The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Washington, DC, announced recently that it will strengthen its oversight of three of the most potent forms of medical radiation, including computed tomography (CT) scans.
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If providers worry that The Joint Commission (TJC) will release their accreditation records to prosecutors, they may become reluctant to share sensitive information with the accrediting body, cautions Vickie Patterson, an associate director in the Atlanta office of Protiviti, a risk consulting firm.
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Risk managers expect accreditation records to be confidential, and The Joint Commission (TJC) urges providers to fully disclose information about adverse events and deficiencies as part of the quality improvement process. But some risk managers are learning that those records are not as private as often thought.
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A wave of the "stomach flu" can be like a tsunami of gastrointestinal illness, affecting patients and health care workers alike. It takes vigilant hand hygiene, cleaning, and use of personal protective equipment to control and prevent hospital outbreaks, says Tara MacCannell, PhD, a health care epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion.
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Nine years after the Food and Drug Administration approved the first blood test to detect latent tuberculosis infection, hospitals are still struggling to determine how to use the tests or whether to use them at all
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Janine Jagger, PhD, MPH, director of the International Health Care Worker Safety Center at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, offered this perspective on the new guideline from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
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Although prior privacy requirements called for home health agencies to notify patients when a breach of privacy was discovered, the Health Information Technology and Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH) specifically identifies time frames and content of notifications.
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On Feb. 17, 2009, the Health Information Technology and Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (HITECH) was enacted. On that date, tiered civil monetary penalties were put into place for violations following the enactment, and state attorneys general were given the authority to enforce the act.
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Will funding from the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), propel state Medicaid programs forward with the use of electronic health records (EHRs)? Or will state fiscal crises or other unforeseen problems prevent the hoped-for progress?
