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Nearly every health care facility has a patient safety brochure these days, and they almost always come out of some department other than risk management. So do you really know what is in your organization's patient safety brochure?
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Addicted physicians must overcome significant fears about the impact on their careers and personal lives before they are willing to ask for help, so risk managers can help by assuring them the process will be about rehabilitation and not punishment, according to two experts in the field.
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News: An obese, middle-aged woman suffering from pancreatitis and gallstones underwent gallbladder removal surgery at a hospital. Over the next two weeks, she continued to experience abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. Although doctors suspected that the woman might have gallstones floating freely in her bile duct, they were unable to perform the necessary procedures to confirm that suspicion due to the patient's size. The woman subsequently died.
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News: A man exhibiting tuberculosis-like symptoms went to a clinic for treatment. Tests were ordered, including an analysis by the state health department, after which it was determined that the man was suffering from a disease related to tuberculosis called Mycobacterium avium. Several months later, the man presented to the emergency department with ear pain and an upper respiratory infection.ï
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has granted a request from the American Hospital Association (AHA) to allow critical access hospitals to submit and publicly report outpatient quality data along with other hospitals.
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Emergency department patients waited an average of 30 minutes to see a physician in 2004, eight minutes longer than in 1997, according to a study of U.S. ED visits published on-line recently by Health Affairs.
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The 2008 Fortune magazine list of "100 Best Companies to Work For" includes 11 hospitals and health systems, including Methodist Hospital System in Houston, which placed 10th.
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A fee schedule change affecting payment for ground ambulance charges under Section 414 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003 provides increased payments for urban and rural services, adds an increased payment for ambulance transports originating in certain low-density population areas, and provides a 25% bonus on the mileage rate for ground transports of 51 miles or greater.
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A recent security-related incident at a U.S. hospital is of "significant concern" and should serve as a wake-up call to health care leaders, suggests Stephen Frew, JD, a web site publisher (www.medlaw.com) and risk management specialist.
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A 2007 lawsuit involving an incident at a Louisiana hospital illustrates the lack of understanding among providers regarding the provisions and applications of the HIPAA privacy rule, notes Elizabeth H. Hogue, Esq., a Burtonsville, MD-based attorney specializing in health care issues.
