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Environmental consciousness is such a big part of the corporate culture at Boulder (CO) Community Foothills Hospital that the surgery program staff constantly comes up with new ideas to help the department reduce waste, recycle, and conserve resources.
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Although patient care is the No. 1 priority for outpatient surgery managers and staff members, a growing number of health care employees are recognizing that their workday activities can affect more than a patient's health. They also can affect the environment.
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Antibiotic-resistant infections are not new to the health care setting, but headlines throughout the country have increased public awareness of the potential risk of infection to a wider range of people in the community.
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Two international cases show how phone use during surgery can be cited as a contributing cause to alleged malpractice. In a case from Israel, a woman underwent hand surgery in Tel Aviv's Sheba Medical Center and then filed a lawsuit claiming malpractice by her surgeon.
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In many cases, inappropriate phone calls are more obvious to people other than the patient or the manager. For instance, Bonnie Russell, owner of 1st-Pick.com, a public relations agency in Del Mar, CA, says she has had several conversations with surgeon clients while they were operating on patients.
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HealthSouth Corp. and two physicians will pay $14.9 million to settle allegations that the company gave the government false claims and paid illegal kickbacks to physicians who referred patients to its ambulatory surgery centers and hospitals, as well as its outpatient rehabilitation clinics, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
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There is little doubt that the budget problems and added demand on limited resources that undocumented immigrants contribute to health care institutions is real, and that institutions located closest to the border bear the greatest burden.
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Making patient bills more user-friendly not to mention ensuring that they are actually accurate continues to be a focus in the health care industry.
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Having a team of case managers dedicated to Medicare compliance reduced the number of admission denials from 221 in 2006 to just two by late December 2007 at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ.
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Increased patient involvement in their own care is encouraged by The Joint Commission and other organizations as one of the keys to improving patient safety. In fact, "encouraging patients' active involvement in their own care" is one of the National Patient Safety Goals.
