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Primarily caused by Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1, Legionnaires' Disease outbreaks in healthcare are typically traced to the waterborne bug becoming aerosolized and inhaled in shower mist.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is using its nationwide Antibiotic Resistance Lab Network to detect these virtually untreatable bugs, which can be resistant to whole classes of drugs.
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A national containment strategy using powerful lab detection techniques and rapid intervention with infection control measures is blunting the emergence of pan-resistant pathogens, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.
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CMS is offering up to $30 million in funding and technical assistance to clinicians, patients, and others involved in developing and improving quality measures for the Quality Payment Program.
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Almost all surveyed physicians agree that prior authorizations required by insurers negatively affect the quality of care patients receive, according to a new American Medical Association report.
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The public has been led to believe that hospital quality measures on CMS’s Hospital Compare website offer a simple but reliable way to compare the quality of care offered by different hospitals, but recent research casts doubt on that reliability.
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Population health initiatives are proving to be among the most useful quality improvement resources for hospitals participating in accountable care organizations (ACOs). They’re leveraging the data from ACOs to target specific patient populations, improving care and reducing utilization.
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The new Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced program from CMS will generate a huge amount of data that hospitals can use to improve quality, but exactly what data is coming and what do you do with it?
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Patient safety is compromised when healthcare workers use workarounds to speed things up when they are busy, or to overcome roadblocks that make it difficult or impossible for them to follow proper procedures in the medication process, warns a recent report from the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority in Harrisburg.
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A low rate of reported barcode medication administration errors can foster a false sense of security that could eventually result in a patient death or serious harm, say clinicians and researchers who have studied the issue.