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Create Culture of Confidentiality Through Education
The best way to protect physician-related materials from discovery under state peer review statutes is to develop what might be called a “culture of confidentiality” in peer review proceedings, suggests Karen Owens, JD, an attorney with the law firm of Coppersmith Brockelman in Phoenix. To expedite the development of such a culture, she recommends the following steps:
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Protect Your Peer Review Privilege Or Lose Major Protection
Quality peer review depends on people being able to openly discuss issues without fear that the information will be made public, so the law provides a shield that keeps lawyers and others from demanding access.
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STAR, CUSS, Secret Shoppers Promote Reliability
Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston adopted several programs to promote high reliability among its employees.
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Preoccupied with Failure, HROs Constantly Ask Why
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio provides the following summary of the five key characteristics of a high reliability organization:
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High Reliability Organizations Aim High, Strive for Zero
Hospitals and health systems are always striving to improve quality and become more reliable providers of healthcare, but some are setting even higher goals by striving to become high reliability organizations. With the HRO concept, these hospitals are aiming not to just improve and reduce errors, but to completely eliminate them.
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Shorter surgery check-in saves $11,500 plus a minute per case
Patient access employees, supervisors, and managers at Seattle Children’s Hospital are constantly on the lookout for work that is no longer useful.
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Small changes add up to big benefits for access
Whenever Sarah Thomas, senior director of access systems at Seattle Children’s Hospital, hears a registrar sigh in frustration, she makes a beeline to that employee and asks what’s wrong.
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Emergency department registrars work with clinicians to identify “superusers”
Do you assume that “superusers” of the emergency department, or individuals who present very frequently with the same vague complaints, are just a nuisance?
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Can members of patient access department answer toughest questions about coverage?
Many overwhelmed, confused patients turn to patient access employees to help them make decisions about healthcare coverage and even to obtain coverage. A recent Health Affairs policy brief discusses some difficult questions that often come up.
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Record high turnover: Senior registrar role ‘slows the flow’ out of patient access
In 2014, the patient access department at William Beaumont Hospital Royal Oak (MI) had a record high turnover rate.