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This has been a grand month so far. I had the pleasure of speaking at the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) meeting in Orlando in May and The Gulf States ASC Conference in Biloxi in June. I reacquainted with old friends and made new ones, and I gathered many months of ideas for my column.
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Patients gradually are becoming accustomed to being asked for payment upfront, according to Marcy Quattrochi, manager of financial counseling at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, IL.
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After tornados were reported in the area of Joplin, MO, in May, Jenny Morris, administrator of Stateline Surgery Center in Galena, KS, turned to the local television station.
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To improve patient safety by encouraging providers to speak up about their concerns, managers should focus on the influences that have the strongest effect on behavior, suggest the authors of The Silent Treatment, a report released by the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, and VitalSmarts, a training company in Provo, UT.
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(Editor's note: This issue includes the second part of a two-part series on how a hospital addressed a wrong-site surgery. Last month, we looked at the details of the event and how the facility responded. This month, we look at what specific changes were made and how the top leader started networking with other CEOs on safety issue.)
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Several incidents of infection control breaches have been reported in recent months among ambulatory surgery providers:
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A major vein was torn during a Whipple procedure at a hospital that performs the procedure a few times a year, according to a case reported on The Law Med Blog.
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While IRBs and researchers seem to agree on the most vexing issues in IRB review of genetic research, consensus still is elusive.
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Research institutions that make it a goal to improve ethical conduct among staff, researchers, and students engaged in research should focus on providing better ethics education, developing sound policies & procedures, and leading by example, an expert says.
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Research institutions could improve recruitment data collection and efficiency, as well as make their IRBs happy, if they develop a standardized recruitment tool for use with new studies, an expert says.