-
Texas has become the first state to require safe patient handling programs in hospitals. That milestone has captured national attention as other states consider their own versions of a safe patient handling mandate.
-
At BJC Healthcare in St. Louis, people began to amass, seeking prophylaxis against an emerging infection. Some at the hospital had small children in tow. Some had elderly parents with Alzheimer's disease. Some couldn't speak English. Healthy adults were ushered to an area marked with green, pediatrics to yellow, and those with special needs to red.
-
For hospitals that want to create their own stockpile of Tamiflu as a part of pandemic influenza preparedness, infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, has one comment: "Good luck."
-
A potentially onerous hospital discharge rule proposed in April 2006 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is significantly less burdensome in its final form.
-
The state of New York has taken a step toward ensuring consistency in the provision of language assistance services to hospital patients with limited English proficiency (LEP).
-
While the impact of new hospital billing forms will be felt more by the business office than the front end, access personnel also should be aware of the change, since the information they collect feeds into the billing system.
-
Failure to adequately prepare for the advent of the National Provider Identifier (NPI) will have a significant impact on provider reimbursement.
-
Patients' right to freedom of choice of providers has been a source of continuing conflict, especially between hospitals and post-acute providers not owned by or affiliated with hospitals -- so-called freestanding providers.
-
A pilot program under way in Tucson, AZ, aims to direct uninsured patients who show up for care in the hospital emergency department to a nearby primary and specialty care clinic where they can find an ongoing medical home, says Nancy Johnson, RN, PhD(c), executive director of St. Elizabeth of Hungary Clinic.
-
A biometrics pilot project at Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital was virtually seamless in terms of staff training and patient participation and showed great potential for reducing fraud and enhancing customer service.