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One of the most difficult challenges in a health care setting is creating or changing culture, and this certainly applies to HIPAA compliance. Experts agree that engendering a culture of compliance requires a delicate combination of several strategies:
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A pre-eclamptic pregnant woman developed HELLP syndrome. Treatment for the syndrome was unsuccessful, and an emergency cesarean was conducted when the baby was at 27 weeks gestation. At birth, the child was diagnosed as intrauterine growth-retarded and was placed in the neonatal ICU. The child was later diagnosed with anemia and, in light of multiple blood draws, required a blood transfusion
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A man went to the eye clinic at a local hospital complaining of chronic blurry vision in his left eye. The man was seen by a resident who removed the man's left eye contact lens and placed it in a contact lens case containing contact lens solution. When the contact lens was placed back into the man's left eye, the man felt a burning sensation. The resident removed the contact lens, but the man was thereafter diagnosed with corneal damage and superficial punctate keratitis. Within a few months, the man went completely blind.
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With hospitals all over the country realizing that there is a benefit in having the surgical team pause, take a breath, and double-check that everything is in order before proceeding, a hospital in Washington has formalized that process even more by using a checklist that the team can go through before starting the procedure. The simple procedure can have a major impact on patient safety, the hospital reports.
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At Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC) in Seattle, staff are not only encouraged to speak up when they see errors or deficiencies that could harm a patient, they are required to do so. A patient safety alert (PSA) system obligates anyone seeing a dangerous situation to report it immediately, which then prompts an investigation.
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The best way to deal with the issue of hospital employees snooping in patient records and spreading private information may be with a contract and a specific policy about blogging or social networking, suggest two experts.
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The popularity of social networking sites can be helpful when it comes to screening new employees and seeing what current employees are saying on the Internet, says Jeffrey M. Pincus, JD, a partner with the law firm of Lewis Johs in Melville, NY. More companies are searching for a job applicant's online presence as a way to investigate his or her background, he says.
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When it seems as though nearly everyone is on Facebook, MySpace, or other social networking sites, you can be assured that many of your employees are online chatting about everything under the sun including what happened at work that day. For health care employees, that can lead to a serious breach of privacy if they pass on protected health information.
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Hospitals still need to be vigilant about issuing the Important Message from Medicare (IM), notifying Medicare patients of their right to appeal their discharge, their financial responsibilities, and how to appeal their discharge, warns Jackie Birmingham, RN, MS, CMAC.
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A new emergency department (ED) triage system at Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, FL, decreased the time that elapses between when patients arrive and when they are treated by 33%, slashed the number of patients who left without treatment by 50%, and cut 20 minutes off the total turnaround time from when patients arrive at the ED and when they are discharged or admitted.
