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When an elderly woman continued to have elevated blood pressure after her physician prescribed a medication regimen, the doctor assumed the patient was confused and not taking her medication properly.
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A community case management program for clients with complex conditions has significantly reduced emergency department (ED) visits and inpatient admissions at Poudre Valley Hospital, resulting in a savings of nearly $1.4 million for a sampling of clients in just six months for the Fort Collins, CO, health system.
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When the Obama administration announced its goals for revamping health care, it proposed cutting reimbursement to hospitals that readmit a large number of patients within 30 days of discharge.
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Photographs of ED patients' clinical findings are being taken more frequently, due to the ubiquity of digital cameras, increasing use of electronic medical records, and their recognized value in medical education.
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Extending temporary privileges to a traveling surgeon can be risky business, says Leilani Kicklighter, RN, ARM, MBA, CPHRM, LHRM, a patient safety and risk management consultant with The Kicklighter Group in Tamarac, FL, and a past president of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) in Chicago.
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General surgeons have become scarcer in hospitals across the country, many of them beaten down by diminishing payments and grueling work hours, and some lured away by specialized surgery niches that offer more money and a better lifestyle. That means hospitals are increasingly dependent on surgeons-for-hire.
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Risk managers must mitigate the natural human temptation to snoop and gossip, because the potential legal ramifications can be huge, says Robert Wolin, JD, a partner with the law firm Baker Hostetler in Houston.
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Patients who have a clear understanding of their after-hospital care instructions are 30% less likely to be readmitted or visit the emergency department (ED) than patients who don't have that knowledge, according to a study at Boston University Medical Center.
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Having heart failure advocates work with discharged patients to help them self-manage their care cut the rate of readmissions within 30 days from about 20% to 5%-6% at six hospitals that are part of the Catholic Healthcare Partners health care system.
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One hundred percent of scheduled cases authorized that is the goal set by Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital's financial access unit.