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Infection preventionists have been drawn into the white-hot national spotlight on health care-associated infections in recent years, sometimes being accused by overzealous patient advocates as being as much a part of the problem as the solution.
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Having proposed federal "hospital report card" legislation while in the U.S. Senate that specifically cites heath care-associated infections (HAIs), President-elect Barack Obama comes into power this month with an unprecedented history of interest and advocacy about infection prevention.
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The Joint Commission has a lot going on these days. Besides issuing five sentinel event alerts in 2008 and the 2009 National Patient Safety Goals and standards, in January the organization released an addendum to its accreditation standards.
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When Henrico Doctor's Hospital in Richmond, VA, launched a hospitalwide initiative to improve patient throughput, the team was able to shave 2.5 hours off the average discharge time and decrease the average length of stay on the medical unit from almost 10 days to five days in the first six months of the project.
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If your hospital has been focusing solely on improving Medicare records in preparation for the permanent Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program, you may find yourself in a bind as other payers roll out their own audit programs.
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By the end of the year, it's likely that every type of medical record in your hospital will be scrutinized by one auditor or another, predicts Brian Flood, managing director for KPMG LLP, the U.S. audit, tax, and advisory firm.
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Salaries for case managers are increasing, but the vast majority of case managers are working far more than the typical 40-hour week, according to the 2009 Hospital Case Management Salary Survey.
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If the discharge planning community's ideal is to begin the discharge process at the door, when patients are admitted to the hospital, then community provider input is necessary for a smooth care transition.
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In an effort to improve transitions of care, the nurse care coordinators at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston make follow-up calls to patients who have been discharged, identify problems and solve them, and answer questions the patients may have about medication, symptoms, or their discharge plan.
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If you aren't complying with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requirements for issuing Hospital Issued Notices of Noncoverage (HINNs) and documenting them well, your hospital could face severe repercussions down the road, according to Jackie Birmingham, RN, MS, CMAC, vice president of regulatory monitoring for Curaspan Health Group, a Newton, MA, health care technology and services firm.