When a single imported case of measles led to a small outbreak in Tucson, AZ, in 2008, two hospitals were forced to spend a total of some $800,000 to contain it, much of that related to ensuring the immunity of employees.
Being greener is safer. As hospitals join the sustainability movement, they are making the workplace safer for their own employees.
As of July 1, first-year medical residents may be getting a better night's sleep. New rules limit duty hours for interns to a 16-hour shift, ban them from moonlighting, and require them to have at least 8 hours free between duty hours.
Hospitals will need to retrain all their employees on chemical hazards when the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration finalizes its changes to the Hazard Communication Standard.
In the May issue of HEH, we reported on an effort to reduce sharps injuries by using disposal containers with a better design. A reader subsequently posed a question: Would you administer post-exposure prophylaxis to an employee who receives a sharps injury from an unknown source, such as a sharp protruding from a container?
Since beginning a "financial advocacy initiative," Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago has seen nearly a 160% increase in its point-of-service (POS) collections.
If you tell patients they owe their entire deductible of $2,000 for an inpatient procedure, and they know that $1,700 of the deductible already was met, your credibility and competence are suddenly in question.
Some emergency department (ED) patients are destitute, drug-seeking, or have nowhere else to obtain care, and they might pass themselves off as others to obtain insurance coverage, says Marsha Kedigh, RN, MSM, director of admitting, emergency department registration, discharge station, and insurance management at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville.
If a worried and anxious patient or family member is kept waiting, it might help to convey the underlying reasons for delays in registration, treatment, or room placement, says Diane Manuel, director of patient access for admissions and the emergency department at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston Salem, NC.
Suspected 'red flags' must be handled differently in the emergency department than other registration sites, according to Joyce L. Predmore, associate director of patient access services at Ohio State's University Hospital East in Columbus.
