-
The question of gown use when entering patient isolation rooms is a recurrent one, so it is worth noting that this is the current thinking of the Joint Commission on the subject:
-
Trying to protect a patient from a fall may be one of the most dangerous things your employees do. They will put themselves at risk to cushion a patient. And often, that results in a serious musculoskeletal injury.
-
It will take a culture shift for doctors, nurses and other health care workers to consider fatigue as a major factor in patient and employee safety. But that moment may be a step closer with new guidance on fatigue management in the workplace.
-
In a "call to action," sharps safety experts are targeting gaps in needlestick prevention and seeking to spur a new commitment to make improvements.
-
Norovirus is the organism most likely to trigger a shutdown of units in your hospital. And according to a recent survey of infection preventionists, it is responsible for more outbreaks than some deadlier organisms, such as Clostridium difficile and Staphylococcus aureus.
-
Registrars at Sarasota (FL) Memorial Health Care System have gotten very good at calculating estimates manually, but the department is implementing a price estimation tool to make the job much easier, says Diane C. Settle, CPA, CHFP, executive director of revenue cycle.
-
Patient access leaders at St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Red Bluff, CA, are improving satisfaction by using feedback from newly created "transformational care" teams.
-
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have issue Notices of Proposed Rulemaking that are open for comment until May 7, 2012.
-
A well-prepared team that understands roles and responsibilities when a notice of a HIPAA compliance audit is received is essential for every organization and should be established long before a notice is received, suggests Chris Apgar, CISSP, president of Apgar & Associates, a Portland, OR-based consulting firm. Educate them about the purpose of the audit, and give each person specific responsibilities, he says.
-
Take the time to provide training to provider offices about insurance guidelines and registration processes, because this training is a good way to encourage collaboration with patient access, recommends Kellie Hawkins, director of patient access for Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville, MD.
