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A mid some high-profile outbreaks of hepatitis C, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has put health care facilities on notice that inspectors will zero in on infection control practices and observe the practices of health care workers.1
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Hospital workers are far more likely than employees in any other industry to develop an occupational illness. In 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics logged about 17,000 such illnesses in hospitals. Yet safety experts say its still just the tip of the iceberg. No one knows just how big that iceberg is.
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If a health system wins a major national quality award, it must be doing something right, but also something different from other organizations, right? Ask one and likely at some point, a spokesperson will says something about focusing on the patient and striving to improve. But not everyone.
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Some scenarios that cause nightmares for nurses and physicians are blessedly rare.
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Ronald Wyatt, MD, MHA, has spent 20 years working in just about every kind of healthcare setting imaginable primary care, emergency medicine in a VA hospital, nursing homes, as a sole practitioner and in a multispecialty setting.
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Within days after The Joint Commission announced that it would begin certifying applicants for comprehensive stroke centers, there were dozens of hospitals either waiting for site visits or preparing their applications in the hope of getting certified this year.
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Ask passersby in a hospital hallway what they think the biggest problem is in the emergency department, and one of the most common answers will likely be something about the influx of uninsured patients who use the ED as their primary care physician.
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A patient recently registered at Denver-based Porter Adventist Hospital had just lost his job and employer-sponsored insurance, and he was under the mistaken impression that COBRA coverage was automatic.
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Since copayments first were collected in Cambridge (MA) Health Alliance’s three emergency departments (EDs) in October 2008, collections have increased 140%, totaling $173,000 in fiscal year 2009 to an expected $416,000 in fiscal year 2012.
