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A new Washington state rule requires employers to minimize or eliminate exposure to hazardous drugs. The hazardous drugs control program must include:
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A federal advisory panel gave a boost to policies that require health care workers to receive the flu vaccine but stopped short of endorsing the strongest mandates. If health care employers can't achieve an influenza vaccination goal of 90% "in an efficient and timely manner," then they should "strongly consider an employer requirement," a subgroup of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) said.
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The housekeeper had always done a thorough job cleaning patient rooms, but lately her work was haphazard. When a supervisor pointed out things she'd missed, she said, "Oh, I must have forgotten." Forgotten? How could you forget how to do a job you'd done every day for 30 years?
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Hospitals have been put on alert to recognize fatigue among health care workers as a risk to patient safety. But for now, hospitals won't face any regulatory consequences for failing to address it.
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Despite the progress toward safe patient handling, about eight in 10 nurses still suffer from frequent musculoskeletal pain and six in 10 worry about having a disabling musculoskeletal injury, according to a 2011 online survey by the American Nurses Association in Silver Spring, MD.
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Provider's offices are no longer the "middleman" between schedulers and patients at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, MI, due to a newly implemented process.
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The second annual benchmark study by Ponemon Institute in Traverse City, MI, sponsored by ID Experts, finds that the frequency of data breaches in healthcare organizations surveyed has increased by 32%.
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Within one year, the patient access department at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, a 408-bed hospital in Chicago, reduced denials due to no benefit coverage and no authorization by 30%.
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Regardless of whether patients are covered by a commercial carrier, an employer group, or a combination of both, new processes are needed for patient access areas, says Gail Draper, director of clinic support services at University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics in Salt Lake City.
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Total point-of-service (POS) collections went from $650,000 in 2009 to $1.5 million by the end of 2011 at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago.
