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Following several recent adverse events, a special advisory panel is being brought together again in New York to recommend more ways to improve safety and outcomes in office-based surgery.
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We can predict much in life now. The health care industry has diagnostic tools to detect many forms of cancer, heart disease, and other life-threatening illnesses. Meteorologists can chart a mass of low pressure off the coast of Africa and reasonably predict when it will strike Florida.
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The key to having a performance improvement (PI) study that will demonstrate your commitment to an accreditation surveyor is to be certain the study is measurable and applicable to your program, as well as realistic, says Betty Bozutto, RN, MBA, CASC, executive director of Naugatuck Valley Surgical Center in Waterbury, CT.
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Want to impress your accreditation surveyor? Want to make sure you meet standards associated with performance improvement?
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When Hurricane Katrina struck Fairway Medical Center in Covington, LA, Kory Krista, director of plant operations, learned one lesson the hard way: Have wet vacs at designated areas in the facility connected to critical power to remove water.
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As Hurricane Katrina subsided in Covington, LA, Fairway Medical Center, a surgical specialty hospital, discovered it was without normal power, water, and sewer. There was no normal external communications through phones, including cellular phones, and there was limited radio and television.
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Organizations looking for additional guidance on risk analysis and management can find a new educational paper on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) web site.
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Are your history and physicals (H&Ps) updated and documented within 24 hours of the procedure? Is communication clear when you are handing off patients from one area to another, such as from the OR to post-op? If not, and you work at a hospital or freestanding surgery center, you are violating requirements from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
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The National Fire Protection Association has approved a change to its regulation allowing hospitals and surgery centers to use alcohol-based skin preps during all procedures, including those involving cautery or electrosurgery, as long as providers follow the amended regulation.
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St. Louis-based Centene Corp., the parent of Managed Health Services Insurance Corp., Wisconsins largest Medicaid HMO, has agreed to pay Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee $9.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed in 2003 over fees for outpatient surgery.