-
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has adopted a final recommendation to freeze payments for ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) under Medicare prospective payment systems (PPSs) for 2015, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA).
-
Making decisions, while done daily, and often hourly, is difficult for many professionals. While not everyone endorses the following statement, I firmly adhere to it personally and professionally: "A bad decision is better than no decision." My rationale is that you learn from making decisions, good and bad.
-
In a move to reduce healthcare-associated infections, certain attire for healthcare professionals, including the traditional white coat, could become a thing of the past.
-
Eight-three hospitals in the Pennsylvania Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) Falls Reduction and Prevention Collaboration were given two tools to evaluate their falls prevention programs. Those tools, provided by the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, were a self-assessment survey and a process measures audit.
-
As a result of an investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) into a recent outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, IL, changed endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) endoscope reprocessing from automated high-level disinfection to gas sterilization in September 2013.
-
Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report a three-fold increase in the use of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) nationally for patients with pancreatic disease. Although adaptation of MIS for this difficult-to-reach gland is recent, the growing trend points to improved patient outcomes, such as reduced bleeding and infections.
-
An upper endoscopy procedure performed on some half million patients annually in the United States might pose risk for transmission of the emerging New Delhi variety of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), even if current cleaning and high level disinfection protocols are followed.
-
Healthcare facilities report that they are realizing savings of up to a million dollars annually through efforts that target environmentally friendly practices such as energy and water reduction, as well as recycling.
-
-
More data needed, CDC panel decides.
