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In 1999, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) established a hospital Patient's Rights' Condition of Participation (CoP).
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Interesting things going on out there, aren't they? Town meeting riots, "death panels," trillion-dollar budgets, "evil businesses." As a clinician, a business owner, and a health care consumer (I broke my foot skydiving a few weeks ago), I've got to tell you: I am OK with the system as it is . . . almost.
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The outbreak of a novel H1N1 virus in the spring was a colossal pandemic preparedness drill for a future virus or for a stronger resurgence of the strain this fall.
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Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) undergoing Medicare accreditation surveys under the new Conditions for Coverage (CfCs) that took effect in May 2009, are reporting that the surveys are longer than in the past, have more surveyors, and put a much stronger emphasis on infection control.
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The ICD-10-CM code set is scheduled to replace ICD-9-CM, the current U.S. diagnostic code set, on Oct. 1, 2013. While that date is in the far future, you should prepare now, coding experts warn.
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Rhode Island Hospital, the teaching hospital for Brown University's Alpert Medical School in Providence, is facing unprecedented sanctions from the state health department after its fifth wrong-site surgery since 2007.
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When Mendocino Coast Hospital in Fort Bragg, CA, recently underwent its accreditation survey by The Joint Commission, the biggest surprise was the scrutiny on and large amount of time spent in the operating room in the surgery area vs. the nurses' floor, says Susan Bivins, RN, the director of quality and risk management.
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The clear conclusion of a recently published study is preoperative cleansing of the patient's skin with chlorhexidine-alcohol is hands-down better to cleansing with povidone-iodine for preventing surgical-site infection after clean-contaminated surgery.1 Now it gets interesting.
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Inpatient surgery is on the fifth floor. L&D is on the third floor. The GI center is near the ED in the first floor. The outpatient surgery center is on two. The lithotripsy is in a trailer in the parking lot.
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Proving that less really is more, five specific tests or procedures commonly performed in anesthesiology that might not be necessary and, in some cases should be avoided, was published online June 16 in JAMA Internal Medicine.