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Controlled substance diversion is one of those things that every administrator thinks "could never happen to me. I don't have any thieves or drug abusers working here." In my 20 years of being a pharmacist consultant for surgery centers, I've heard that more times than I can count.
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About one-quarter of healthcare respondents reported that their organization has experienced a security breach in the past year, according to survey results from the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) in Chicago.
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More often, outpatient surgery staff members find themselves in the unenviable position of telling patients about out-of-pocket responsibilities running into the thousands of dollars.
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[Editor's note: In this issue of Same-Day Surgery, we put a special focus on compliance with regulated drugs. We've talked with some of the top pharmacy consultants in the country to find out foolproof systems for avoiding diversion and theft. These stories will help you decide where to focus your time and energy, while avoiding liability.]
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Payers are asking for more preauthorizations, even for services that previously didn't require them, reports Connie Campbell, director of patient access of Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh, WI.
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Despite Sentinel Event Alerts and partnerships between The Joint Commission and professional organizations, wrong-site surgeries continue at a national rate as high as 40 times per week, according to Mark Chassin, MD, MPP, MPH, president of The Joint Commission and the Center for Transforming Healthcare.
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The final "Patient Blood Management Performance Measures," formerly named the "Blood Management (BM) Measure Set," have been placed in The Joint Commission Library of Other Measures and are available for all healthcare organizations to use in internal quality improvement initiatives.
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A woman stole paper surgery schedules for about 4,500 patients at an Alabama hospital and used the names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers to commit identity fraud, according to a media report.
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Claims denials often occurred at Valley Health System in Ridgewood, NJ, because the patient's disposition didn't match up with what the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) required to authorize a procedure, reports Maura Corvino, MSOL, RN, CEN, assistant vice president for emergency services and patient access.
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The kids are back in school (Thank GOD!), the heat is starting to break, the floods are receding, and the fires are burning out.
