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In the first weeks of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, a physician became ill at a Chicago hospital and tested positive for the virus. Then other healthcare workers became ill and tested positive an outbreak that began at a time when the virus was not widespread in the community.
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It could happen, says Eric Chiu, founder & president of HyTrust, a company in Mountain View, CA, that specializes in access control for data. It likely would be caused by someone employed or formerly employed at your organization, he says.
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In 2010, the number of unintended retentions of a foreign body jumped to the highest level since The Joint Commission started tracking statistics in 1995: 133 reported events. Already, through the third quarter of 2011, there have been 136 incidents reported to the agency.
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We just opened our newest ambulatory surgery center (ASC) in Texas this week. We think it is our 206th, but we could be off on that number. While it is an ASC, there is some useful information for our hospital readers here. Please read on!
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Electronic health records, or EHRs, can be valuable tools for managers as they strive to comply with The Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals. That's a clear message communicated in a recent commentary in The Journal of the American Medical Association; however, the authors take care to not only outline some best practices for EHR use, but to also review some of the challenges presented.
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One of the accreditation standards causing the most headaches for ambulatory organizations is the one on credentialing. In fact, statistics gathered by The Joint Commission indicated that for the first half of 2011, 48% of ambulatory organizations and 56% of office-based facilities were noncompliant with standard HR 02.01.03: The organization grants initial, renewed, or revised clinical privileges to individuals who are permitted by law and the organization to practice independently.
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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.]
