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Janine Jagger, PhD, MPH, whose research and advocacy brought attention to the preventable hazards posed by needle devices, has received a MacArthur Foundation award, which provides an unrestricted award of $100,000 for five years. Jagger, who is director of the International Health Care Worker Safety Center at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center in Charlottesville, says she plans to use the funds to expand the centers work in developing countries.
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Stop trying to get health care workers to wash their hands.
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Amid a nationwide decline in tuberculosis cases and opposition to new rules on skin testing and respirator fit-testing, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is prepared to withdraw its proposed tuberculosis standard.
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The first stage of smallpox vaccination has begun, even before the doses are released or a final plan formulated. Across the country, hospitals are educating health care workers about smallpox and the vaccinia vaccine.
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AHA Financial Solutions Inc., a subsidiary of the American Hospital Association in Chicago, is offering a new ergonomics consultation program. Diligent, which is associated with the Arjo Corp. ergonomic equipment company, will provide ongoing consultation, employee training, implementation of equipment, and measurement of progress. The Diligent Ergonomic Risk Management Program provides a guarantee of a 60% reduction in transfer-related injuries for three years.
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While many hospitals face the same problem in terms of bed shortages, the solutions to this challenge are as varied as hospitals themselves. Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, CA, opted to address the problem by forming a Bed Utilization Management (BUM) team that took a systemwide comprehensive approach.
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Advancing technology continues to reshape the way acute care case management is practiced. One example of that is the growing trend toward automation. However, early experience shows that technology is no guarantee for physician buy-in at the front end, much less patient compliance at the back end.
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Hospitals that have long designed and used their own advance beneficiary notices (ABN) to inform patients that a service is not likely to be covered by Medicare now should be using a form released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
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Many G codes are outdated and overlap other coding sets, and coding for evaluation and management (E/M) services needs to be standardized once and for all, according to the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) of Chicago.
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Is your organization plagued by performance-improvement initiatives that fail to achieve their intended goals? Are gains short-lived?
