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The Joint Commission (TJC)

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  • HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Know specifics of proposed rule

    Unlike the current privacy rule which identifies purposes that might be omitted from disclosure accounting reports, the proposed rule published on May 31, 2011, identifies those purposes for which disclosures must be tracked and reported.
  • HIPAA Regulatory Alert: Free tool assesses privacy risks

    Frequent news stories and headlines about the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights' (OCR) crackdown on covered entities that have reported data breaches or other privacy rule violations increase the importance of continually assessing compliance with privacy and security rules.
  • Have effective self-pay processes? Facility's fiscal health is at stake

    Hospital stays for uninsured patients increased 21% between 2003 and 2008, according to a new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
  • Population shifting to uninsured, underinsured

    You might be seeing a decrease in your "financial buckets" of insured patients, and an increase in underinsured or uninsured patients, without a corresponding increase in the number of services rendered.
  • If registrar complains, learn this information

    If a registrar complains to Kathleen Bowles, LSW, patient access supervisor at The Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, she begins by asking these questions: When did the incident take place? What occurred? Who was involved? What was the outcome of the situation?
  • $550,000 of self-pays converted in one month

    In a single month, registrars at Trinity Regional Health System in Rock Island, IL, were able to obtain disability coverage for five patients with a total of $450,000 in charges, and they were able to obtain Medicaid coverage for 104 patients who had received a total of $100,000 in services.
  • ID both crowding and under-utilized capacity

    Smoothing" occupancy over the course of a week can protect patients from crowded conditions, according to a study involving 39 children's hospitals during 2007.1 Researchers compared weekday versus weekend occupancy to determine just how much "smoothing" can reduce inpatient crowding.
  • Specimen labeling still a major risk for ID errors and huge liability

    Patient identification errors continue to plague the healthcare industry despite years of efforts to eradicate this potentially disastrous problem. Understanding why patients and specimens are misidentified is key to reducing or eliminating errors, and risk managers can make progress by focusing on the human behavioral components of healthcare work.
  • Bedside barcodes reduce pharm errors

    Barcoded wristbands can greatly reduce the opportunity for patient identification errors, says David Grant, RPh, MBA, vice president of pharmacy and clinical process improvement at Summit Health in Chambersburg, PA.
  • ECRI PSO issues caution on cardiac monitoring ID

    The ECRI Institute Patient Safety Organization (PSO) recently issued a warning about a patient safety issue involving cardiac monitoring of incorrect patients. The issue was brought to ECRI Institute PSO's attention in its analysis of reports submitted by participating healthcare providers.