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To help children struggling with a weight problem learn how much fat is in their favorite lunch; instructors at WHAM, a wellness, health, action, and motivation class at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock; weigh out caulk on a gram scale and put it in small take-out boxes. On the top of each box is a picture and name of the food item, such as a taco salad from Taco Bell.
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To improve breastfeeding initiation and its continued practice, administrators at the Prentice Ambulatory Care (PAC) Clinic of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago set in place a peer counseling program. Their efforts boosted the rate of women initiating breastfeeding to 84%, from 40%.
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Hip fractures are among the most debilitating and expensive diagnoses to treat, but your hospital can significantly improve outcomes and lower costs if it moves hip-fracture patients into surgery quickly, explains Anthony Balsamo, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and head of the Geriatric Fracture Care Program (GFCP) at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
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The proposed rule for accountable care organizations (ACOs) from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) specifies how teams of doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers and suppliers will work together to coordinate and improve care for patients.
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A lawsuit involving two rival health systems, with one alleging that the other overcharged Medicare by at least $280 million, might portend more such situations in which a competitor throws a healthcare provider to the auditor wolves.
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The potential for more corporate lawsuits such as the one involving Tenet Healthcare Corp. and Community Health Systems should highlight the value of the risk manager (RM) in any healthcare organization, says Sheryl R. Skolnick, PhD, senior vice president of CRT Capital Group in Stamford, CT, who has studied Tenet for Wall Street.
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Patient safety professionals are moving toward more prominence and stature in the health care community with the recent launch of the first professional organization devoted to their work.
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More employers are restricting the use of social media and disciplining workers for violations, according to the results of a recent survey.
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The fatal overdose of an infant last year at Seattle Children's hospital has resulted in another death: The nurse at fault committed suicide.
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A woman gave birth to a baby at 24 weeks gestation. Physicians at the hospital ordered that the baby receive parenteral nutrition (PN). The amount to be administered to the child was documented in the child's birth as being calculated according to "standard protocol." For 11 days, the hospital administered the PN solution intravenously without incident.
