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Medical malpractice plaintiffs attorneys are increasingly confident about obtaining potentially game-changing documents that risk managers assumed would never be seen by the other side.
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It is easy to understand why someone thought that all tubes used in a particular setting should be interchangeable: It would be cheaper to manufacture and easier for someone getting a necessary piece of equipment to grab what was needed and not have to worry whether the male part would fit the female.
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Would you give your physicians a $19 million bonus? What if you knew doing so would save you $113 million, cut your length of stay and improve quality? Thats what a group of New Jersey hospitals did as part of a pilot program for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. It was so successful that the group applied for, and was granted, permission to continue the project on a larger scale.
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Last year, a 1.25% reduction in hospital costs by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) fed the quality bonuses at hospitals more than 600 received something for their efforts, while more than 700 lost something for their perceived lack of it. This year, the bonus pool is being funded by a 1.5% decrease in costs, estimated to be some $1.4 billion up for grabs.
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There are a lot of things counted in hospitals, a lot of data collected. Thats why it might seem surprising that until very recently, there was no measure of sepsis as a proportion of hospital mortality.
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There have been several efforts by various groups to curb overuse of healthcare treatments in different settings use of antibiotics for uncomplicated ear infections in children, for example, and the use of surgery to correct back problems that might be resolved without it.
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It's nothing new. Compliance with verbal orders has been a struggle for hospitals for more than 25 years. Many experts Hospital Peer Review spoke with compare verbal-order compliance to hand-washing compliance. It's behavioral. It's something we know we have to do. And it's not a matter of ill-intentioned practitioners. It's a matter of time and logistics.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2007 stipulated a five-year period in which verbal orders must be "dated, timed, and authenticated promptly by the prescribing practitioner or another practitioner responsible for the care of the patient, even if the order did not originate with him or her.
