Hospital Case Management articles from March 2005

Hospital Case Management archives from March 2005

CMs should take the lead as JCAHO patient flow standards go into effect: hospitals must assess, manage throughput issues.(Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations)
March 1, 2005... The new patient flow standards from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) create opportunities for case managers to take the lead in their hospital's compliance and adherence initiatives, says Hussein A....

Throughput department reaps dramatic rewards: software system tracks patient beds in real time.
March 1, 2005... At one time, the emergency department (ED) at Seton Medical Center in Austin, TX, sometimes had to hold patients overnight because there wasn't a bed available, and local physicians complained that they could not get patients admitted when they...

Team approach improves hospital's patient flow: case managers are an integral part.
March 1, 2005... Danbury (CT) Hospital takes a team approach to facilitating patient flow, with a series of initiatives coordinated by a multidisciplinary Discharge Admissions Review Team (DART) that meets regularly to assess what's working and what needs...

Hospitalists, pharmacists partner to cut errors: shorter lengths of stay, lower med costs result.
March 1, 2005... Hospitalists collaborating with clinical pharmacists at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center in East Patchogue, NY, were able to shorten length of stay, lower medication costs, and improve clinical outcomes. A study conducted by...

VA gets high marks for preventive, chronic care: integrated medical record needed but not sufficient.
March 1, 2005... A study published in the Dec. 21, 2004, Annals of Internal Medicine showed that patients enrolled in the Department of Veterans Affairs health system (VHA) were more likely than a national sample of similar patients in the general population to...

New Jersey hospital wins Baldrige award.
March 1, 2005... Until St. Louis's SSM Healthcare broke the barrier in 2002, no health care system had won the coveted Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Now there are four. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Hamilton, NJ, is the most recent...

AHRQ releases new diabetes care guide.(Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality )
March 1, 2005... The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), in partnership with the Council of State Governments, has released Diabetes Care Quality Improvement: A Resource Guide for State Action and a companion workbook, both of which are designed...

Hospital initiative sees higher vaccination rates: screening is a multidisciplinary effort.
March 1, 2005... When Stamford (CT) Hospital began its pneumococcal vaccination screening, only about 16% of patients were being screened. In less than a year, the rate had risen to 76%, outpacing statistics from other hospitals in Connecticut. "We had a...

Root out causes of DP failures: how to apply accident investigation tools.(Guest Column)
March 1, 2005... Case managers rarely are involved in adverse patient incidents, yet they can learn a lot about discharge planning failures by applying accident investigation tools. Accident investigation techniques can be helpful for evaluating why discharge...

It's not over: prepare for a strange flu season.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... This year is a wild card, and anything still could happen. First, we had a dangerous shortage of influenza vaccine, followed by many high-risk people who couldn't get or decided to forgo immunization. Fortunately, this has been a mild flu...

CE questions.
March 1, 2005... 9. JCAHO issued standards requiring hospitals to develop and implement plans to identify and mitigate impediments to efficient patient flow. When did/do they go into effect? A. July 1, 2005 B. Jan. 1, 2005 C. Oct. 1, 2004 D....