Hospital Peer Review articles from March 2002

Hospital Peer Review archives from March 2002

Study slams Joint Commission's approach to measuring quality: standards have little relationship to patient care and safety, critics charge.
March 1, 2002... Criticism of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) is nothing new, but the most recent study landed a solid punch to the gut. The Joint Commission's standards and all the work it forces upon health care...

Remember diplomacy in peer review process: `serious problems demand some kind of response'. (Reader Question).
March 1, 2002... Question: Our medical staff and our peer review department are struggling with how to handle pre-admission records that become part of the in-house peer review process. Obstetrical records, for instance, often include information about prenatal...

CQI `business as usual'? Not for patient safety: traditional approach weak on cultural change.(continuous quality improvement )
March 1, 2002... Ever since the landmark report To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, which was issued in 1999 by the Institute of Medicine in Washington, DC, both health care quality managers and oversight agencies have been placing a greater focus...

Press, Ganey winners are best in customer care: share success with employees; keep patients happy. (Patient Satisfaction Planner[TM]).
March 1, 2002... For years, officials at the East Alabama Medical Center (EAMC) in Opelika, AL, looked at their South Bend, IN-based Press, Ganey Associates Inc. patient satisfaction reports as something to read and file away every quarter. The results weren't...

Hand-held devices may be better for QI projects: hand-helds simplify data collection.(quality improvement )
March 1, 2002... Hand-held devices are a "superior alternative" to manual data collection and entry for quality improvement projects in medical intensive care units (MICU), according to authors of a study presented recently at the 67th annual scientific meeting...

JCAHO joins The Leapfrog Group as a formal partner: groups working on identifying outcome.
March 1, 2002... The clout of The Leapfrog Group appears to have own substantially with the addition of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) as a formal partner. The groups previously had an informal relationship. Under...

New focus for surveyors: emergency management; surveyors will focus on hazard assessments.
March 1, 2002... The events of Sept. 11 are rippling through the health care system in a number of ways, and it appears they will lead to some changes in the way the Oakbrook Terrace, IL-based Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations...

Are you supporting the silent incident victims? Look after staff involved in adverse events. (The Quality - Co$t Connection).
March 1, 2002... To be personally involved in an adverse patient incident is a very distressing experience. Unsafe situations and poorly designed health care processes can trap even the most competent person into making a harmful mistake. The person who makes a...

CE questions.
March 1, 2002... Please save your monthly issues with the CE questions in order to take the two semester tests in the June and December issues. A Scantron sheet will be inserted in those issues, but the questions will not be repeated. 9. According to...

Anthrax aftermath: adverse drug reactions, vaccine controversy undercut CDC extended treatment offer; some 8,000 people say thanks but no thanks.
March 1, 2002... Despite the lingering possibility of late-onset anthrax infection, more than 8,000 people potentially exposed in the bioterrorism attacks of 2001 have turned down offers of additional antibiotics and immunization with the controversial vaccine,...