HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement articles from August 2006

HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement archives from August 2006

'100,000 Lives' campaign hits its target ahead of deadline: IHI sought participation; more than 3,000 have signed up.
August 1, 2006... The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), based in Boston, has reported that U.S. hospitals taking part in an 18-month effort to prevent 100,000 unnecessary deaths by dramatically improving patient care have exceeded that goal. Hospitals...

Joint Commission releases 2007 NPSGs: the 'devil,' as always, is in the details, experts say.
August 1, 2006... The 2007 National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) recently announced by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) do not at first glance seem to impose any onerous requirements on quality managers--nor do they...

Coding changes could affect benchmarking: new DRG system may be imminent.
August 1, 2006... Potential changes in DRG coding and a proposal to move from ICD-9 to ICD-10 could significantly affect quality managers, especially in the area of benchmarking, and will make proper coding even more critical to hospital reimbursement, say...

More care not necessarily better care, study says: study focuses on care of chronically ill.
August 1, 2006... Budget-conscious quality managers might want to take a good, hard look at the findings in the latest report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project, in Hanover, NH. It indicates that providing chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries more care at a...

Staffing only one element in quality challenges: errors can occur easily in emergency care.
August 1, 2006... As outlined in the Institute of Medicine report, there are three major issues hindering patient safety and quality in our nation's emergency health care system, says Mary M. Jagim, RN, BSN, FAEN, internal consultant for emergency preparedness...

Stakeholders happy with QIO assistance.
August 1, 2006... The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently released the results of its baseline survey to gauge stakeholder satisfaction with quality improvement organization (QIO) interactions. Results indicate that stakeholders are happy with the...

Fewer workers enroll in employer health plans.
August 1, 2006... Three million fewer workers elected to enroll in their employer s health insurance plan between 1998 and 2003, a period when the cost of individual premiums increased 42%, according to a recent study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation...

Home care, assisted living upstage the nursing home.
August 1, 2006... A trend seems to be growing. More seniors are leaving nursing homes in favor of other types of care, including home care and assisted living facilities. New York, like many other states, has applied for a federal waiver to allow up to...