HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement articles from February 2003

HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement archives from February 2003

`Storytelling' by staff, patients brings issues to life, aids change: technique used successfully to support safety, satisfaction, training.
February 1, 2003... Key Points * Storytelling captures group's interest and personalizes key issues. * Organizations such as the National Institutes of Health and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement have gotten on the storytelling bandwagon. *...

Risk management: an important partnership: how to present storytelling concept.
February 1, 2003... At first glance, a partnership between staff developing an innovative technique such as storytelling and a department like risk management might seem a bit odd, but it "really isn't off the beaten path," says James A. Espinosa, MD, FACEP,...

Ventilator education program reduces VAP: train respiratory care practitioners, ICU nurses.(ventilator-associated pneumonia)
February 1, 2003... Key Points * Episodes are slashed 57.6%, more than $400,000 was saved. * Multidisciplinary task forces draw up new policies, procedures. * Program is mandatory for respiratory care practitioners. A multimodal education program...

QIOs go beyond typical quality initiative: expand target areas for critical care improvement.(quality improvement organizations)
February 1, 2003... Key Points * An opportunity for improving performance and systems of care is to be identified. * Three quality improvement organizations are to address a total of 10 different clinical areas. * A eries of quality indicators will...

Hospital receives achievement award: quality projects recognized.
February 1, 2003... Award recognition programs are another strategy being used locally to spur quality improvement among health care facilities that contract with Medicare. For example, the Peer Review Organization of New Jersey (PRONJ) recently awarded...

Benchmarking could save hospitals billions: mortality, complications could be reduced.
February 1, 2003... If overall performance in all acute-care U.S. hospitals were the same as the nation's top hospitals, close to 57,000 more patients could survive each year and nearly $9.5 billion in annual expenses could be saved, according to a study by...

Are patients' DNR orders overinterpreted? They may be marker for less-aggressive care.(do-not-resuscitate)
February 1, 2003... Key Points * Physicians sometimes refrain from other lifesaving procedures. * Physicians should openly discuss goals of therapy with patients. * Educators must provide physicians with skills needed for such situations. A new...

Reserve your smallpox vaccination handbook today.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... American Health Consultants now offers the Hospital Handbook on Smallpox Vaccination, a facilitywide resource containing all the information you need about smallpox vaccination in most health care facilities and environments. Learn about...

Cardiologist care critical.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Many Americans survive a heart attack only to die from a second heart attack or other medical problem soon after leaving the hospital. But a new study sponsored by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality suggests that heart...

Is simple approach better for heart rhythm problems?(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Findings in a study published in the December 5, 2002, New England Journal of Medicine say the preferred way of treating common heart rhythm problems is actually no better, and perhaps even worse, than a simpler approach using cheaper drugs....