HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement articles from February 2006

HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement archives from February 2006

Do demonstration project's numbers really validate P4P? Observers say other factors play role in improvement.
February 1, 2006... It's hard to argue that the data from the first year of the CMS/Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID), recently validated by CMS and reported publicly, were anything but impressive. The average improvement across five clinical...

Study: implementation of CPOE can raise mortality: problems arise because of delays in treatment.(computerized physician order entry)
February 1, 2006... Like many health care institutions across the country, Children's Hospital Pittsburgh responded to the 1999 IOM report and recommendations by organizations such as the Leapfrog Group with the purchase of a computerized physician order entry...

Main barriers to effective handoffs identified: treatment settings seen as key challenges.
February 1, 2006... With the implementation of a standardized approach to handoff communications being incorporated into the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations' (JCAHO) National Patient Safety Goals for 2006, the issue has taken on...

Unannounced surveys don't require QI changes: but new tools can help with documentation.
February 1, 2006... According to the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), some random surveys will continue to be performed, even though, as of January 2006, all accreditation surveys are unannounced. "The Joint Commission...

Study: fewer heart deaths when QI efforts are made: patients less likely to need readmission.
February 1, 2006... Heart failure patients are less likely to die after they go home from the hospital if the hospital has participated in an organized quality improvement program, compared with patients treated at hospitals where such efforts aren't undertaken, a...

Tools, tactics of the MI heart failure QI project.
February 1, 2006... Here is a closer look at the major tools and tactics used in the successful heart failure initiative conducted in and around Flint, MI, and reported on by University of Michigan Health System Researchers: * Standard orders: Standard orders...

AHRQ to develop guide for patient registries.
February 1, 2006... The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is developing a how-to reference guide to help health care organizations in creating patient registries to track the outcomes of medical treatments, including drugs. AHRQ Director Carolyn M....

Film teaches HCWs the art of disclosing errors.
February 1, 2006... A video on the art of disclosing medical errors, created by an ethicist at Emory University in Atlanta, is being made available for free on-line viewing. "Discussing Unanticipated Outcomes and Disclosing Medical Errors" was created by John...

Cost called impediment to broader IT adoption.
February 1, 2006... While nine out of 10 hospitals are using or considering using health information technology for clinical uses, most cite cost as a major impediment to broader adoption, especially for small or rural hospitals, according to a recent survey by...

Broader use of EHRs pushed in CHT report.
February 1, 2006... The Center for Health Transformation has released a report outlining recommendations for spurring adoption of electronic health records based on the successful practices of health data exchanges known as regional health information...