HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement articles from January 2006

HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement archives from January 2006

Are handoffs too 'automatic'? QI experts fear errors could rise; completing checklists without thinking can present safety challenge.
January 1, 2006... When the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) speaks, people listen. That was certainly the case when it began to issue its National Patient Safety Goals; health care professionals sat up and took notice and...

Stroke program wins first Codman award for DM; minimizing variance through staff training.
January 1, 2006... The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has named Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, WA, the winner of the inaugural Ernest Amory Codman Award in the disease-specific care category, for establishing a comprehensive...

Michigan P4P program given high grades; seven RWJF grantees honored.
January 1, 2006... Since it's one of the oldest incentive programs in the country, it might not come as a big surprise that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan was among seven Robert Wood Johnson Foundation "Rewarding Results" grantees selected to highlight its...

P4P can improve quality, proponents say; programs achieve results through incentives.
January 1, 2006... Pay-for-Performance programs can improve both medical care and quality of life by giving health care providers a financial incentive to seek measurable improvements in the health of their patients, it was reported in a November 15, 2005...

Study: chances missed to avoid many heart attacks; some patients don't receive aggressive treatment.
January 1, 2006... Despite the fact that clogged arteries in the legs usually mean clogged arteries near the heart, a new study led by a University of Michigan cardiologist finds that doctors often fail to give heart-protecting care to people who have clogged...

Health care workers may imperil patients by snubbing influenza vaccinations; SHEA: use declination forms to push flu vaccine.(Patient Safety Alert[TM]: A quarterly supplement on best practices in safe patient care)
January 1, 2006... In cold fact, some unknown number of hospital patients and nursing home residents die of influenza--year in, year out--because they were treated by health care workers who declined flu vaccination. Maybe the workers mistakenly thought the...

AMA unveils health care ethics program, toolkit: eight hospitals will be field-testing program.
January 1, 2006... The Ethical Force Program, a collaborative effort of the American Medical Association (AMA) to develop health care systemwide performance measures for ethics, will be field-testing a tool kit on patient-centered communication with diverse...

CMS releases HCAHPS survey instrument.
January 1, 2006... The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released the final Hospital CAHPS (HCAHPS) survey instrument. The HCAHPS survey is the first national attempt to standardize patients' satisfaction with care in order to make "apples...

AMA develops toolkit for 100K lives.
January 1, 2006... As a strategic partner in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) 100,000 Lives Campaign, the American Medical Association (AMA) recently launched two online toolkits to encourage physicians to join the initiative. More than 2,800...

C diff: new, more virulent strain emerges.
January 1, 2006... Clostridium difficile continues to emerge in a more pathogenic form with a new epidemiological profile. Particularly disturbing are new reports in four states of infections in patients previously thought to be at low risk for C. diff. ...