HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement articles from January 2008

HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement archives from January 2008

Is 'non-pay for non-performance' a wave of the future of health care? The flipside of P4P takes root as nine California hospitals are fined.
January 1, 2008... Just when hospital leadership was getting used to the pay-for-performance (P4P) concept, it seems that they will now have to adapt to another new reality that might well be called "non-pay for non-performance. The first inkling the...

Safety expert blames poor flow for many errors.
January 1, 2008... The recent fining of nine California hospitals for patient safety violations underscores just how high a cost health care facilities might pay for safety shortcomings, and puts an even greater emphasis on identifying new causes of errors and...

Six Sigma CAP initiative reduces mortalities: enables staff to make required process changes.(community-acquired pneumonia)
January 1, 2008... A Six Sigma performance improvement project in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) at Mercy Medical Center has decreased mortality rates from 6.7% in 2003 to 3.5% in 2006, or a 47.8% reduction. The program also reduced the mean length of...

Docs, paramedics using new two-way video link: puts hospital physicians 'inside the ambulance'.
January 1, 2008... Physicians at the University Medical Center (UMC) in Tucson, AZ, a level I trauma center, and the city's 17 paramedic units are participating in a pilot program for what its proponents say is a worldwide first--a two-way video system that...

Majority of hospitals won't bill for 'never events': survey shows commitment to 'doing the right thing'.
January 1, 2008... The Washington, DC-based Leapfrog Group reports that 52% of the hospitals responding to its Hospital Quality and Safety Survey say that they have adopted the "Leapfrog Never Events" policy. This policy includes the following actions that the...

Facility, insurer seek to create a 'healthy city': move toward preventive health.
January 1, 2008... Improving the health of patients in your hospital is a large enough challenge, but imagine taking on the well-being of an entire city. Well, that's exactly what The Cleveland Clinic and Medical Mutual of Ohio are doing in Solon. Their...

AHRQ data: 5% of those who contract MRSA die.
January 1, 2008... One out of every 20 patients treated in United States hospitals for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, in 2005 died from the infection, according to a recent "News & Numbers" summary from the Agency for Healthcare Research...

ED visits up by 5.1 million according to CDC report.
January 1, 2008... Visits to hospital emergency departments increased by 5.1 million in 2005 to 115.3 million, according to a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is an average of about 30,000 visits per ED, nearly one-third...

AHA survey report outlines uncompensated care costs.
January 1, 2008... The cost of uncompensated hospital care in the United States was $31.2 billion in 2006, up from $28.8 billion in 2005 and $21.6 billion in 2000, according to the latest figures from the American Hospital Association's Annual Survey of...

OSHA reports high injury/illness rates.
January 1, 2008... More than 14,000 employers have been notified that their worksite injury and illness rates are higher than average--and that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is watching. In a letter sent to the employers in March,...

Initiative gives families access to rapid response team: pediatric RRT 'another communication vehicle' for family members.
January 1, 2008... Many hospitals with rapid response teams have recognized the importance of expanding their programs to enable families to call the team. A large number say they plan to do so--as soon as they figure out a way to overcome key barriers. A much...