HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement articles from July 2004

HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement archives from July 2004

Reliability science: ensure system success even when components fail: industrial-engineering approach applicable to health care, experts say.
July 1, 2004... Is your health care facility reliable? If it wasn't, would you know it and would you know how to turn things around? While most of us would be inclined to reply in the affirmative, recent studies indicate that when judged by the more rigorous...

System loop analysis eliminates phlebotomy lines: problem solved by thinking outside the box.
July 1, 2004... Looking beyond the most obvious cause of long lines in phlebotomy has enabled staff at the VA Medical Center in Reno, NV, to eliminate those lines entirely. The key? System loop analysis. In December 2002, the phlebotomy service relied on a...

Health plans offer rewards for quality improvement: indicators: Patient satisfaction, preventive care.
July 1, 2004... Health plans are increasingly offering modest incentive payments to reward physicians and hospitals for quality improvement, according to a study released by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) in Washington, DC. The study, HSC...

Compliance with protocols may improve outcomes: first large-scale safety study of CABG procedures.(coronary artery bypass graft)
July 1, 2004... What has been called the first large-scale study to examine patient safety issues for isolated coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) showed that hospitals with the highest compliance with three recommended protocols had notably lower...

New clinical guidelines for palliative care published: initiative recognizes growth, maturity of field.
July 1, 2004... The National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care, a consortium of five palliative care organizations, has released a set of clinical practice guidelines to promote quality palliative care in the United States. The "Clinical Practice...

New report: living wills doomed to failure: they run afoul of human psychology.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... While many palliative care quality professionals encourage the use of advance directives, a new report published in the bioethics journal Hastings Center Report by a University of Michigan internal medicine researcher and a professor of law and...

CDC announces new goals, organizational redesign.(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
July 1, 2004... The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta has announced organizational changes for fiscal year 2005 intended to help the agency "respond more nimbly to public health threats and emerging issues." CDC director Julie...

Specialized APN care improves outcomes.(advanced practice nurses)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Older heart failure patients whose care is coordinated by specially trained advanced practice nurses (APNs) during and after hospitalization experience a better quality of life and fewer hospital readmissions, according to a study in the May...

Hospital participation in Quality Initiative nears 90%.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Nearly 90% of eligible U.S. hospitals are now taking part in the Quality Initiative, which opened to enrollment just one year ago, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA). Roughly 3,500 hospitals have agreed to participate by...