HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement articles from June 2004

HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement archives from June 2004

Tracer methodology: how it can help you improve quality: quality pros see opportunity to identify system, process problems.
June 1, 2004... Any time the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) adds a new requirement to the survey process, quality professionals are obligated to become conversant with it to ramp up for their next survey. But if that's...

QI program generates physician involvement: control of glucose, cholesterol, BP levels improve.
June 1, 2004... Generating physician involvement in QI efforts has been an ongoing challenge for quality professionals, but an initiative to increase diabetes awareness among the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's (UPMC) 220 primary care physician...

New tool adds structure, productivity to meetings: pre-existing tool adapted to strategic goals.
June 1, 2004... All Saints Healthcare, a multifacility system in Racine, WI, has adapted a pre-existing template for meeting structure to more closely mesh with its strategic goals, creating a more organized meeting process while at the same time reinforcing...

Quality, teamwork to be key issues for internists: task force cites need for compensation restructure.
June 1, 2004... A task force of leading internal medicine physicians is recommending significant changes to their profession and the health care industry so they can better serve patients while stemming chaos in the current health care system. "The Future...

Staff education about environment starts day 1: environmental stewardship part of orientation.(Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center)
June 1, 2004... Employees at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC), an academic facility in Lebanon, NH, that includes a 400-bed tertiary hospital, research and clinical space, work for an organization that places prime importance on sound environmental...

Michigan hospitals track bioterror.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... Nine Michigan hospitals are participating in a statewide surveillance pilot program to track potential bioterrorist attacks, infectious disease outbreaks, and other public health emergencies. The syndromic surveillance system focuses on...

Ohio group issues surgical protocol.(Ohio Patient Safety Institute)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... The Ohio Patient Safety Institute has released a surgical protocol to help Ohio providers prevent the incidence of wrong-site, wrong-patient, and wrong-procedure surgery. Developed with input from 20 medical and health care organizations,...

NFPA now allows hand-rub dispensers.(National Fire Protection Association)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2004... The standards council of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), which sets fire safety standards used in 38 states, has announced amendments to the NFPA Life Safety Code that will permit hospitals and other health care facilities to...