HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement articles from October 2004

HealthCare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement archives from October 2004

Shifts go up for bid: hospitals see boost in patient care, staff morale: lower vacancies result; substantial savings seen in personnel costs.
October 1, 2004... Key Points * Having hospital staff fill all shifts leads to consistency of care, greater quality. * Nurses can earn much more, while hospital outlays are lower without agency fees. * Productivity also improves when in-house staff...

Study: top performers also can be top improvers: lower baseline doesn't guarantee improvement.
October 1, 2004... Key Points * More than one-fourth of the variability on benchmark performance may be accounted for by sustained performance improvement. * Hospitals were compared over several years using eight different performance measures. *...

Study finds much higher rate of annual errors: research examines three years of Medicare records.
October 1, 2004... Key Points * Institute of Medicine's use of health care worker's comments about charts may help explain discrepancies. * Study indicates nearly $3 billion in excess Medicare costs every year. * Superior hospitals had five deaths...

'Safety culture' approach guides health system's efforts: health system takes cue from manufacturing world.
October 1, 2004... It's not that unusual these days to find health care professionals modeling their performance improvement efforts on proven strategies from the world of business. It is, however, unique to find a health care system's safety culture taking its...

'Most wired' hospitals widen gap over others: wide range of offerings, emphasis on IT education.(information technology)
October 1, 2004... Key Points * More than 90% of most wired conduct return-on-investment analyses to justify expenditures. * Computerized physician order entry is 10 times more likely to be used at most wired organizations than at least wired facilities....

NCQA's Quality Plus will highlight web plans: program to recognize health plan innovators.(National Committee for Quality Assurance)
October 1, 2004... The Washington, DC-based National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has released for public comment draft standards for Quality Plus, a new supplemental accreditation program it claims "breaks new ground" in content and intent. The...

Tool locates alternative sites during bioterrorism: initiative draws from integrated network process.
October 1, 2004... Key Points * Following a bioterror event, hospitals may be overwhelmed by an influx of patients. * An Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality tool includes 30 different attributes by which to compare and rank facilities. * The...

JCAHO establishes standards advisory board.(Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, Hospital Standards Advisory Group)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2004... The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has created a Hospital Standards Advisory Group to provide feedback to the Joint Commission on the hospital field's experience with revised standards, rationales, elements of...