CDC and CMS Report Alarming Decline in Patient Safety During Pandemic

An analysis by the CDC and CMS indicates important metrics in patient safety reversed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Occupational Health Departments Hit Hard by Pandemic

In 2020, many individual clinical departments were overwhelmed when a series of COVID-19 surges began to inundate hospitals with infected patients. Suddenly, healthcare workers were imperiled. It fell to employee health professionals to work with colleagues and protect the workforce in a situation not seen in a century.

Focus on Quintuple Aim to Address Workforce Burnout and Equity

If there is anything the COVID-19 crisis has shown healthcare leaders and case managers, it is the triple aim of focusing on improving population health, enhancing care experience, and reducing overall costs is not enough to improve value-based care. A quintuple aim of also prioritizing health equity and workforce wellness/burnout is needed. Both became crises during the pandemic.

Misinformation Continues to Undermine Pandemic Response

Misinformation and outright lies have swept the globe during the last two years, undermining the pandemic response in hospitals and communities. In a recent call to action report, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology warned infection preventionists this phenomenon has been harmful and no doubt will occur during the next pandemic.

APIC Asks Feds for Infection Prevention Reinforcements

The leading organization for infection preventionists is trying to elevate and solidify their role in healthcare after many were dislodged from traditional duties or otherwise overwhelmed during the pandemic. The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology has issued a call to action report, which describes IPs as key players in pandemics and emergency response, as well as the longstanding wall between vulnerable patients and healthcare infections.

Mind the Gap: A Wary Shift from Pandemic to Endemic

As COVID-19 cases drop dramatically and public health officials relax masking guidelines based on the local situation, there is the temptation to assume the pandemic is over and is entering a broadly defined endemic phase.

Vaccine Expert: SARS-CoV-2 Is Becoming Endemic

Make of it what you will in an unpredictable pandemic, but one of the nation’s leading vaccine and immunology experts sees COVID-19 fading to a somewhat undefined endemic level and then returning as a seasonal virus next winter.

How a Transitional Care Leader’s Organization Survived the Pandemic Chaos

In this Q&A, Hospital Case Management asked Vera Usinowicz, APN-C, supervisor of The Center for Comprehensive Heart Failure Care at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ, to discuss how her transitional care unit kept heart failure patients out of the emergency department and hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Was the 1889-1891 Russian Flu Really Coronavirus?

The 1889-1891 Russian flu pandemic was noted to spread rapidly through Western Europe, Great Britain, and North America. Contemporary clinical reports described prominent gastrointestinal, rheumatologic, and neurologic abnormalities (including loss of taste and smell), and pathologic reports described prominent thrombosis. A molecular clock analysis suggests a beta coronavirus emerged in humans following cross-species transmission around this time.

Control Factors That Influence Insurance Premiums

Insurance premiums are influenced by many factors. Some factors are out of the insured healthcare organization’s control, but hospitals can earn lower premiums by showing a concerted effort to improve patient safety and lower risk.

Articles Tagged With: pandemic