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During morning surgery rush times, registrars at Indiana University Health North Hospital in Carmel began monitoring the actual time patients were arriving in a database.
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According to a study that appears in Archives of Surgery, between 85% and 94% of patients were willing to sign forms permitting medical residents to assist surgeons, but many will not consent to giving residents a major role during surgery.
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More states are mandating adverse event reporting, and this trend could have a significant impact on healthcare providers, says Kathryn Schulke, BSN, a principal with the law firm of Booz Allen Hamilton in Rockville, MD. Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation requiring adverse event reporting, she says.
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As the num ber of people in the general population with high body mass index (BMI) rises, outpatient surgery providers are seeing growing numbers of these patients. The question arises, are providers treating them appropriately? No, according to the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA).
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[Editor's note: In this issue of Same-Day Surgery, we put a special focus on compliance with regulated drugs. We've talked with some of the top pharmacy consultants in the country to find out foolproof systems for avoiding diversion and theft. These stories will help you decide where to focus your time and energy, while avoiding liability.]
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More often, outpatient surgery staff members find themselves in the unenviable position of telling patients about out-of-pocket responsibilities running into the thousands of dollars.
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About one-quarter of healthcare respondents reported that their organization has experienced a security breach in the past year, according to survey results from the Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) in Chicago.
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Controlled substance diversion is one of those things that every administrator thinks "could never happen to me. I don't have any thieves or drug abusers working here." In my 20 years of being a pharmacist consultant for surgery centers, I've heard that more times than I can count.
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One of the accreditation standards causing the most headaches for ambulatory organizations is the one on credentialing. In fact, statistics gathered by The Joint Commission indicated that for the first half of 2011, 48% of ambulatory organizations and 56% of office-based facilities were noncompliant with standard HR 02.01.03: The organization grants initial, renewed, or revised clinical privileges to individuals who are permitted by law and the organization to practice independently.
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Electronic health records, or EHRs, can be valuable tools for managers as they strive to comply with The Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals. That's a clear message communicated in a recent commentary in The Journal of the American Medical Association; however, the authors take care to not only outline some best practices for EHR use, but to also review some of the challenges presented.
