Healthcare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement Archives – August 1, 2009
August 1, 2009
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Michigan collaborative slashes radiation for cardiac CTs in half
A collaborative of 15 hospitals in Michigan, which included cardiologists and radiologists working side by side, has succeeded in cutting the radiation dose for CT angiography on average by more than half for almost 5,000 patients with no effect on image quality. -
TJC issues report on tracking HCW hand hygiene
The Joint Commission has issued a major new document on the difficult issue of assessing hand hygiene compliance by health care workers. We'll put the bottom line at the top: There are many approaches to solve the Achilles "hand" of infection prevention and none of them is a panacea. -
Organizational culture issues, key strategies
It is important to investigate the reasons for nonadherence to hand hygiene guidelines before deciding on one or more improvement strategies, according to a new report by The Joint Commission and its partners. It also is useful to examine the organizational context of health care delivery, which may facilitate or inhibit adherence. -
Compliance with verbal orders standards poor
Among the most challenging standards from The Joint Commission for the first half of 2008 was standard IM.6.50 â "Designated qualified staff accept and transcribe verbal or telephone orders." According to the organization, 40% of hospitals were not in full compliance. (This standard is now in a new chapter, under "RC" as opposed to "IM.".) -
Verbal orders placed in new chapter
The Joint Commission (TJC) has noted that its verbal order standard, IM.6.50, has been one of the more difficult to comply with, but "ED managers who now wish to brush up on that standard will have to look elsewhere," says Louise Kuhny, RN, MPH, MBA, CIC, TJC's senior associate director of standards interpretation. -
Audits help manager track compliance
Nurse managers say they find chart audits extremely effective in tracking staff compliance with The Joint Commission's standard on verbal orders. -
Safely storing meds is problem for many
Providers continue to struggle with The Joint Commission standard to safely and properly store medications (MM.03.01.01), with 22% of ambulatory organizations and 34% of hospitals being noncompliant in the first half of 2008. -
Items to check off for LSC compliance
There are many detailed requirements of Life Safety Code (LSC) compliance, and many outpatient surgery managers are not aware of them. -
Put a stop to IV med errors with 4 practices
Intravenous (IV) drug errors are twice as likely to cause harm to patients as drugs given orally, according to new research from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). -
News Briefs
In a joint letter sent to President Obama and House and Senate leaders, the Premier healthcare alliance and GYNHA Ventures Inc., the Greater New York Hospital Association's supply chain enterprise that includes group purchasing organizations (GPOs), said that hospitals could improve health care quality and achieve cumulative savings of $317 billion if certain policies are enacted to create a more competitive and transparent purchasing environment.