Healthcare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement Archives – April 1, 2011
April 1, 2011
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Network gives rural facilities strength in numbers
Thirteen rural hospitals in the state of New Hampshire decided several years ago to pool the funding of each hospital's Small Rural Hospital Improvement Grant Program (SHIP) funds to create a network for a QI initiative called the New Hampshire Critical Access Hospital, Quality Improvement Network (QIN). -
A variation on rapid response theme
Spectrum Health, based in Grand Rapids, MI, has introduced a successful patient safety program called "Condition Concern" that its proponents say offers a unique approach to patient and family involvement in expressing concerns they have about care. The program was described in a recent article in the Journal of Nursing Care Quality. -
Medicare deaths report cites fatal infections
A recent federal report that included the highly publicized finding that some 15,000 Medicare patients die every month due to adverse events and hospital-acquired conditions (HAC) may ratchet up pressure on hospitals to prevent infections, which represented some 15% of the HACs. -
Is your OR holding out against sharps safety?
Amid the successes in sharps safety in hospitals in the 21st century, there is one glaring gap: the operating room. Sharps injuries there remain as much of a problem as they were in 2000, when the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act was signed into law. -
Wound care program keeps patients safe
A team-oriented approach to working with members with non-healing wounds has paid off for UPMC Health Plan and its network providers. -
Do you have a policy targeting needlesticks?
Sharps safety in the OR needs to be an institutional mandate, says Ramon Berguer, MD, FACS, chief of surgery at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez, CA. It may be expressed in a policy that is developed by OR leadership, including the OR manager and chief of anesthesia, Berguer says. -
AHA has new award for leaders in HC quality
The first Dick Davidson Quality Milestone Award for Allied Association Leadership will be presented in July, 2011, by the American Hospital Association (AHA) of Washington, DC. -
Doc, can you read this?
At most hospitals, the vast majority of physician orders are still written by hand. That means a lot of hurried squiggles that no one can decipher, and time-wasting phone calls to clarify the order, not to mention the threat to patient safety.