Healthcare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement Archives – August 1, 2006
August 1, 2006
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'100,000 Lives' campaign hits its target ahead of deadline
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), based in Boston, has reported that U.S. hospitals taking part in an 18-month effort to prevent 100,000 unnecessary deaths by dramatically improving patient care have exceeded that goal. -
Joint Commission releases 2007 NPSGs
The 2007 National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) recently announced by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) do not at first glance seem to impose any onerous requirements on quality managers nor do they seem to call for any dramatic changes in what are probably fairly standard practices. -
Coding changes could affect benchmarking
Potential changes in DRG coding and a proposal to move from ICD-9 to ICD-10 could significantly affect quality managers, especially in the area of benchmarking, and will make proper coding even more critical to hospital reimbursement, say coding experts. -
More care not necessarily better care, study says
Budget-conscious quality managers might want to take a good, hard look at the findings in the latest report from the Dartmouth Atlas Project, in Hanover, NH. It indicates that providing chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries more care at a higher cost does not translate into higher quality care. -
Staffing only one element in quality challenges
The reports on hospital-based emergency and trauma care, emergency medical services (EMS), and pediatric emergency care were derived from 11 studies commissioned by recognized experts in emergency care. The overall themes were quite broad, focusing on the key issues of coordination, regionalization, and accountability. -
News Briefs
Stakeholders happy with QIO assistance; Fewer workers enroll in employer health plans; Home care, assisted living upstage the nursing home