Healthcare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement Archives – November 1, 2006
November 1, 2006
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HHS opens doors to greater interoperability of EMRs
Thanks to a recent decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), physicians will be allowed to accept donations of electronic prescribing software, electronic health records software, and training services from hospitals and health plans under expanded safe harbors to the anti-kickback statute. -
ICU uses 'bundles' to make huge improvements
The ICU at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Desoto, MS, has reduced its rate of ventilator-associated pneumonias (VAPs) from 7.6% to 0.73%, has had only three in the last 24 months, and at one point went 14 months without any. Its urinary tract infection rate has gone from 5.7% to virtually zero, with only one infection in the last two years. -
Staff education, 'tough love' key to RRT success
The intensive care unit at University Hospitals Health System Richmond Heights (OH) Hospital, has achieved impressive results since its rapid response team went live in late April 2005. -
Med students can aid in safety improvement
Medical students are often overlooked as valuable participants in ensuring patient safety, assert the authors of a paper published recently in Quality and Safety in Healthcare. -
ACE aims to help lower performing facilities
Hospital CEOs and administrators from the lowest performance quartile on seven core heart care measures targeted by the Alliance for Cardiac Excellence (ACE) recently have been receiving letters and information on resources available to help them improve. -
'Ideal Patient Day' gives heads-up on care
When Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare looked at improving patient throughput, one of the issues that surfaced had to do with housekeeping, which historically had deployed its work force in a way that did not serve the facility, says Matthew J. Lambert, III, MD, MBA, FACS, FACHE, senior vice president, clinical operations. "We found that when we needed the most [housekeeping personnel], the fewest were there." -
News Briefs
IOM recommends phased-in Medicare P4P system; CMS announces preventive care project -
UMICH launches flu pandemic site
Examining how communities in the United States coped with the 1918 flu pandemic could help public health planners in their preparations for the next flu pandemic, according to the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.