Healthcare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement Archives – September 1, 2007
September 1, 2007
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NPSGs target anticoagulation therapy, patient deterioration
The 2008 National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs), recently published by The Joint Commission, contain two new goals, both of which have significant implications for hospital quality managers. The first, Goal 3E, states: "Reduce the likelihood of patient harm associated with the use of anticoagulation therapy." -
Solucient 'Top 100' hospital scores 'three-peat'
When the Solucient 100 Top Hospitals were announced this year, Danbury (CT) Hospital was on the list for the third year in a row. Hospital leaders say that for patients, this means a higher survival rate in certain medical procedures, fewer complications, better safety, and shorter lengths of stay. -
Danbury tackles MRSA with aggressive initiative
Danbury (CT) Hospital, named to the Solucient 100 Top Hospitals list for three years running, establishes a set of quality initiatives each year that include aggressive plans for improvement. This year one of those initiatives focuses on Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. -
Physician backing critical to QI turnaround
In 2004, the mortality rates for several cardiac care areas (including bypass procedures, valve replacements, and treatment of heart attacks) at St. Dominic's-Jackson Memorial Hospital in Jackson, MS, were disappointing enough that the facility's leadership engaged the consulting arm of Golden, CO HealthGrades Inc. (recently renamed the HealthGrades Clinical Excellence Research & Consulting Group), to help it turn things around. -
Simple test can prevent pneumonia after a stroke
Millions of dollars and several hundred thousand lives could be saved if more hospitals followed a simple best practice the swallow test for stroke victims, assert researchers in a new study in the journal Neurology.1 Aspiration, note medical experts, in the main pneumonia risk is stroke patients. -
Link seen between working conditions, infections
According to a study in the June 2007 issue of Medical Care, hospitals that have better working conditions for nurses are safer for elderly ICU patients. The study, led by Columbia University School of Nursing researchers, measured rates of hospital-associated infections. -
News Brief
As part of the Department of Health and Human Services' Value-Driven Health Care initiative, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has launched a compendium of health care report cards.