Employee Management
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‘Safe Harbors’ Can Address ED Providers’ Malpractice Fears
Many emergency physicians want to follow evidence-based guidelines to reduce unnecessary testing — but worry about liability if they do not order a diagnostic test and a patient sues. The Choosing Wisely campaign, an initiative of the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation, aims to reduce the overuse of potentially harmful tests and procedures.
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How a ‘Breaking the Rules’ Campaign Engages Staff and Uncovers Outdated Policies
With clinician burnout, a boarding crisis, moral distress, and other concerns making it tough for healthcare leaders to retain staff, it is nice to have an employee-pleasing strategy that can not only make healthcare workers feel as though they have an important voice but also boost operational efficiency. That is the idea behind the “Breaking the Rules for Better Care” initiative spearheaded by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
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A Concise Tool to Guide the Care of Patients with Community-Acquired Pneumonia
While patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) commonly present to the ED, obtaining a proper diagnosis and determining the best treatment course is not always clear-cut. For one thing, while there are many evidence-based guidelines for CAP, many of these tools are more than 50 pages long, making it difficult to integrate them into clinical practice.
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Pediatric Boarding Increases Safety Concerns in EDs
Boarding is a common occurrence in most EDs. However, it has been studied more often in adult EDs than pediatric EDs.
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Reduce Patient Safety Risks for ED Super-Utilizers
Extreme ED super-utilizers pose significant risks and challenges for ED providers. Providers are at risk for missing signs of a serious condition because they have seen the patient in the ED so many times for the same complaint — whether back pain, headache, or abdominal pain.
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Monthly Calls Dramatically Cut ED Visits by Super-Utilizers
Researchers at a Virginia hospital conducted a quality improvement project to get frequent ED visitors the care they needed and keep them out of the ED. The researchers identified the 50 top super-utilizing patients at Sentara Norfolk (VA) General Hospital’s ED in 2020 and contacted them about enrolling in a chronic care management program.
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Triage: When Relying on Historical Data, Do Not Apply Bias from Past Decisions
There is no denying that in a system that relies heavily on clinician judgment regarding acuity designations, bias can influence triage decisions. Indeed, among the disparities identified in the study into Emergency Severity Index triage accuracy was that Black patients had a 4.6% greater relative risk of overtriage and an 18.5% greater relative risk of undertriage when compared with white patients.
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When a Privacy Breach Is Not a Breach
Language is important when talking about noncompliance with HIPAA. Not every instance of noncompliance is a breach.
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Ransom Demands Decrease and More Companies Refuse to Pay
The number of ransomware victims opting to pay the ransom has fallen to a record low. At the beginning of 2019, 85% of ransomware victims paid a ransom. However, that figure fell to 46% in the middle of 2021 and 29% in the last quarter of 2023.
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HHS Issues HIPAA Best Practices for Telehealth
The Department of Health and Human Services published a resource guide to assist telehealth providers in explaining the privacy and security risks to patients, but the guidance makes clear HIPAA does not require this education. However, the goal is for the resource guide to help providers who would like to discuss potential risks with the patient.