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Correct control chart selection is a critical part of creating a control chart, according to PQ Systems, an industry leader in the manufacturing of statistical process control (SPC) and quality control software based in Miamisburg, OH.
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It was about 2 a.m., Sept. 16, when Hurricane Ivan roared into Pensacola, FL, with 130-mile-per-hour winds, battering the boarded-up windows of Sacred Heart Hospital, knocking out the electricity and forcing the hospital to operate on emergency generators. Many staff had arrived at the hospital before the storm hit, anticipating problems with transportation afterward, and they all sprang into action to make sure the patients and more than 2,000 family members of patients and staff being sheltered at the hospital were safe.
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Public reporting of quality measures is likely to increase in the near future, and hospitals should get ready, asserts Carolyn Scott, director of collaborative services and CEO work groups for clinical excellence with VHA Inc., an Irving, TX-based health care cooperative.
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Redesigning the care management model and creating a resource center to free the clinical staff from clerical work has resulted in decreases in length of stay and helped drop denials for clinical reasons to zero at St. Vincents Medical Center in Jacksonville, FL.
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Case managers with the Hawaii Medical Service Association (HMSA), a nonprofit medical indemnity association, follow a practice model that differs significantly from that used at most other insurance companies, says Melissa Bojorquez, ACBSW, MBA, CCM, supervisor for the HMSA case management program.
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The movement to prevent wrong-site or wrong-person surgery got another boost recently when a major health plan announced affective Jan. 1, 2005, it will no longer pay for medical procedures involving those egregious errors. Dont expect to get paid for a procedure if you leave that 12-inch retractor in the patients belly, or the next procedure to remove it.
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A pediatric asthma program that includes home visits by an asthma management team and an intensive educational program for families has resulted in a dramatic drop in emergency department (ED) visits for pediatric asthma patients at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, MI.
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Hospital discharge planners often have to use their ingenuity in finding placements for patients with no insurance who need post-acute services or are homeless and need a place to stay. The problem is that patients must be discharged safely, whether or not they have money to pay for the services they need.
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A team approach and intensive case management of patients has helped San Francisco General Hospital cut the number of hospitalizations and costs for patients who were frequently hospitalized.