Hospital Peer Review
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Report: U.S. Nurse Workforce to Play Pivotal Role Over Next Decade
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Leapfrog Group Focusing on Health Equity as Quality Metric
With the new question on healthcare equity, Leapfrog is encouraging hospitals to analyze their quality and safety data by race, ethnicity, or language. -
Health Information Exchange Improves Quality of Data
Healthcare quality researchers have demonstrated a single electronic health record may not be a complete source of relevant clinical information. The authors of a recent study suggested adding standards-based data from a health information exchange can improve quality of care. -
When Hospitals Must Query the NPDB
Hospitals might face quandaries over when they must report clinicians to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), but it is important to remember queries to the NPDB also are required. Failure to follow protocol could put the facility in peril. -
NPDB Reporting Protected by Law in Some Cases, Gray Areas Problematic
Hospitals enjoy substantial protection when reporting physicians to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) in many situations, with laws protecting against retaliatory lawsuits as long as the hospital was required to report and followed appropriate protocols. However, there are situations in which reporting to the NPDB is not required but might still be the right thing to do when leaders are concerned about a clinician’s threat to patient safety. In those circumstances, the protection against liability is not ironclad. -
Star Ratings Use Standardized Weighting of Measures
CMS explains the new 2021 methodology for its Hospital Quality Star Ratings uses “a simple average of measure scores to calculate measure group scores and Z-score standardization to standardize measure group scores” in five measure groups. -
Latest CMS Star Ratings Include Welcome Changes
Hospital leaders had criticized previous ratings because they believed the methodology used to create them was flawed and produced inconsistent results that made the ratings misleading and not useful to consumers. -
Hospital Attains QCDR Status, Improves Quality Metrics
Alteon Health, a physician-owned and physician-led acute care medical group based in Germantown, MD, recently became a Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR), a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-approved vendor that is in the business of improving healthcare quality. QCDRs may include specialty societies, regional health collaboratives, large health systems, or software vendors working in collaboration with one of these medical entities.
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Clear Masks Improve Patient Communication, But Surgeons Hesitant
Recent research at a hospital revealed patients preferred clear masks because they allowed them to see the clinician’s face, but more than half of surgeons said they were unlikely to use a clear mask. -
Hospital Sees Quality Improvement with Expanded Telehealth Services
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in Seattle ramped up its telehealth efforts to facilitate more virtual clinical and urgent care visits — more than 425,000 since March 2020 — with appointments ranging from annual check-ups to pre-and post-surgical check-ins. Notable results include improvements in quality of care and patient satisfaction.