Guides/Reports
American Hospital Association guides and reports for members and the health care field.
Background: Assessment of patient safety culture has recently expanded in inpatient settings, but the majority of medical encounters occurs in office settings, and less is known about the determinants of perceived quality and safety in ambulatory care. The Medical Office Survey of Patient Safety…
The survey was sent by email to over 630,000 physicians (approximately 84 percent of all physicians in active patient care). It contains responses from 13,575 physicians. Key questions addressed include:
How to solve the problem? Many practices have found the answer in the creation of high-functioning primary care teams with nonphysician team members taking on clinical tasks that physicians have insufficient time to perform and that focus several people on each patient's problems. Some have…
The Breadth of Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia: Nonventilated versus Ventilated Patients in Pennsylvania
Considering the evolution of measures designed to prevent nosocomial pneumonia, it makes clinical and financial sense to focus efforts on patients who require mechanical ventilation. Patients at risk for ventilator-associated pneumonia are easily identified because they require an endotracheal tube…
A loading dose is an initial dose of medication administered to rapidly achieve therapeutic levels. The determination of a loading dose can be complicated, involving calculations dependent upon patient characteristics. This, combined with the need to also administer maintenance doses, creates…
There is widespread agreement that the current fee-for-service approach to paying for health care is problematic, since it incentivizes volume over value, but there is a lack of consensus on what should replace it.
America's health care system has become too complex and costly to continue business as usual, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. Inefficiencies, an overwhelming amount of data, and other economic and quality barriers hinder progress in improving health and threaten the nation…
The goal of this guide is to help hospital leaders better understand how to address the issue of patient safety for limited-English-proficient and culturally diverse patients. The guide can help hospital leaders:
This toolkit presents Muskegon County's Community Health Needs Assessment process and results, as well as a toolkit that can be applied for other communities' assessments.