Quality & Patient Safety
This TrendWatch report highlights the progress that hospitals and health systems have made in improving quality, the challenges that remain, and how policymakers can think strategically to align QI, measures and CoP policies.
Hospitals and health systems use quality measurement, quality improvement (QI) and adoption of hospital field standards and best practices to continuously improve patient care. Public policies around quality — especially the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) quality reporting and…
Hospitals reduced abdominal hysterectomy surgical site infections by 13 percent and central line-associated bloodstream infections by 11 percent in 2016, according to a report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights recently announced settlements that serve as a reminder to hospitals about the importance of obtaining patients’ authorization before inviting film crews on premises where filming could potentially disclose patients’ protected…
More than 40 groups, led by the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, yesterday launched a campaign to improve the quality of medical diagnoses.
Also in this roundup of health care news: Hospitals step up the war on superbugs; how medical schools try to help doctors understand patients in poverty; and copycat comments, unwitting patients become part of federal rulemaking process.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar yesterday declared public health emergencies in North and South Carolina as Hurricane Florence approaches, and waived or modified certain Medicare, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program requirements to give health care providers and suppliers…
The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General yesterday recommended the Food and Drug Administration take additional steps to integrate cybersecurity into its premarket review process for medical devices
An estimated 49 to 65 hospital inpatient suicides occur each year in the United States, far fewer than the widely cited estimate of 1,500, according to a new study reported in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety
The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine has issued guidance recommending mandatory annual flu vaccines for all health care personnel in post-acute and long-term care settings unless there is a medical contraindication. The guidance also calls for unvaccinated post-acute and long-term…