HCPro, Inc., a portfolio company of Halyard Capital and a leading provider of education and information on healthcare regulatory compliance and management, announced today the launch of its redesigned corporate Web site for healthcare professionals, www.hcpro.com. The new site provides users with expertly developed how-to content and breaking news for the healthcare industry in an easy-to-read and easy-to-navigate format. Visitors can share their thoughts and...  Read More »

Americans will see their healthcare premiums double in seven years unless there is a major reform, The Washington Post reports. Employer-paid health insurance could jump from $11,381 to $24,291, according to a report released January 29 by the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). "As costs rise, one out of three American’s health-care dollars are going to waste and inefficiency," report co-author Larry C. McNeely II, a U.S. PIRG Health Care...  Read More »

Has the state of your department’s budget left you looking for an economic bailout of your own? Staff development is no stranger to budget cuts and tough times, says Adrianne E. Avillion, DEd, RN, president of Avillion’s Curriculum Design, a consulting firm in York, PA. At Meridian Health in Neptune, NJ, staff development specialists have focused on the hospital’s top priorities: Receiving full reimbursement from the Centers for Medicare and...  Read More »

In an attempt to prevent wrong-site surgeries, Regions Hospital in St. Paul, MN, has taken a creative–but they think necessary–step. Operating room (OR) staff members now use a "timeout towel" that covers the surgical instruments to help them remember to take that important step of stopping prior to surgery to check that they have the correct patient, surgical site, and side of the body, reports The Star Tribune.  In 2007, the...  Read More »

A nationwide program seeks to lower patient mortality rates by 17% and improve reliability of care by 13%, goals that could result in 8,628 lives saved. QUEST is a three-year project in which 166 not-for-profit hospitals will voluntarily share best practices and systematically initiate efforts to improve patient quality and outcome. Additional goals of the QUEST initiative include increasing patient satisfaction and reducing the cost of care. To read more on...  Read More »

Early on September 15, The Joint Commission posted on its extranet news that surveyors would be arriving at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA. By 8 a.m., surveyors and hospital representatives converged in the lobby for the first of a five-day survey that would assess compliance in the hospital and home care accreditation programs. This was the organization’s first unannounced survey; its previous survey took place in January 2005. The organization...  Read More »

The American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates has asked for a one-year moratorium on a Joint Commission standard meant to curb disruptive behavior. The AMA’s request is intended to give medical staffs sufficient time to comply with the Joint Commission rule, as well as to for the AMA and other groups to develop a clear definition of disruptive behavior and an appeals process for physicians accused of such behavior. For more information on...  Read More »

American hospitals have demonstrated significant gains in patient safety and quality of care over the past six years, according to a new report by The Joint Commission. The report, Improving America’s Hospitals: The Joint Commission’s Annual Report on Quality and Safety 2008, examines quality measures for such areas as surgical conditions, pneumonia, and heart attacks. Twenty-five individual quality measures were examined in more than 3,000 hospitals...  Read More »

The Joint Commission has announced the addition of five prominent leaders in healthcare to its Board of Commissioners. The Board of Commissioners is a 29-member group acting as The Joint Commission’s governing body. Joining this group are: David L. Bronson, MD, FACP Benjamin Chu, MD, MPH, MACP T. Anthony Denton, JD, MHA Mary Anne McCaffree, MD Mary H. McGrath, MD, MPH To read more, click here.   Read More »

With the introduction of Life Safety Code® (LSC) surveyors to The Joint Commission’s survey process, the opportunity for hospitals to find themselves in preliminary denial of accreditation due to an immediate-threat-to-life situation—a situation so problematic that the lives or health of patients are immediately endangered—increased this year. Scoring and other upcoming changes as of January 1, 2009, add to hospitals’ concerns about...  Read More »