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Returning the Primary Care Physician to the Heart of Patient Care

With the renewed focus on supporting primary care, it’s possible that the concept of the patient-centered medical home model—which is defined by placing primary care near the center of a collaborative healthcare team focused on the patient’s complete wellness—may finally be seeing its time.

Believing Is Seeing

Business-to-consumer industries know how to collect data and turn it into information that prompts us to do things, including buying products and securing services. In some cases, these prompts are helpful (e.g., using Waze to display the best driving route and point out the nearest Dunkin’ Donuts).

Fluoroscopy-Associated Skin Reactions: Lessons From the VHA Root Cause Analysis Database

These complex procedures, while beneficial to the patient, are often lengthy and can lead to prolonged fluoroscopic cumulative exposures even when efforts are made to protect the patient from radiation. Affected patients can develop skin reactions ranging from mild erythema to extensive soft tissue injury necessitating major plastic surgery.

Mix-Ups Between Epidural Analgesia and IV Antibiotics in L&D Units Continue to Cause Harm

These mix-ups mimic previously published events and have similar contributing factors, including look-alike infusion bags, overlooked warning labels, and a point-of-care barcode medication administration system that was not fully engaged. However, unlike the prior events, drug shortages also played a role in the most recent errors.

Hospital-Owned Drug Company Aims for Transparent, Flat Pricing for Critical Generic Drugs

As healthcare organizations struggle to reduce costs and increasingly seek to include price considerations among the value they provide to patients, seven healthcare organizations representing more than 500 U.S. hospitals, together with three major philanthropies that have each committed $10 million to the organization, have developed what they see as a solution to the instability and unpredictability of costs for lifesaving medications.

Study: More Than Half of Hospital Infections Could Be Prevented With Proper Protocols

The release of the study was timed to coincide with Outbreak Prevention and Response Week, hosted by SHEA and key partners to raise awareness and provide resources to healthcare professionals, the infection prevention community, patients, and families on ways to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

News

ANA Criticizes ‘Criminalization of Medical Errors’ as Vanderbilt Nurse Arraigned
by HealthLeaders Media, February 22, 2019

Radonda Vaught administered a fatal dose of the wrong medication to a 75-year-old woman in late 2017, after overriding system safeguards, as The Tennessean’s Brett Kelman reported, citing an investigation report by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Antibiotic Stewardship is Tough in Hospital Wards, But Even Tougher in ICU
by HealthLeaders Media, February 19, 2019

Appropriate prescribing of antibiotics by healthcare providers is essential to help avoid the development of antibiotic-resistant infections, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls one of the most severe public health problems in the country.
Reduced Healthcare Competition Linked to Lower Patient Satisfaction
by HealthLeaders Media, February 19, 2019

The researchers examined 29 quality measures in the Hospital Compare database at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services from 2008 to 2015.
Check Your State for Deadlines on New Hazardous Waste Pharmaceuticals Rule
by PSQH, February 19, 2019

While the rule as a whole is not effective until six months after it is published in the Federal Register, there are some limitations. For instance, states that have their own RCRA programs will be allowed time to update their regulations to meet the new standards.
TJC, Others Respond to CMS Concerns About AO Consulting, Conflicts of Interest
by PSQH, February 8, 2019

CMS published a request for information in mid-December, asking the public to weigh in on whether accrediting organizations that also offer consulting services have, or at least create, a public perception of conflict of interest.

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Returning the Primary Care Physician to the Heart of Patient Care

Believing Is Seeing

Fluoroscopy-Associated Skin Reactions: Lessons From the VHA Root Cause Analysis Database

Mix-Ups Between Epidural Analgesia and IV Antibiotics in L&D Units Continue to Cause Harm

Hospital-Owned Drug Company Aims for Transparent, Flat Pricing for Critical Generic Drugs

PSQH Innovation Awards Winner: Thibodaux Regional Medical Center Transforms Orthopedic Care Processes

Study: More Than Half of Hospital Infections Could Be Prevented With Proper Protocols

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