Report: Building a Smarter Healthcare Facility

A new report from Honeywell gives healthcare facility managers a chance to voice their thoughts and concerns after more than a year of weathering the pandemic. The report found that 94% of healthcare managers said remote management is important for operational efficiency. Only one in four respondents have such a system in place, but 26% said they plan on investing in this technology over the next year to 18 months.

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Banner Health Case Studies

In 2018, Banner brought together a data analyst, nurse communicator, OR specialist, and supply chain contracts lead to form the Surgical and Procedural Value and Alignment Program (SPVAP). In a little more than three years, SPVAP has successfully taken on tough challenges and delivered millions in documented savings—all while helping surgeons improve the level of patient care.

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Weighting Changes to CAHPS: The 2021 Scramble

Patient experience is defined by CAHPS surveys—regardless of size, each Medicare Advantage plan will have 800 members surveyed about their experience with the plan, the providers, and the prescription drug program. All eight survey measures that count toward the patient experience rating have quadrupled in weight.

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Optimization of Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter Placement Practices

Amid a changing PICC clinical and reimbursement landscape, there is a need to identify best practices for PICC placement that promote widely held patient safety goals, clinical efficiency, and hospital financial health. Even small changes in clinical and/or reimbursement practices can have a significant impact given the high-volume nature of PICC procedures. Through literature review and interviews with key clinical and nonclinical stakeholders, this report seeks to illuminate features of the current PICC landscape with an eye toward determining the best practices for preserving a safe and high-functioning clinical system.  

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Cybersecurity in Medicine: How Can Physicians and Medical Staff Do Their Part?

Locks on a building are irrelevant if an employee leaves a window open; similarly, cybersecurity protocol is irrelevant if medical personnel are not trained to ensure protection of the network. Like the continuous battle surrounding antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant pathogens, the fight between cybersecurity measures and hackers is also ongoing.

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Mitigate Patient Safety Risks Posed by the ‘Imaging Squeeze’

Between 2021 and 2028, the global medical imaging market is anticipated to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 5.2%. Trends fueling the growth include more preventive healthcare initiatives, an aging population, and the prevalence of chronic conditions such as cardiac diseases and cancer. Imaging already is a key part of clinical treatment plans; it promises to become only more so. 

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CEO Coalition Declares New Definition of Safety to Protect Healthcare Workers

The COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on the fierce dedication and commitment of healthcare workers as we watched them run into the fire, during surge after surge, to care for their patients and support their colleagues. The pandemic also put a spotlight on the psychological, emotional, and physical trauma they endured due to system inefficiencies and supply and staffing shortfalls.  

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Ransomware, COVID-19, and Regulations

The growing wave of ransomware incidents that we saw toward the end of 2019 continued in 2020. Now, however, healthcare organizations are faced with a diabolical twist—in addition to the operational disruption, threat actors are now routinely stealing data and threatening to publish it online as an extra inducement for a ransom payment.

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More Virus, More Fraud

In early 2020, the FBI issued a warning to individuals and entities, including health systems, to be on the lookout for robocalls making fraudulent offers to sell large amounts of PPE such as respiratory masks or other medical devices. These scams would often demand advance payments with no intent of delivery.

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The Role of Digital Transformation in a Patient-Centered Experience

According to BDO’s 2021 healthcare digital transformation survey, respondents identified their top three areas of healthcare investment interest as telehealth (named by 75% of respondents, up from 42% in 2019), EHR interoperability (64%, up from 43%), and patient portals and digital messaging systems (56%, up from 50%).

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