Value-Based Healthcare: How It Expanded During COVID-19
Preexisting conditions became newly challenging during the pandemic, as chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension risked being untreated. Many patients fell behind on care, avoiding doctor visits and hospital stays out of concern of COVID-19 exposure—which added significant risks to those with preexisting conditions.
Analytics and Hospital Pharmacies: Building a Successful Program
There’s value to be found in the data related to hospital pharmacies, as well, but unlocking actionable analytics and insights from metrics reporting requires the right viewpoints and skill sets. Global medical technology company BD recently hosted a panel discussion inviting key pharmacy leaders and experts to talk about how analytics have impacted high-performing hospital pharmacy programs.
Focusing on Adverse Drug Events Is Still Crucial During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Despite efforts to reduce adverse drug events and improve patient safety—including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) in-depth undertaking to create policies, value-based purchasing programs, and other financial incentives aimed at preventing hospital ADEs—the problem perseveres. The result is an increase of about $136 billion in annual U.S. healthcare costs, much of which could be avoided.
Why Pandemic-Initiated Safety Protocols Are Here to Stay
Healthcare facilities were acutely aware of the need to consistently enforce protocols for verifying who was in a building at a given time. In response, mobile COVID-19 health screening apps became part of the procedure, integrating with credentialing kiosks to provide healthcare facilities with a consistent approach to creating safer spaces for patients, providers, visitors, and vendors.
Improving Pregnancy Health: How We Can Predict Challenges Sooner
A team of physicians are working on groundbreaking research into pregnancy-related cell-free RNA (cfRNA) to develop a simple blood test that would enable early detection of conditions like preterm birth, preeclampsia, and gestational diabetes. The test uses a small blood sample to analyze tens of thousands of molecular transcripts from the mother, baby, and placenta.
Medication Non-Adherence: Solving an Eternal Challenge
Healthcare plans for the underserved markets, which include patients using Medicaid, Medicare Dual Advantage, or a healthcare exchange, offer limited options under the current pharmacy setup; there is also limited technology focusing on which patients are best served by which type of pharmacy.
Supporting the At-Home Care Team
By 2030, all baby boomers will be age 65 or older, increasing the already strong need for elderly care. In a 2020 report, Caregiving in the U.S., AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving identified that nearly one in five people (19%) are providing unpaid care to an adult with health or functional needs. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when staying at home meant reducing risk of infection, the value of at-home caregivers became even more evident.
What’s Ahead for Ambulatory Surgery Centers
Based on an industrywide study, ASCs continue to perform more than half of all U.S. outpatient surgical procedures, and they can expect to see greater volumes as the number of outpatient procedures increases an estimated 15% by 2028. However, analysts predict this number will be even higher based on the CMS 2021 final rule on the Outpatient Prospective Payment System and ASCs.
AORN Updates Skin Antisepsis Guidelines: What This Means for Organizations
Facilities had relied on research prior to official guidelines, which makes the update to AORN’s response impactful. The AORN adds their voice to the World Health Organization, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, as well as the CDC and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.
Stroke Benchmarks During COVID: HFAP Releases Latest Report
HFAP, a brand of the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC), issued its annual benchmarking report on stroke programs recently, which demonstrated COVID-19’s impact on these programs. HFAP collected data to help healthcare professionals expand their knowledge of the risks, triggers, and variations of stroke, with findings that took a year of pandemic challenges into account.