As Pandemic Drags On, NAHQ and ASHE Conferences Go Virtual
NAHQ Next 2020 is scheduled for September 14-16, featuring speakers from quality or leadership positions at healthcare organizations including Cedars-Sinai, Cleveland Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, Lifespan, and SSM Health. Initial plans were to have the conference take place in Indianapolis.
Three Things Every Hospital Should Be Doing Now to Improve Patient Safety
A recent survey of 100 hospital leaders, physicians, pharmacists, and infection preventionists reveals some of the new safety-enhancing approaches that hospitals should consider. In the survey, conducted by healthcare consultancy Sage Growth Partners just prior to the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, respondents identified their top safety challenges, evaluated their safety performance, and identified their most successful safety improvement approaches.
HHS Presses Hospitals to Use New COVID-19 Data Reporting Modules
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Healthcare Safety Network COVID-19 module will no longer be an option for daily reporting, effective July 15, the Department of Health and Human Services announced.
Coronavirus Pandemic Flips Clinician Workforce Market
The new Merritt Hawkins report, “2020 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives and the Impact of COVID-19,” examines clinician recruitment data for the one-year period ending March 31, 2020. Although the number of physician search engagements the company conducted during the period increased, search engagements conducted since March 31 have declined 30%.
Coronavirus: 4 Methods Effective in Decontaminating N95 Respirator Masks
With the virus primarily spread through respiratory droplets and aerosol particles, N95 masks have been in high demand and limited supply. In March, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimated that a prolonged pandemic would require 3.5 billion N95 masks but only 35 million were stocked.
Study: COVID-19 Fatality Risk Is Double Earlier Estimates
The findings suggest that the fatality risk averaging 1.45% during that timespan is more than double the 0.7% fatality risk identified in previous studies from both China and France. That’s according to a new study from researcher at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health that was published online in medRxiv.
COVID-19-associated Deaths Significantly Undercounted
Deaths from causes other than COVID-19 spiked in Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York — particularly New York City — and Pennsylvania, the regions that also had the most COVID-19 deaths in March and April.
NIOSH Compiles Disinfectant Safety, Health Hazard Info Amid COVID-19
When used according to manufacturers’ instructions, cleaners and disinfectants can be effective control measures for infectious diseases, including Ebola and influenza. Guidelines issued by the CDC and OSHA since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic have referred employers and building owners to the EPA’s “List N” of Disinfectants for Use Against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19).
Surveillance Beyond the ICU
While much of the focus has been on the ICU and the many monitoring and therapeutic patient care devices used to maintain and manage patients’ airway, breathing, and circulation (ABC), there is also a growing need outside of these high-acuity settings for monitoring patients. What the general public—and even hospital leadership—might not be aware of is that outside of critical care, there is a patient safety concern that could be growing, in part, due to clinical staffing pressures associated with COVID-19.
Patient Service: Standards and Practices for Excellence in the COVID-19 Era
One thing that has not changed is providers’ desire to provide excellent patient care and service, and patients’ need to feel comfortable and well cared-for in the ambulatory environment. It is also still true that patients often judge the overall quality of their care based on the service experience at the hospital or office, and that perception is based on a comparison between their pre-visit expectations and their actual experience during the visit.