Prevention of Needlestick Injuries Can Save U.S Healthcare System More than $1 Billion a Year
Needlestick and sharps injuries affect more than half a million healthcare personnel every year, creating over $1 billion in preventable healthcare costs every year and an immeasurable emotional toll on millions of healthcare personnel, according to a Safe in Common review of U.S. healthcare industry statistics.
Beyond Data: How Analytics and Culture Change Management Combine to Drive Performance Improvement
Healthcare organizations are virtually swimming in data. From compulsory reporting for CMS and other regulatory bodies to self-directed performance improvement initiatives, most hospitals and healthcare delivery organizations capture data for hundreds of metrics and measures. The quantity and complexity of these measures continues to grow.
Four Hospitals Honored for Quality Improvement, Safety
Four U.S. hospitals are being recognized for their leadership and innovation in quality improvement and safety. The 2013 American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize will be awarded to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, which will receive $75,000.
Seattle Children’s Hospital Uses Big Data to Improve Diagnosis and Patient Care
Seattle Children’s Hospital is using IBM Big Data technology to improve treatment of its young patients. With over 350,000 patient visits annually and thousands of data points associated with each patient, Seattle Children’s Hospital can run queries on patient data in seconds, rather than minutes, to provide quicker, more effective care and diagnosis.
Achieving the Potential of Healthcare Performance Measures
This report provides an overview of performance measurement in U.S. health care, and includes policy recommendations aimed at improving the performance measurement enterprise.
Specifically, they recommend how to develop better measures; when and how to use measures; and how to ensure the validity and comparability of publicly-reported performance measure data.
Quality Improvement Educational Initiative Proves to be a Model Program for Surgical Residents
Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, have developed a novel graduate medical education initiative that enables surgical residents to hone their skills in quality improvement (QI). Surgical trainees who completed the year-long educational program found the QI training to be beneficial, and more importantly, believe it put them in a position to lead QI initiatives in the future. The report appears in the June issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
The Transformation of Healthcare
Our approach to health is undergoing a transformation, with profound implications for the role of the patient, the practice and business of medicine, and for many of the efforts we’ve come to think of as patient safety projects. The impulses feeding this transformation come largely from the public—consumers, politicians, government agencies, nonprofit organizations—not so much from providers and traditional medical institutions. This transformation is consistent with a broad-based consumerism movement, driven in part by access to information and technology.
Collaboration Designed to Improve Care Transitions, Reduce Readmission in Rural Areas
Frontier Medicine Better Health Partnership (FMBHP) and Vree Health – a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. focused on technology-enabled services designed to improve the reach, cost-efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare – has announced a collaboration designed to improve care transitions and reduce hospital readmission rates for patients in rural areas.
California Hospitals Launch Statewide Quality Institute, Hire CEO to Lead Patient Safety Efforts
A new not-for-profit, statewide organization aimed at strengthening hospital-based patient safety and quality improvement activities has been launched by the California Hospital Association (CHA) and the three affiliated Regional Associations.
Diagnostic Errors More Common, Costly, and Harmful Than Treatment Mistakes
In reviewing 25 years of U.S. malpractice claim payouts, Johns Hopkins researchers found that diagnostic errors — not surgical mistakes or medication overdoses — accounted for the largest fraction of claims, the most severe patient harm, and the highest total of penalty payouts. Diagnosis-related payments amounted to $38.8 billion between 1986 and 2010, they found.