Care transitions at the time of hospital discharge have long been a problem in our nation’s healthcare system, especially for older adults. It’s often a stressful and sometimes dangerous process that can impact the health outcomes of the patient.

Telemedicine, a partnership of sophisticated, 21st century disciplines, is helping to improve the quality of healthcare around the world.

  January / February 2008 Using Technology to Establish Clinical Context By Mike Dempsey and Sue Niemeier, RN, MHA     The association between the patient’s wristband active-RFID tag and the one worn by the nurse can be used to measure direct-care time. As health systems continue to extend evidence-based medicine by implementing EHRs, CPOE and … Continued

Motivated by studies on the prevalence of adverse drug events (ADE) and by directives from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) initiatives and The Joint Commission, hospitals have turned their focus to patient safety.

Surgical complications in the U.S. account for 2.4 million days of patient hospital stay at a charge of $9.3 billion (Supplement on SCIP, 2007).

Standards and protocols that make-up today’s Internet — such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP) — were invented in universities more than 30 years ago.

As I ponder the first session of the 110th Congress, a number of words come to mind. The most appropriate is probably “déjà vu.”

In 1980, Stanford University School of Business professor Alain Enthoven wrote a book titled Health Plan: The Only Practical Solution to the Soaring Cost of Medical Care.

As this issue of PSQH goes to press, healthcare bloggers are buzzing about a federal agency that recently shut down a prominent quality improvement program.

Medical devices are essential for the practice of modern medicine. However, unlike the inter-connected “plug-and-play” world of modern computers and consumer electronics, most medical devices used for the care of high-acuity patients are designed to operate independently and do not employ open networking standards for data communication or for device control.