3 Ways a Coordinated Approach Can Solve the Nursing Shortage
Though COVID-19 narrowed the focus on the nursing shortage, other conditions have contributed to it far longer than the pandemic: a higher education system that is training too few nurses; workforce conditions; and demographic factors, such as aging Baby Boomers and increased life expectancy, the report notes.
Urgent Call Made to Improve Patient Safety
Patient safety has been a pressing issue in healthcare since 1999, with the publication of the landmark report To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Despite two decades of attention, estimates of annual patient deaths due to medical errors have risen steadily to as many as 440,000 lives, a figure that was reported in the Journal of Patient Safety in 2013.
Monkeypox: Take Standard, Airborne, and Droplet Precautions
While the primary risk is from close contact with bodily fluids, including contaminated linens, “because of the theoretical risk of airborne transmission of monkeypox virus, airborne precautions should be applied whenever possible,” said the CDC. “If a patient presenting for care at a hospital or other health care facility is suspected of having monkeypox, infection control personnel should be notified immediately.”
Healthcare Executives Plot a Long-Term Strategy for Hospital at Home Concept
The Acute Hospital Care at Home program was developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to reduce expensive hospitalizations and give patients the opportunity to receive care at home. Healthcare organizations were encouraged to launch these programs by CMS waivers enacted during the COVID-19 public health emergency that boost reimbursements and reduce barriers on the use of telehealth and other services.
Hospitals More Inclined to Offer $$$ Incentives to Fill RN Openings
Some 67% of chief nursing officers and other hospital senior leaders surveyed are offering sign-on bonuses and 57% said they have improved their pay packages. Those percentages are significantly higher than in 2019, before COVID-19, when just 28% said improved pay packages were part of their recruitment and retention strategy.
New TJC FAQ Addresses Shortage in Imaging Contrast
As a critical shortage in imaging contrast continues to impact healthcare organizations across the nation, The Joint Commission (TJC) has issued guidance about shortage management and conservation.
A Critical Operation: Managing Vendor Relationships in Healthcare
The average modern hospital relies on more than 1,300 external vendors, according to the Ponemon Institute. These third-party entities provide a range of functions, from surgical supplies to billing, and may have varying levels of access to private health information and other sensitive data in order to seamlessly deliver their services.
Healthcare Worker Wellness and the Surprising Impact of Flooring
The topic of ergonomics as related to flooring should be comprehensively defined to include comfort, fatigue, musculoskeletal strain, and injury and emotional stress created by noise in the interior environment. Each factor contributes to or detracts from the general well-being of patients, residents, and staff.
A Balancing Act: Methods to Even Out Healthcare’s Quality/Cost/Equity Equation
High cost does not necessarily equal high quality, as the United States’ healthcare record proves. Despite outspending every other Organisation for European Economic Co-operation and Development country on healthcare expenditure by nearly twofold, the U.S. has the lowest overall life expectancy and the highest incidence of chronic disease, suicide, and obesity.
Missed Messages
A lot has changed in healthcare since 2011, yet miscommunication is still the norm among clinicians. In its 2021 State of Healthcare Communication report, TigerConnect, a provider of collaborative communication tools, found that 35% of the more than 750 surveyed clinical and administrative respondents reported communication disconnects daily or multiple times a week.