PSQH: The Podcast Episode 37 – The Digital Front Door of Healthcare
On episode 37 of PSQH: The Podcast, Greg Miller of Talkdesk talks about hospital contact centers serving as the digital front door for healthcare organizations.
TJC Warns Immediate Threats to Safety ‘Spiking’ Over Single-Use Devices
Check your emergency rooms, outpatient clinics, wound care clinics, ambulatory care sites and anywhere else where pandemic-related equipment shortages have forced your facility to go outside normal supply lines for replacement medical devices.
Health Systems and Hospitals Grappling With Workforce Shortages
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted workforce shortages at health systems and hospitals across the country. On Sept. 1, the American Nurses Association urged the federal Department of Health & Human Services to declare a nurse staffing crisis and to take immediate steps to implement solutions. Last week, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health announced that the Lebanon, New Hampshire-based health system had raised its minimum rate of pay for all positions from $14 per hour to $17 per hour to address workforce shortages.
Survey: Workers Embrace Telehealth
One-fifth of 14,000 employees from 13 nations surveyed in a poll conducted by Mercer consultants used telehealth for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic and 72% of them say they intend to keep using it. The 2021 Mercer Health on Demand survey, released this week, also detected a big bump in employee interest in other digital health options, including apps to find providers and virtual reality tools for self-care.
‘Perfect Storm’ Increased Healthcare-Associated Infections During Pandemic
The recent research article, which was published by Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, examined national- and state-level standardized infection ratios (SIR) for each quarter in 2020 compared to each quarter in 2019. SIRs were determined for each HAI by dividing the number of reported infections by the number of predicted infections, calculated using 2015 national baseline data.
CMS to Require Staff at Hospitals, Other Facilities to be Vaccinated Against COVID-19
Look for an interim final rule in October that will require “staff within all Medicare and Medicaid-certified facilities” to be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a press release by CMS on Thursday afternoon.
Ransomware, COVID-19, and Regulations
The growing wave of ransomware incidents that we saw toward the end of 2019 continued in 2020. Now, however, healthcare organizations are faced with a diabolical twist—in addition to the operational disruption, threat actors are now routinely stealing data and threatening to publish it online as an extra inducement for a ransom payment.
More Virus, More Fraud
In early 2020, the FBI issued a warning to individuals and entities, including health systems, to be on the lookout for robocalls making fraudulent offers to sell large amounts of PPE such as respiratory masks or other medical devices. These scams would often demand advance payments with no intent of delivery.
The Role of Digital Transformation in a Patient-Centered Experience
According to BDO’s 2021 healthcare digital transformation survey, respondents identified their top three areas of healthcare investment interest as telehealth (named by 75% of respondents, up from 42% in 2019), EHR interoperability (64%, up from 43%), and patient portals and digital messaging systems (56%, up from 50%).
Three Ways to Improve Workplace Violence Response Time
The bill, now with the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, would require OSHA to develop an enforceable healthcare-specific standard around workplace violence prevention. Hospitals, home health agencies, long-term care facilities, and others would be required to develop and implement a comprehensive workplace violence protection plan in compliance with the standard’s requirements.