2020 Report to Congress: CMS Remains Critical of AO Performance

In a report to Congress released late Wednesday, CMS said it will continue putting pressure on AOs to do a better job of enforcing Medicare’s Conditions of Participation but is also fine-tuning the process of how it validates their performance. Concerns remained concentrated on AOs failures to find problems within the physical environment that were spotted by CMS’s state survey agencies during surveys to validate the AOs findings. Validation surveys are supposed to be conducted within 60 days of an AO’s triennial visit.

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Expert: Healthcare Worker Burnout Trending in Alarming Direction

Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, APRN-CNP, is chief wellness officer of The Ohio State University and dean of the university’s College of Nursing. She is a nationally recognized leader on healthcare worker burnout and well-being. Melnyk has published dozens of research articles on healthcare worker burnout and well-being in peer-reviewed journals.

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Robot + CO2 Laser: A Dual Tool Against Rising HPV-Related Head and Neck Cancers

When surgical robots first appeared over a decade ago, they offered the capability of working with four articulating hands, as well as impressive 3D endoscopic visualization. But the robotic instrument arms were initially limited to cautery. Soon thereafter, lasers were adapted to the robotic surgery platform, bringing the advantages of both modalities to the operating room.  

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How to Implement a Clinical Debriefing Program at Health Systems and Hospitals

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality provides a definition of clinical debriefing: “A dialogue between two or more people whose goals are to discuss the actions and thought processes involved in a particular patient care situation to encourage reflection on those actions and thought processes and incorporate improvement into future performance.”

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Tying Health Equity to Quality

The survey of more than 500 healthcare professionals found a sizable increase from 2019 to 2021 in the number of healthcare leaders who identify health equity as one of their organization’s top three priorities: from 25% in 2019 to 58% in 2021.

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