Accreditation Can Drive Business Capacity for Your Healthcare Organization

Now more than ever, healthcare provider organizations can benefit from leveraging the broad value of accreditation. Many people associate accreditation solely with compliance and the survey experience, but with the right partner, accreditation is the source of a business relationship that can help drive performance improvement, operating efficiencies, and risk management—all aspects of a successful business growth strategy—while maintaining regulatory compliance.

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How Artificial Intelligence Can Help With Efficiency in Healthcare

The shortage of expertise affects not just cardiology, but the entire spectrum of care—and it extends beyond places traditionally thought of as having limited healthcare options. From the U.S. and Europe to Africa and Asia, the universal need for more highly skilled physicians and other clinicians places these experts, and their time, at a premium.

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More and More Hospital Surveys May Be Onsite, Depending on Conditions

In a memo initially issued January 20 to CMS’ state survey agencies (SA) and revised on February 18, the federal overseer of Medicare said it was directing accreditation organizations (AO) to also limit hospital surveys based on certain criteria. However, in many cases hospitals still may be subject to their regular onsite, triennial reaccreditation survey. And they will be unannounced, as usual.

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OSHA HazCom Updates Include Labeling, SDS Requirements

The proposal could lead to changes in labels and SDSs employers would receive. For example, the agency is proposing a new provision for small container labels for containers with a capacity less than or equal to 100 milliliters (ml). Such labels would be required to include, at a minimum, a product identifier; a pictogram(s); a signal word; the chemical manufacturer’s name and phone number; and a statement that the full label information for the hazardous chemical is provided on the immediate outer package.

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COVID-19 Prods Employers to Explore Virtual-Directed Health Plans

The move is largely a response to the tremendous increase in virtual care visits during the coronavirus public health emergency, according to Aon’s new report released Thursday. That shift in consumer behavior has led 36% of employers to say they are interested in exploring a virtual-directed health plan model with an online primary care platform that directs all care, including coordination with traditional health providers.

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OSHA Proposes Revised HazCom Standard to Conform to GHS

This action is expected to “address issues that arose during the implementation of the 2012 update to the HCS, and provide better alignment with other U.S. agencies and international trading partners, without lowering overall protections of the standard,” according to OSHA’s proposed rulemaking.

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Cybersecurity Report Finds 30 Popular Mobile Health Apps are Vulnerable to API Attack

The study, All That We Let In, raises concerns that increasing reliance on mobile health apps during the pandemic is drawing threat actors to mobile health applications as their preferred attack surface. The attacks described can permit unauthorized access to full patient records, including protected health information (PHI) and personally identifiable information.

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