Patients/Consumers: Relationships Matter

Yelp. TripAdvisor. Angie’s List. Healthgrades. No individual or organization maintains immunity from scrutiny by their customers. Reviews can be uplifting and embarrassing, and they surely capture the attention of both the reviewer and the reviewed.

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ISMP: Be Wary of ‘Misspeakers’ Who ‘Shoot from the Hip’

Have you ever been tempted to answer a question even though you were not sure of the answer? Perhaps the fear of looking stupid was so overwhelming that any answer was thought to be better than no answer. Under pressure, we may “shoot from the hip,” forming an answer to a question in seconds and not taking time to weigh options or consider the question. 

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EHR Technology in LTPACs to Reduce Re-hospitalizations

Long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) and assisted living organizations face unique challenges in delivering high-quality care and positive resident outcomes in today’s healthcare environment. For example, LTPACs work against tight budgets to provide ongoing care to residents with a wide range of disease states and perform complex medication management for residents. 

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Hand Hygiene: Monitoring to Improve Hand Hygiene

Management guru H. James Harrington wrote, “Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.” 

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Update Clinical Communication Strategy, Not Just the BYOD Policy

Step into most healthcare facilities and you will notice that while community physicians are openly using their smartphones, employed clinicians are carrying voice-only phones, multiple pagers, or wearable voice-activated two-way communication devices provided by their employers. Hospitals report that 67% of nurses use their personal smartphones for clinical communications, while 89% of hospitals say they do not allow nurses to use them during their work shift (Spyglass Consulting Group, 2014).

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