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.
Pandemic-Era Emergency-Use Devices Pose Hazard, Says Hospital Safety Expert
Early this year, ECRI named “complexity of managing medical devices with COVID-19 emergency use authorization” (EUA) at the top of its annual list of health technology hazards for 2021.
Offer Your Feedback on TJC EM Revisions and USP Drug Compounding Chapters
You now have a chance to weigh in on proposed revisions to emergency management standards by The Joint Commission (TJC) as well as the long-delayed revisions to the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) chapters on <795> Pharmaceutical Compounding – Nonsterile Preparations and <797> Pharmaceutical Compounding – Sterile Preparations.
How to Use an Early Warning System for Sepsis in the Emergency Department
The recent research article, which was published by Critical Care Medicine, describes the results of a randomized, controlled quality improvement initiative conducted at The MetroHealth System in Cleveland. The article features data collected from 598 patients, with 285 patients in the intervention group and 313 in the standard care group.
PSQH: The Podcast Episode 36 – Navigating the Risks of Telehealth
On episode 36 of PSQH: The Podcast, Pete Reilly of Hub International talks about navigating the risks of telehealth.
UnitedHealthcare Boosts Efforts to Address Social Determinants of Health
A landmark 2016 study published by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that socioeconomic factors, health behaviors, and the physical environment account for determining more than 80% of health outcomes, with clinical care accounting for only 16% of health outcomes.