Source: HealthLeaders Media News In addition to aligning with coming standards from The Joint Commission, the document also promises to help hospitals follow existing guidelines from CMS and the CDC. A new “playbook” on the appropriate use of antibiotics aims to help hospitals reduce rates of drug-resistant infections and prepare for new standards to be … Continued

In a bold move, the Joint Commission deleted 131 requirements for the hospital program in late April. The deleted requirements include a number of documentation, privacy, and information continuity requirements. Some of the deleted requirements were removed because they were duplicative of other requirements or implicit in other standards, the Joint Commission said. Others, however, … Continued

CMS held a webinar on May 12 explaining the methodology and upcoming changes to its controversial five-star hospital ranking system. Under the ranking system, hospitals would receive more stars for better compliance with a set of measures that focus on mortality, safety, hospital readmissions, and the timeliness and effectiveness of care. Prior to the webinar, … Continued

EC.02.06.01 and IC.02.02.01 were the two most challenging standards for hospitals in 2015, both of which have significant patient safety implications.

The top two most frequently cited Joint Commission standards in 2015 are not necessarily surprising. Both are widely recognized as catchall standards that encapsulate a wide variety of survey violations.

However, both standards have clear patient safety implications that reveal ongoing concerns about scope reprocessing, infection prevention best practices, and managing behavioral health patients in the ED.

According to The Joint Commission, the top two most frequently cited standards for hospitals in 2015 were:

• EC.02.06.01 – Maintaining an environment that is safe and functional (62% noncompliance)
• IC.02.02.01 – Reducing infection risks from medical devices, equipment, and supplies (59% noncompliance)
  

By Richard Best Organizations across all industries are required to follow the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations in order to support a safe and healthful workplace. For healthcare facilities, compliance efforts span everything from safeguarding environmental conditions to preventing hazardous materials exposure to ensuring ergonomically correct procedures. Although OSHA focuses on preserving worker … Continued

By Tinker Ready, HealthLeaders Media

There’s hope. And there’s reality. On close inspection, the link between cost and quality is actually pretty fuzzy: We just don’t know.

One of the incentives for improving the quality of healthcare is the notion that it will also lower costs.

Ideally, patients will have a medical home to go to instead of an emergency room.

Updated infection control guidelines released by the CDC in February indicate hospitals are making strides to prevent common infections.

According to updated statistics from the CDC, central- line bloodstream infections (CLABSI) saw an 8% decline from 2013 to 2014, 50% below the national baseline. Hospital-acquired MRSA infections saw a 4% decline from 2013 to 2014, 13% below the national baseline.

Although several other infections fluctuated between 2013 and 2014, many were still well below the national baseline. C. difficile infections, for example, increased 4% between 2013 and 2014, but remained 8% below baseline. Reductions in surgical site infections (SSI) were statistically insignificant over the course of a year, but still remained 17% below baseline.

A study conducted by Johns Hopkins researchers estimates that 250,000 Americans die annually due to medical errors, nearly 100,000 more than those who die of respiratory disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that respiratory disease is the third leading cause of death in the nation.

The CDC uses the cause of death listed in a person’s death certificate to calculate the leading causes of mortality each year. The John Hopkins team says that since medical errors aren’t listed separately on death certificates, the CDC has been vastly underestimating their impact.

Over the last decade, suicide rates in the United States have been creepily skyward. In some states, the suicide rate is nearly twice the national average.

Suicide is the 10^th leading cause of death, according to statistics from the CDC, and in certain populations it is even more pervasive. From 2005 to 2014, the national suicide rate increased from 10.90 per 100,000 people to 12.93 per 100,000, and states like Montana and Alaska have rates of 23.8 and 21.97 respectively.

Among adolescents and young adults, suicide is a shockingly prevalent cause of death. In 2014, suicide was featured as the second leading cause of death in three different age groups (10-14, 15-24, and 25-34). For those ages 35-44 and 45-54, suicide was the fourth leading cause of death.

Patients who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups may be more likely than others to be readmitted after discharge—particularly if they have chronic conditions, such as pneumonia or heart failure or have suffered a heart attack. Many times, it’s social, cultural, or linguistic barriers that lead to those readmissions, according to the CMS Office of Minority Health (CMS OMH).

To help healthcare practitioners combat these issues and help minority patients improve their health, CMS OMH released the “Guide to Preventing Readmissions among Racially and Ethnically Diverse Medicare Beneficiaries.” It’s designed to help hospitals identify the reasons why readmissions occur among this group of patients and to find solutions to help prevent them.