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.

In a highly-anticipated move expected to significantly affect the regulatory rules that hospitals and other healthcare facilities are held to, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has officially adopted the 2012 edition of the Life Safety Code® (LSC).

CMS has confirmed that the final rule adopts updated provisions of the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) 2012 edition of the LSC as well as provisions of the NFPA’s 2012 edition of the Health Care Facilities Code.

Healthcare providers affected by this rule must comply with all regulations by July 4—60 days from the publication date of the rule in the Federal Register.

The adoption of the rule has long been anticipated, as the LSC, which governs fire safety regulations in U.S. hospitals, is updated every three years, and CMS has not formally adopted a new update since 2003, when it adopted the 2000 edition. As a result, CMS surveyors have been holding healthcare facilities to different standards to other regulatory agencies that have gradually adopted provisions of the new LSC in their survey requirements.

Agency finds that hospitals struggle with data collection, identifying evidence-based practices, and implementation strategies.

A recent report from a federal watchdog agency offers new insight into the barriers hospitals still face when it comes to addressing patient safety concerns, offering a concise distillation of the key gaps that remain in ongoing efforts to prevent patient harm.

Officials at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) interviewed patient safety experts at six hospitals and six insurers, as well as officials at CMS and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The six hospitals were selected according to their performance in certain patient safety quality measures.