Joint Commission Revises Suicide Prevention National Patient Safety Goal
The revised requirements are based on more than a year of research, public field review, and analysis with multiple panels convened by TJC and representing provider organizations, suicide prevention experts, behavioral facility design experts, and other key stakeholders.
The Leapfrog Group Names 2018 Top Hospitals
Of the 118 Top Hospitals recognized in 23 states and the District of Columbia, 13 were children’s hospitals, 35 were general hospitals, 53 were teaching hospitals and 17 were rural hospitals.
Time to Deprescribe? Protect Patients From Inappropriate Medications
Pharmacists can play a key role in helping physicians discontinue inappropriate medications among older adults, researchers wrote recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Improved Hand Hygiene Can Help Prevent Spread of Post-Surgical Infections
The researchers from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics identified and characterized the epidemiology of particularly pathogenic S. aureus sequence types in the OR.
Is Your Hospital Discharge Planning Failing Patients?
An estimated one in five hospitalized patients are discharged to post-acute care settings such as skilled nursing facilities or long-term care hospitals.
Nurse Stressors: It’s Not Just Patient Volume and Acuity
Researchers at The Ohio State University found that a nurse’s “subjective workload”—which could include everything from the mental pressures of the job to relentless time constraints—affects her or his ability to provide optimal care, no matter how many patients they’re attending.
Hazardous Pharmaceuticals Management Rule May Be Imminent
If published, the rule joins other new standards and regulations targeting employee and patient safety during the use and handling of hazardous pharmaceuticals. It’s also expected to have significant impact on hospitals and other healthcare organizations.
Mystery Still Swirling Around Acute Flaccid Myelitis
The rare neurological disorder—less than 1 in a million Americans contract AFM annually—mimics polio with weakness in one or more limbs. Some patients have recovered quickly. Paralysis has persisted in others.
Biased Against Accredited Hospitals? Joint Commission Refutes Study
The Joint Commission contends that the study drew invalid conclusions by trying to compare “two radically different groups of hospitals” resulting in a bias against accredited hospitals.
CMS Announces Opportunities to Expand Mental Health Treatment
CMS reached out to state Medicaid directors to outline existing and new opportunities, including a new chance for states to receive authority to pay for short-term residential treatment services in an institution for mental disease for these patients.