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.
Hurricane Ida Illustrates Need for Plans Within Emergency Plans
Most hospitals in Louisiana were forced to shelter in place as category 4 Hurricane Ida swept in from the Gulf of Mexico Sunday, August 29, because there was no place to go with evacuated patients as another COVID-19 surge filled normally available facilities to capacity, according to several media reports.
Augmented Reality System Boosts Performance in Spine Surgery
Chetan Patel, MD, medical director for spine surgery at the AdventHealth Neuroscience Institute has patented the iSight augmented reality system, and it has been used for spine surgery at the Altamonte Springs, Florida-based health system.
Joint Commission Issues New Workplace Violence Standards
According to The Joint Commission, 73% of nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses causing days of missed work in health care are connected to workplace violence. Because incidents of workplace violence may be underreported, the actual figure is probably much higher, the group said in an August 9 blog post.
MemorialCare Making Great Strides in Reducing Patient Harm
Patient safety has been a pressing issue in healthcare since 1999, with the publication of the landmark report To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Despite two decades of attention, estimates of annual patient deaths due to medical errors have risen steadily to as many as 440,000 lives, a figure that was reported in the Journal of Patient Safety in 2013.