In a year that saw budgets cut, travel expenses slashed, and jobs lost, it is unsurprising to report that 2009 did not see major increases in salary for accreditation specialists and survey coordinators across the country. What the 2010 AHAP Salary Survey discovered, however, is that increases...

Innovation and design thinking is a fascinating methodology that holds much promise for healthcare. Although other industries, such as manufacturing and telecommunications, have harnessed the power that design thinking can hold, healthcare is just beginning to truly embrace and apply some of the...

This issue contains articles about human factors engineering, suicide risk assessment, rapid response teams and analyzing where missed opportunities occur, a column about design thinking in patient safety, and how staff safety effects patient safety.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published revised interpretive guidelines for hospitals on December 11, 2009, and this document was revised on February 5, 2010. Any hospital that accepts Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement must follow these interpretive guidelines. These...