Suicides were the third most common sentinel event of 2015, with 95 reported cases in 2015's Sentinel Event Statistics. The total number of patient suicides reported to The Joint Commission is now up to 1,184 since the start of the decade.
A proposed National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) released by The Joint Commission in February takes aim at judicious use of computed tomography (CT) imaging among pediatric patients, requiring hospitals to follow evidence-based guidelines when considering CTs for minor head trauma.
Over the last decade, suicide rates in the United States have been creeping steadily skyward. In some states, the suicide rate is nearly twice the national average.
CMS recently clarified policy on acceptable control materials for lab testing. While not changing any of the standards, the agency explained some of the key points to §493.1256(c) of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) Interpretive Guidelines (IG).
The Joint Commission last week published a press release and an eight minute video defending its pain management standards after critics claimed they are fueling the opioid epidemic.
Since there aren’t any standards for determining the accuracy and timeliness of quality data, how do we know if today's quality measures are accurate? According to an opinion piece published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, the answer is simple. We can't.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is attempting to develop better methods of measuring and reporting data on catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) and central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) rates.
This month, CMS plans to add a new “five-star” hospital rating system to its Hospital Compare website. The plan has come under fire, however, with many saying the rating system is too simplified to show true quality and puts too much emphasis on patient satisfaction.
More than 60 medical experts and nonprofit organizations signed petitions last week, asking The Joint Commission and CMS for changes in their respective pain management policies. The two petitions, spearheaded by Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP), claim that making physicians...
