A transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure replaces a patient's diseased aortic valve through a delivery device introduced in the groin. The procedure is often used for patients too sick or weak for traditional open-heart surgery. However, TAVR is fairly new and...
In just about every hospital, there is at least one person devoted to keeping patients safe from medication errors every step of the way: storing and labeling look-alike/sound-alike drugs properly, ensuring nurses hand off patients with a chance to ask questions, teaching the...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 24, Issue 6
In a memorandum published to state survey agency directors March 15, CMS resoundingly announced its support of the use of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Common Formats to improve hospital adverse event tracking so that hospitals can better meet the CMS Quality Assessment...
There is a whole field of medicine related to keeping patients safe in hospitals, and many of these professionals' daily jobs involve making sure patients are helped, not harmed, while receiving hospital care.
In a recent article by AHAP advisor Elizabeth Geffers, she takes a look at what the regulatory agency has to say about the various accrediting organizations and the work they did last year. Elizabeth also created a number of charts comparing the agencies based on available CMS data. We...
True or False: As long as a hospital has a thorough and complete formulary, the hospital can omit having a process to obtain medications that are not on the formulary.
Join us for the 7th Annual Association for Healthcare Accreditation Professionals (AHAP) Conference on June 6-7 in Las Vegas! Previous attendees can attest – The AHAP conference provides invaluable knowledge and education on quality improvement, Environment of Care, and compliance issues you...
The 2013 AHAP conference, to be held June 6-7, 2013 at The Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, will include a poster session as part of its conference offerings. It’s an informal way for hospitals to share their accreditation- and survey-related successes with each other,...
