On April 5, 2013, CMS released a proposed rule to the Survey, Certification and Enforcement Procedures, at 42 CFR §488 and 42 CFR §489. The proposed rule significantly strengthens the oversight by CMS over the national accreditation organizations (AO).

Medication safety as a concept seems simple. To ensure patients safely receive the right medication and dose, implement proven methods to avoid errors. To discover those methods, look at where problems almost or actually occur. But in a hospital, a fear-based hierarchy and...

In an interesting turn, the FDA has released recommendations for improving cybersecurity for medical devices and hospital networks. In this month's column, we will review those recommendations and also hear from the field, which has been working hard long before the FDA's announcement to stay...

Welcome to "HIPAA demystified," the first in an ongoing series. Everyone now lives in a world of HIPAA, yet many-indeed, most of us-are not professional practitioners, but simply people who brush against HIPAA daily. Yet compliance is still required, with specific obligations under the ­...