In June, the Helping Hospitals Improve Patient Care Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives, bringing several changes to CMS. One of the most noteworthy provisions of the act allows CMS to determine acceptable readmission rates and penalties by comparing facilities with...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 27, Issue 8
After initially reversing a ban on texting medical orders, The Joint Commission and CMS have announced that they are working on additional guidance regarding texting policies. The two organizations hope to have a set of FAQs on creating an appropriate medical texting policy...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 27, Issue 8
Editor's note: Recently, the Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program (HFAP) released lists of its most-cited deficiencies of 2012-2015 for acute care and critical access hospitals. The following is an edited Q&A with Karen Beem, RN, MS, standards...
At Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in Tennessee, a multidisciplinary team has been working on evidence-based guidelines for limiting blood use and waste.
Last week, CMS released data on its new hospital star ratings system, previewing the scores of 4,599 hospitals. The agency says it will be posting those ratings on its Hospital Compare site “shortly.”
On July 13, CMS and the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] sent a letter to Congress asking that all medical devices be given a unique ID number and that number be included in billing data and claims forms.
