The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced yesterday its Final Rule on Meaningful Use. The rule, intended to spell out exactly what will constitute healthcare parties’ appropriate use of electronic health records, has been anticipated since the proposed rule was released in...
True or false: Informed consent includes information on the risks and hazards of a particular treatment, the alternatives or options available to the patient, the risks and hazards of the alternatives or options, and any other information that will help the patient make a well-informed decision...
Until 2007, nurses at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis relied on traditional shift change reporting methods to communicate patient care information from caregiver to caregiver. But when challenged by Riley’s leadership team to find ways to improve hospital documentation, the Clinical...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 21, Issue 8
Shelia Hull, RN, Joint Commission specialist at Pikeville (KY) Medical Center, was with the organization just a few months before the latest PPR was due to The Joint Commission. At that time, Hull and her supervisor discovered the organization had fallen out of compliance with its timing...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 21, Issue 8
All you need to take advantage of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) latest tool is hospital administrative or claims data. Called MONAHRQ (My Own Network, Powered by AHRQ), the free tool is a software program built to allow organizations to analyze data and/or create their...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 21, Issue 8
Systemic change does require visionary leadership. The board of trustees for our facility established a new three-year strategic plan based on our six indicators of success. One such indicator is Quality & Patient Safety, and the board determined that this indicator should include a vision “...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 21, Issue 8
In April 2008, Baystate Medical Center (BMC), a 653-bed teaching hospital in Springfield, MA, began implementation of its Bar Code Point of Care technology to positively impact medication administration in reducing errors.
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 21, Issue 8
Survey coordinators are challenged to help their organizations navigate accreditation requirements, assess their organization’s compliance, and coordinate survey visits. Today more than ever, with limited available resources, organizations must be sure that resources used to fix issues...
