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There's good news and bad news in a new study just released by the Health Research & Educational Trust, an affiliate of the American Hospital Association, and the Boston University Health Policy Institute: Of 470 hospital chief quality officers surveyed, 97% reported that QI activities had a positive effect on patient care outcomes.
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Patient satisfaction is higher at hospitals that embrace technology, according to the 10th Annual Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study of Hospitals & Health Networks magazine, which is published by the American Hospital Association.
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The Joint Commission has strongly endorsed recently issued compendium infection prevention guidelines, announcing that the condensed, actionable recommendations may become required as accreditation standards by 2010.
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Several states already have made midyear payment rate cuts for FY 2009.
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Michelle Mickey Rork, program director for PeachCare for Kids, Georgia's State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), says that one of the state's most successful initiatives for increasing enrollment and retention of eligible children has been through the work of its Right from the Start Medicaid Outreach Project.
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Fifteen percent of Medicare home health agencies were cited for the same certification deficiency on three consecutive surveys, according to a report issued by the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Health and Human Services. Most of the agencies included in this group were located in six states: California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Texas.
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It's not surprising that Medicaid spending and enrollment is increasing, right at the time that states can least afford it. But this economic downturn is expected to be worse than previous downturns, and states will be forced to make some hard decisions.
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About 12,000 of the estimated 65,000 uninsured Vermonters now have health insurance who didn't before, as a result of a universal coverage program launched in October 2007. Here are steps that were taken to achieve this:
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New York state expects to feel the effect of the current economic downturn most directly, as 20% of its revenues come directly from Wall Street activity, according to Claudia Hutton, director of the New York State Department of Health's public affairs group.
