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When Congress passed the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 amending Title XVIII of the Social Security Act, included in the more than 30 provisions of the act are several that impact discharge and transfer from an acute-care setting.
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As expected, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in August announced a proposed regulation that would replace the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) code sets now used to report health care diagnoses and procedures with greatly expanded ICD-10 code sets. If adopted, the new regulation would take effect in October 2011.
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Major findings of a recent report by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured include the following:
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Quality managers agree that establishing and maintaining a culture of quality and safety is one of the toughest challenges they face. One facility that appears to have successfully met that challenge is Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, MI, which recently received the 2008 AHA-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize.
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With the 2009 National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) just announced, it's an ideal time to perform a self-assessment for all of the existing goals, including the requirements for improving recognition and response to changes in a patient's condition and improving safety of anticoagulation medications, which are being phased in right now, says Paula Swain, MSN, CPHQ, FNAHQ, director of clinical and regulatory review at Presbyterian Healthcare in Charlotte, NC.
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Some of the Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) are easier to monitor than others, such as reducing the likelihood of harm associated with the use of anticoagulants, which can be tracked electronically.
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Organizations are taking a close look at their policies for addressing disruptive physicians, in order to comply with new Joint Commission standards for 2009 that will require accredited health care organizations to create a code of conduct and formal process for managing unacceptable behavior.
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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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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. However, when that same group was asked about patient satisfaction, only 28% agreed it was at the level it should be.
