Articles Tagged With:
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Changes to Readmissions Rule Will Help, But No Panacea
CMS has proposed a change that would have it consider a hospital’s proportion of dual-eligibles when determining penalties under Medicare’s Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), a change welcomed by hospitals that have long argued dual-eligible patients are more expensive for hospitals and skewing readmissions figures for safety-net hospitals.
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Communication Challenges Can Threaten Quality
Language barriers may be commonly recognized as threats to quality of care and patient safety, and hospitals routinely provide resources to overcome that barrier. But communication challenges can come in many forms and hospitals often are blind to them, leading to serious risks, one expert cautions.
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Smartphone Alerts for Lab Results Speed ED Discharge
Delivering lab results immediately to a specially provided smartphone helps physicians discharge patients significantly faster from the ED, according to recent research.
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Board Members Involved in Quality Can Be Quality Resource
Quality improvement leaders should strive for a working relationship with hospital boards of directors and help the members gain the knowledge necessary to be meaningful champions of quality initiatives. However, that does not mean that board members should be expected to participate in the day-to-day efforts to improve quality and patient safety.
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Clinical Briefs
In this section: Use caution with a nocturia treatment; an analysis of a cellulitis remedy; and handling influenza patients.
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Sarilumab Injection (Kevzara)
Sarilumab is indicated for the treatment of adults with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis who have demonstrated an inadequate response or intolerance to one or more disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.
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Possible Benefit From Pharmaceutical-grade Chondroitin on Knee Osteoarthritis
The authors of a European study found a statistically significant and clinically marginally significant reduction in pain at three and six months in patients taking pharmaceutical-grade chondroitin sulfate for knee osteoarthritis.
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Glucose Self-monitoring May Not Be That Useful
Researchers could not find any statistically significant differences in glycemic control or health-related quality of life between patients who performed glucose self-monitoring compared with those who did not.
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Early Hot Flashes Could Signal Increased Risk for Heart Disease
Women 42-55 years of age who experience hot flashes are more likely to exhibit poor vascular function.
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FDA Actions
In this section: New FDA commissioner off to fast start on opioids, drug safety, and orphan drug designation.