Hospital Peer Review – February 1, 2003
February 1, 2003
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JCAHO: Serious nosocomial infections are sentinel events, RCA necessary
Serious nosocomial infections should be considered sentinel events and thoroughly investigated, according to new information from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. -
Six Sigma boosts quality with ongoing analysis
Quality managers in health care are hearing more about Six Sigma, the quality improvement strategy that has been taking hold in other industries for years now, and the statistics-focused techniques promise great improvements for hospitals and other providers. -
Reader Question: Think how records might be used before discarding
Question: How long do we need to keep quality improvement (QI) and peer review documents before tossing them out? Im thinking of department or team QI reports, minutes from QI meetings, peer review worksheets with no adverse findings, and similar documents. -
Public to get inside scoop on quality of providers
Before long, the public will gain access to information on the quality of health care that previously was available only to those on the inside. The federal government will begin publishing data this summer. -
NCQA releases draft standards for research
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) recently released draft standards for its Human Research Protection Accreditation Program (HRPAP) for public comment. -
The Quality-Cost Connection: How’s your outpatient ‘continuity of care’?
Evaluating the continuity of patient care in ambulatory health care services is challenging. Continuity of care implies the progression of a predetermined plan for health care services without disruption of the plan. However, the ambulatory care client, unlike the hospitalized patient, is not as easily controlled, monitored, or guided through health care processes. -
Meeting top performance levels could save lives
If overall performance in all acute-care U.S. hospitals were the same as the nations top hospitals, close to 57,000 more patients could survive each year and nearly $9.5 billion in annual expenses could be saved, according to a new study. -
Six Sigma boosts revenue, reduces outpatient wait time
Six Sigma proved useful for the Department of Radiology at Californias Stanford University Medical Center, which recently announced that it has been able to substantially boost revenue and reduce outpatient wait time without adding new equipment.