Healthcare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement Archives – August 1, 2008
August 1, 2008
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PHRs are now in hospitals; what does this mean for quality?
Although they've been around for a while, personal health records, or PHRs, have been grabbing bigger headlines recently with the launch of Google Health, bringing the two largest brands on the Internet (Microsoft already had launched its HealthVault product) squarely into the health care arena. -
Baylor system takes annual NQF quality award
Baylor Healthcare System, based in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area of Texas, has been named the recipient of this year's National Quality Healthcare Award by the National Quality Forum (NQF). -
Bar codes help improve safety in operating room
Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in Boston have shown that using bar-code technology to augment the counting of surgical sponges during an operative procedure increases the detection rate of miscounted and/or misplaced sponges. Their research is published in the April 2008 issue of the Annals of Surgery.1 -
Collect these data to assess nursing quality
The quality of nursing care will have a much bigger impact on reimbursement than ever before, as a result of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) "no pay" conditions, according to a recent analysis. -
Study is first to show RRTs decrease pediatric deaths
Your hospital is likely in the process of implementing a rapid response team (RRT), if one is not already in place but the team is probably focused on adult care. Now a small but growing number of hospitals are implementing pediatric RRTs to improve the care of children. -
MRI safety is the focus of new Sentinel Event Alert
The Joint Commission has issued a Sentinel Event Alert on preventing accidents and injuries in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suite