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For Baystate Health System, a $1 billion integrated health system operating in western Massachusetts, HIPAA compliance has been seen as more than a technology issue. It also is a major cultural and operational issue that has an impact on systemwide operations and the way the system and its staff interact with patients.
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URAC has released a draft set of HIPAA Security Accreditation standards for public comment. Once the program is completed, it will enable health care organizations to display a commitment to information security and demonstrate that they have adopted the necessary policies and procedures to ensure health information security.
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Time needed to document security compliance; OCR pushes for voluntary compliance; Help available for employers;
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A Mexican laborer injured himself on the job when a piece of metal entered his eye. He did not seek medical attention until the next day. The day after that, he was referred to an emergency department (ED), where the eye was finally appropriately treated. The surgery was performed too long after the injury occurred to save the laborers sight.
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Hospitals across the country are taking a hard look at their processes to spot weaknesses similar to those at Duke University Hospital, where a patient died because of a lack of redundancy in the system for matching donated organs.
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Sentinel events like the transplant error at Duke University Hospital in Durham, NC, often can be traced to a simple human failing by one individual, but risk managers look beyond that to ask how the system allowed the error to go undiscovered.
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Physicians acted appropriately when they removed Jesica Santillan from life support without the consent of her parents, according to advice offered by an attorney who says such situations can be difficult for risk managers to handle.
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Problems associated with medical litigation have significantly worsened in the past year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which says the spiraling cost of insurance for health care providers is impairing patients access to health care, as well as the cost and quality of care.
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One-fifth of hand surgeons admit they have operated on the wrong site at least once in their careers, according to a new survey. But at the same time, they report that a campaign begun in 1998 by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) to prevent such errors may be showing good results.
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