If your facility is open as you read this, congratulations! There are a number of freestanding facilities that didn't make it through the past "dark years."
According to The Joint Commission, retained surgical items resulting in death or permanent loss of function were the most frequently reported sentinel event in 2010 and 2011.
Cyber attacks. Data thefts. System breaches. They're all on the rise, and healthcare is the no. 1 field at risk, according to a just-released Internet Security Threat Report 2011 Trends from Symantec Corp.1 Consider these recent examples from the outpatient surgery field:
For some patients, particularly senior citizens, the hospital can be like a revolving door. They're in and out of the hospital frequently, despite the best efforts of clinicians to keep them healthy in the community.
An integrated approach to managing the care of Medicare Advantage members with special needs has paid off for Baltimore-based XLHealth, resulting in increased primary care interventions and reduced rates of hospitalization and emergency department visits.
Under-triage, or assessing patients as being less ill than they actually are, can lead to treatment delays and adverse outcomes, including serious injury and even death. Despite such dire consequences, however, Lisa Wolf, PhD, RN, CEN, FAEN, a clinical assistant professor nursing at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA, believes that under-triage is occurring in ED environments across the country.
