Browse Hospital Management Articles by Topic

Day surgery patients registered at the bedside

At Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston, patient access recently switched to bedside registration at the hospital’s 30-room day surgery department.

Evidence of economic burden of disparate care for minorities continues to grow

A recent tragic case involving informed consent obtained from parents with limited English proficiency led to a successful lawsuit against the hospital. Eliminating health disparities for minorities would have reduced direct medical care expenditures by $229.4 billion for the years 2003-2006, according to a 2011 study. “If we don’t get a handle on health disparities, the implications are far bigger than social justice,” says LaVeist, the study’s lead author.

System made changes to stop ‘no authorizations’

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare made changes to prevent clinically related denials.

If they’re so difficult to reprocess, why are duodenoscopes approved for surgery?

With all of the difficulties in cleaning duodenoscopes, and the potential for outbreaks of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, some outpatient surgery managers are questioning why these scopes are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. However, the benefits outweigh the risks, some sources say.

Culturing protocols devised for duodenoscopes to prevent CRE

Responding to a series of outbreaks of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) linked to duodenoscopes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed an interim protocol for culturing the devices before use to create a greater margin of safety for patients. But as others have noted, the approach is not foolproof and could be costly if facilities determine that they must purchase more scopes to adopt the protocol.

Hospital goes high tech, improves hand hygiene

An Alabama hospital greatly improved hand hygiene compliance and significantly reduced healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) after installing an automated hand-hygiene monitoring system.

New task force aims to revamp revenue cycle with a ‘patient-centric’ focus

When payers, providers, revenue cycle vendors, consultants, and financial institutions met to discuss the next generation of revenue cycle management processes and tools, there was a surprising amount of agreement.

Primary care-based interventions cut admissions, ED visits

Since Lehigh Valley Health Network started its Community Care Team initiative in 2012, at-risk patients who received interventions from an interdisciplinary team of clinicians reduced hospital admissions by 49% and emergency department visits by 25%.

Post-discharge interventions reduce readmissions by 20%

At-risk patients who receive post-discharge phone calls from RN transitional care specialists at Ochsner Health System’s Care Coordination Center have 20% fewer readmissions than patients with similar conditions who don’t have the intervention.

Case managers, financial staff work together closely

At Medical City Dallas Hospital, the case management team works closely with the financial team to ensure that patients get the care they need and that the hospital is reimbursed for the stay, says Pat Wilson, RN, BSN, MBA, assistant vice president for case management and transplant services.