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  • Patient safety on the night shift

    The floors are quiet, patients are asleep, and residents are trying to either catch some shut-eye or catch up on paperwork. The rush of the evening hours in the emergency department has ended. Yet the wee hours of the morning — 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. — are when doctors think the hospital is at its least safe, according to a new study.1

  • Leadership Involvement Improves Quality

    A study looks at quality improvement and patient safety, and how they trickled down to actual quality of care and outcomes.

  • The conflict between quality and patient experience

    Imagine you are trying desperately to reduce your fall rate and you have instituted a program with bed alarms for patients who meet certain criteria. You may find yourself really pleased to note a reduction in falls, but at the same time you are noticing your patient satisfaction scores are taking a hit. Patients are talking about the noise of alarms, of feeling infantilized, of their sense of control being taken away. Is there a link? Maybe, according to an editorial in the American Journal of Medical Quality.1

  • Less harm done in 2013, says AHRQ

    The data look so good for the headlines: in 2012-2013, hospital-acquired conditions such as urinary tract infections and falls fell by 9%, saving about $8 billion. Stretching back another year, to 2011, the total cost savings reached an estimated $12 billion, with about 1.3 million cases of harm and 50,000 deaths prevented. All this good news came in a December report released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

  • Skills for Success as a Quality Professional

    What does it take to be a good quality professional? Even at the entry level, it's the ability to lead.

  • Quality Professionals in Demand Post-Health Reform

    The demand is high for healthcare professionals in hospitals, health systems, and for third-party payers in towns and businesses big and small.

  • JCAHO, unannounced: Just-surveyed organizations share compliance tips

    When a group of surveyors from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations walked into St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, CA, in January 2006, staff were ready and waiting for them even though the survey was unannounced and completely unexpected.
  • Watch for these changes during 2006 surveys

    When organizations gave feedback on the 86 unannounced pilot surveys done in 2005, many told the Joint Commission that they were happy with the new process overall but that they really needed a few minutes to collect themselves after surveyors arrived.
  • Comply with JCAHO’s goal to label all medications

    The JCAHOs National Patient Safety Goal requiring all medications to be labeled sounds simple enough, but its proving to be difficult for many organizations. I think the biggest challenges for an organization center around the back table labeling of syringes and containers, says Susan Mellott, PhD, RN, CLNC, CPHQ, FNAHQ, CEO of Houston, TX-based Mellott & Associates.
  • Report: A growing ‘quality chasm’ for hospitals

    A new study from HealthGrades, a Golden, CO-based health care ratings company, names the top 5% of hospitals in the country and also shows that this group has mortality rates that are 27% lower than other hospitals, with a 14% lower risk of complications.