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David Harlow, a health care lawyer and consultant, is the founder of The Harlow Group LLC and a "blawger" at http://healthblawg.typepad.com.
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Joyce Cardinal, RN, MBA, director of quality at Skagit Valley Hospital in Mount Vernon, WA, says she was lucky. One of Skagit's surgeons is on the SCOAP data committee, and after she attended a meeting about the surgical checklist, she already had a physician champion on board to get it started.
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Less than three months after releasing an addendum to its 2009 accreditation standards, The Joint Commission is telling hospitals to throw it out and refer instead to a newly revised edition.
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Houston-based Memorial Hermann Healthcare System will be honored this month at a gala event in Washington, DC, as the winner of the National Quality Forum's (NQF) 2009 National Quality Healthcare Award. Michael Shabot, MD, system chief medical officer, explains why the health system was chosen and how it met the five criteria NQF established for the award:
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If flight crews have to do it before takeoff, why shouldn't surgical teams do it before cutting into a patient?
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In conjunction with the American Heart Association's updated Get With The Guidelines program on heart failure, The Joint Commission is now offering hospitals a certificate of distinction in heart failure, as part of its disease-specific care advanced certification program.
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Traditionally, patients have been cast in a passive role in their own health care. Now, "patient involvement" has become an oft-heard term in hospital regulations and discussion, with acknowledgement that patients themselves can play an integral role in their care. How does The Joint Commission promote encouraging patients to speak up?
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Why has The Joint Commission backed away from medication reconciliation for 2009? "Basically because they realized it's very, very, very hard to do.
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Hays, KS-based Hays Medical Center was accredited by The Joint Commission for more than 30 years, but in November 2008 decided to go with Houston, TX-based DNV Healthcare.
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"This has been the single most difficult process I have ever worked on to try to implement," says John Benson, PharmD, quality manager, department of pharmacy services at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, UT.
