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In the first year of Saint Luke Hospital's initiative to improve throughput for long-stay patients, the length of stay for those patients dropped by 0.5 days and the number of avoidable days dropped from 160 in 2006 to 90 in 2007.
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At the end of a project to improve throughput in the emergency department, the length of stay for patients with low-risk chest pain dropped from an average of more than 30 hours to an average of between 20 and 24 hours at two hospitals in the Sharp HealthCare system.
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A fee schedule change affecting payment for ground ambulance charges under Section 414 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) of 2003 provides increased payments for urban and rural services, adds an increased payment for ambulance transports originating in certain low-density population areas, and provides a 25% bonus on the mileage rate for ground transports of 51 miles or greater.
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A group of hospitals implements an inexpensive, evidence-based intervention to prevent costly, potentially fatal infections in acutely ill patients. Investigators monitor the results and find a significant improvement in infection rates that is sustained over time.
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Would you like to decrease falls and nosocomial skin breakdown, reduce the frequency of patients' call light use, and increase satisfaction of both patients and nursing staff? After a 2006 study linked these and other benefits to nursing rounds, a growing number of organizations are implementing this practice.
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Improving the safety of using medications has always been a National Patient Safety Goal. Each year the goal is reviewed by The Joint Commission and requirements are adjusted based on current priorities.
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Making sure that conditions that are "present on admission" (POA) are identified as such. Using newly acquired data to identify potential quality issues. Dealing with physicians who refuse to conform to new documentation requirements.
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When it comes to requirements for "present on admission" (POA), the focus too often is on reimbursement instead of patient care, according to some quality improvement experts.
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Baptist Health System of Jacksonville, FL, has become one of only 13 health care systems nationwide to achieve recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) as a Magnet health care system, an international quality designation considered the "gold standard" for nursing and clinical care.
