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When a patient is admitted to the hospital with a chronic condition such as pain, one of the key elements of assessment is to determine what medications including prescriptions drugs and nonprescription medications and supplements the individual is taking. It is not uncommon for some patients, particularly older adults, to take 10 or more prescription medications a day.
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Unnecessary hospital readmissions can be avoided by a "whole-family" approach to discharge planning. Medicare requirements and The Joint Commission focus on evaluating and meeting the patient's needs, yet engagement and active participation of the family or lay caregivers also is central to improving the patient's transition from hospital to home.
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If your case management department isn't involved in the business side of health care, you're missing opportunities to affect your hospital's bottom line and to ensure that your patients get the most effective, cost-efficient care.
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Faced with an audit that eventually revealed millions of dollars in Medicare overpayments for short-stay patients placed in the wrong admission status, Saint Joseph's Hospital in Atlanta began a series of proactive steps to correct the problem, educate staff, and assure that InterQual criteria are applied correctly.
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By reviewing the discharge dispositions of patients whose hospital stay was covered by the Medicare post-acute transfer rule, Jupiter (FL) Medical Center in Florida was able to generate an additional $108,000 in reimbursement in just one year.
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Three years ago, the management team at Orlando Regional Healthcare System took a hard look at managed care denials, recalls Craig Pergrem, CHAM, MBA, corporate director of patient business, and asked, "What can we do to stop the bleeding?"
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Pregnant women who come to the ED with abdominal pain often are misdiagnosed and undergo unnecessary appendectomies, says a new study.
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Heparin continues to pose a significant risk of dosage errors, and the recent tragedy involving actor Dennis Quaid's two young children has brought concern that hospitals have not taken the necessary steps to avoid this mistake even health care providers were warned about the risk a year ago. Risk managers must act now to avoid the same type of error, say medication safety experts.
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The health care community has been urging staff and patients to "speak up" when necessary to protect patient safety, but how do you know if your staff truly will make a stand in a difficult situation? After all, it's easy to say you will do the right thing, but in the heat of the moment, a staff member can be intimidated by superiors and fearful of rocking the boat.
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The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2007 Comparative Database Report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in Rockville, MD, cites "nonpunitive response to error" as one of the areas with potential for improvement for most hospitals.
