Skip to main content

Hospital

RSS  

Articles

  • COVID-19 Devastates At-Risk Populations

    The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have a devastating effect on people with chronic diseases or who are immunosuppressed, are older, or obese. In other words, the people most at risk of serious illness from the disease are the same people case managers help each day. Case managers should focus more on remote case management, taking the pandemic into account as they contact and monitor patients.

  • Something Is Wrong: Good Cardiac Care Can Result in Lower Payments

    Evidence showing that hospitals achieving high marks in cardiac care will not be rewarded in value-based care programs is mounting, In fact, such facilities may be penalized. The risk-adjustment models that determine payment under value-based systems do not adequately account for factors like patient mix. The result can be that hospital leaders feel like they are being punished for providing quality care. That may tempt some to game the system.

  • Study: Hospitality More Influential Than Real Quality

    As hospital quality leaders struggle to achieve even small improvements in clinical care results and hope that the effort is rewarded in patient surveys, research suggests comfort amenities like private rooms may be more effective. That does not mean hospitals should shift focus from improving quality of care in favor of easier-to-achieve improvements in hospitality. But it might mean the industry focus on measures like the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey is misguided.

  • Cost Estimator Aims to Improve Patient Satisfaction

    Indiana University Health receives 50,000 requests a year for price estimates and can provide cost estimates for every inpatient and outpatient service at each of the system’s 16 hospitals and every outpatient facility. Estimates are given by phone, in person, or online, and 95% of estimates are completed within 24 hours.

  • Telehealth Requirements Affected, DEA Allows Prescribing Narcotics

    CMS is waiving the “eligible originating site” requirement for telehealth services rendered on or after March 6, 2020, and allowing telehealth services provided in all care settings, including a patient’s home.

  • States Ease Licensing and Credentialing; Use Caution

    Many states have lifted some restrictions on clinician licensing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing hospitals to call on more available professionals to handle the increased patient load. Although the relaxed rules are welcomed in the face of the crisis, peer review and compliance leaders should proceed with some caution.

  • Pandemic Quality Reporting Eased, But Consider Benefits of Sending Data

    Hospital quality leaders already strained by the COVID-19 pandemic welcomed the decision to delay reporting deadlines for the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System and not require reporting or use data from the initial pandemic period for Medicare quality reporting and value-based purchasing programs for future payment years. However, there are important issues to consider as hospitals move forward and regroup in the post-pandemic months.

  • OSHA Allows ‘Enforcement Discretion’ During COVID-19

    Responding to respirator shortages during the outbreak of novel coronavirus, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued a memorandum allowing “enforcement discretion” by compliance officers citing the Respiratory Protection standard (29 CFR § 1910.134).

  • CDC Defines ‘Low-Risk’ Occupational Exposures to Coronavirus

    The CDC recently issued guidelines allowing healthcare personnel (HCP) to continue working if they incur only “low-risk” exposures to patients with COVID-19. With some reported cases of large numbers of HCP furloughed after exposures, the CDC is moving to preserve the workforce in situations where HCP are exposed to infected patients through minor breaks in protocol or personal protective equipment.

  • CDC Guidance for Use of Facemasks During Crisis

    The CDC’s recommendation for optimizing the supply of facemasks include “contingency” and “crisis” capacity. These are steps hospitals can take if they are no longer at “conventional” capacity, when standard measures remain in effect. The CDC defines contingency capacity as practices that may be used temporarily during periods of expected facemask shortages. Crisis capacity may call for stopgap measures “that are not commensurate with U.S. standards of care."