Hospital
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Successful sepsis program leads to national award
It has been five years since Martin Doerfler, MD, came to North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System as senior vice president for clinical strategy and development and associate chief medical officer. When he started, the 18-hospital system based in Great Neck, NY, had a sepsis rate that was above the national average. Healthgrades noted the system was “underperforming” in the area. Before he started, sepsis was the largest single contributor to mortality in the health system. They created a task force to try to deal with it, he says.
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Medication reconciliation: Make it somebody’s job
Medication reconciliation is so important to the wellbeing of patients that proof it is done is something that is required by accreditors. But who should do it? Is there someone who is best placed to do it? And if there are multiple people who could do it, do any of them know who is doing it?
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ICD-10 is finally on the horizon
At a time when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is putting extreme value on high-quality data, the repeated delays to the implementation of ICD-10 are impeding progress toward that very goal.
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Proposed: Eight Stage 3 meaningful use objectives and their measures
The list of proposed Stage 3 meaningful use objectives and their measures.
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Stage 3 EHR Meaningful Use Proposals Include Eight Core Goals
Get ready for interoperability, simplified meaningful use measures, and program alignment. These are the highlights of the proposed rule for Stage 3 of the incentive programs — with an estimated $1.6 billion in incentive payments for hospitals.
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Emergency department collections nearly double with price estimates
Rising deductibles and lack of information on out-of-pocket costs make emergency department collections difficult, but patient access departments are succeeding with tools and training. Collections at Genesis Health System nearly doubled with a payment estimate tool, and collections rose by 10% at Cooper Health System because staff ask consistently.
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No date yet for OCR’s HIPAA audits
The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) still has not set a date for when the next round of HIPAA audits, originally planned for fall 2014, will take place.
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Good computer logs critical to detecting breach
A detailed record of who accessed data, when, and how often might be the only way an organization can trace the source of a HIPAA breach. Ensuring the thoroughness of those logs should be a top priority for any healthcare organization.
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Blue Cross Blue Shield employees charged with taking and sharing data screen shots
Eleven people have been charged after a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) employee allegedly printed and shared screen shots of more than 5,000 subscriber profiles. The 11 people are charged with identity theft and credit card fraud, in what some observers are calling an example of how criminals can get past even the best HIPAA security measures.
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Network of bioethicists gives guidance to investigators faced with complex ethics issues
IRBs typically give guidance to researchers only during the pre-study regulatory review process, but investigators also struggle with ethical questions that arise during research. “For years, this has been done informally,” says Benjamin Wilfond, MD, director of the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics at Seattle Children’s Research Institute.