-
Increasingly often, patient access staff are put in a difficult position - talking about money with patients. "In today's economy, many people have lost their jobs and their health insurance," says Debby Cornett, RHIA, corporate director of patient access, transcription, and health information management at Jewish Hospital and St. Mary's HealthCare in Louisville, KY.
-
There is no doubt that an incentive program can result in increased upfront collections. There's also no question that it's more important than ever for patient access to get results.
-
Training and education costs are often the first items on the "chopping block" when it's time for budget cuts at hospitals, which is bad news for patient access.
-
A lead emergency department registrar position was created at Swedish Covenant Hospital, in order to improve collections in this challenging patient population, says Rose Jeanfreau, director of patient access Services at Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago.
-
In April, The Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) put out an updated measures specifications manual that introduced two new core measures.
-
As reported earlier this year in Hospital Peer Review, The Joint Commission is taking a look at National Patient Safety Goal #8, medication reconciliation, with which hospitals are struggling. Now, it is taking a look at three other challenging goals; but unlike with medication reconciliation, the others still will impact accreditation decisions.
-
Frank Zibrat, associate director, ORYX implementation at The Joint Commission, says one of the areas hospitals are still struggling with regarding the core measures is the surgical care improvement project (SCIP) measures. Specifically, "the issue of the discontinuation of antibiotics and the selection of antibiotics."
-
A new emergency department (ED) triage system at Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, FL, decreased the time that elapses between when patients arrive and when they are treated by 33%, slashed the number of patients who left without treatment by 50%, and cut 20 minutes off the total turnaround time from when patients arrive at the ED and when they are discharged or admitted.
-
Some health care facilities provide medical treatment to people throughout the United States, while others serve those who live in the surrounding neighborhood.
-
Dr. Eric Toner is a senior associate with the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). He is a physician board certified in internal medicine and emergency medicine.
