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  • Managing HF patients throughout continuum

    At St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, a multidisciplinary team collaborates with clinicians throughout the continuum to manage the care of heart failure patients.
  • Hospital Report blog

  • Focus on overall quality to succeed under value-based purchasing

    As reimbursement adjustments under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Value-based Purchasing (VBP) Program start to kick in this October 1, it's more important than ever for case managers to be pay attention to overall quality improvement and not just concentrate on particular patients or conditions, says Danielle Lloyd, MPH, vice president for policy development and analysis for the Premier healthcare alliance, with headquarters in Charlotte, NC.
  • New survey tools for patient safety COPs

    For years, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) state operations manual has had guidelines for surveyors to assess issues related to patient safety at hospitals. But there is such a wide range in size and scope of hospitals, says Marilyn Dahl, CMS director of the division of acute care services, that the organization decided it would be a good idea to create some sort of prompt for surveyors to use.
  • OSHA: 'Right to Understand' means a duty to retrain

    It's time to revamp your chemical safety training. An updated Hazard Communication Standard will change labels and safety data sheets on everything from cleaning products and sterilizing agents to hazardous drugs. And it requires employers to train workers on the new system before Dec. 1, 2013.
  • Norovirus outbreaks trigger unit closures

    Norovirus is the organism most likely to trigger a shutdown of units in your hospital. And according to a recent survey of infection preventionists, it is responsible for more outbreaks than some deadlier organisms, such as Clostridium difficile and Staphylococcus aureus.
  • Experts make renewed push for safety

    In a "call to action," sharps safety experts are targeting gaps in needlestick prevention and seeking to spur a new commitment to make improvements.
  • Manage fatigue to boost safety

    It will take a culture shift for doctors, nurses and other health care workers to consider fatigue as a major factor in patient and employee safety. But that moment may be a step closer with new guidance on fatigue management in the workplace.
  • Workers are hurt when patients fall

    Trying to protect a patient from a fall may be one of the most dangerous things your employees do. They will put themselves at risk to cushion a patient. And often, that results in a serious musculoskeletal injury.
  • Gown use for isolation remains a judgment call

    The question of gown use when entering patient isolation rooms is a recurrent one, so it is worth noting that this is the current thinking of the Joint Commission on the subject: