Process Improvement

A Los Angeles hospital has been forced to close its neonatal and pediatric intensive care units to new admissions after detecting cases of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in seven babies, including one who appears to have died as a result of the infection. P. aeruginosa infections are particularly virulent among premature, underweight newborns, who face significant odds of dying from other causes already. Officials at White Memorial Medical Center believe the infection was spread by …

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is launching a new campaign aimed at preventing 5 million incidents of medical harm within U.S. hospitals during the next 24 months. The initiative, which is sponsored largely by America's Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans, follows on a previous effort known as the 100,000 Lives Campaign, under which 3,100 hospitals reduced inpatient deaths by about 122,000 in 18 …

Who would've thunk it? As It turns out, residents are not machines. If you schedule them to work for 24 hours or more on a regular basis, there's a pretty good chance they'll hurt someone out of sheer fogginess. Right now, medical residents may be asked to work shifts that run as long as 30 hours, as often as twice a week. To see what impact this is having, Harvard Medical School researcher Charles Czeisler and a group of colleagues conducted a monthly survey of 2,737 first-year residents …

Two Silicon valley firms have joined the founding fathers of a huge new effort to build personal health records for employees, aimed at reducing healthcare costs through improved care process efficiencies. The group, which now includes Intel, Applied Materials, Wal-Mart, BP America and Pitney-Bowes, will shortly announce that they are investing in a non-profit called the Omnimedix …

Increasingly, medical practices are instituting routines designed to improve patient safety and at the same time, help patients understand what they need to do to bring what they've learned home with them. In one instance, Kaiser Permanente has begun providing patients "after-visit summaries" allowing them to capture what they've learned during their visit and review self-care instructions.

In another case, a number of industry groups have banded together to help doctors assess …

It's not news to health professionals, but it still bears repeating--basic precautions like hand washing can do much to prevent hospital-acquired infections. The latest round of studies documenting this comes from the American Journal of Medical Quality, which published three studies underlining this conclusion. The studies concluded that in addition to frequent hand washing, health professionals should take care to wear gowns and other infection-proof clothing when conducting …

The federal Office of the Inspector General has released a work plan for 2007--among the most detailed in recent years--that targets a wide range of activities and reimbursement areas important to hospitals, home care services, laboratories, rehab providers and psych facilities. Two important issues to be studied include:

• Supplemental payments to hospitals: The OIG is taking a closer look at adjustments for graduate medical education permits, nursing and allied …

As everyone knows, anyone other than critically-ill patients will face long wait times in overcrowded emergency departments. The problem is that now and then, some patients get sicker or die while waiting to be seen if triage doesn't detect subtler problems. Not only that, less-sick patients face an uncomfortable and disconcerting hour or three in hard plastic chairs. Aware of these problems, hospitals …

New York state regulators have cited Stony Brook University Medical for 17 code violations, with problems ranging from procedural concerns such as credentialing process flaws to drug dosing errors and a missed diagnosis leading to the death of a patient. In the case of the deceased patient, who died from head injuries related to a traffic accident, the took 20 hours to provide the patient with proper care, regulators said. When his condition was discovered it was too late to save him. The …

It's time for yet another consumer-driven healthcare effort to toot its horn. Starting in early 2007, Cincinnati residents will have access to quality data on 20 metro area hospitals, trade groups announced. The hospitals are participating voluntarily in the effort, which is backed by the Ohio Hospital Association and the Greater Cincinnati Health Council. The GCHC will provide the data through its website, which already offers reports comparing …