healthcare quality

Press Release: US Healthcare Quality Movement Stalls at a Critical Juncture

> Former NIH geriatric psychiatry head Pearson "Trey" Sunderland pleaded guilty this week to violating conflict of interest rules. Sunderland had failed to disclose that he had accepted $285,000 in payments from Pfizer while serving as a researcher at NIH. Article

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A group of Connecticut healthcare stakeholders, including healthcare quality advocates, long-term care trade groups and the state's department of public health, have launched an initiative intended to speed up the rate of quality improvement in the state's nursing homes. The effort is part of the "Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes" campaign, a national program which launched last month. The quality improvement campaign targets eight clinical improvement goals, including …

The new Massachusetts healthcare quality website takes a step in the right direction, but the data it uses is rather limited and not very up-to-date, making it far less useful than it could be, suggests Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in a recent post on his blog. First, he notes, …

A Commonwealth Fund study (like many of its predecessors) has found that despite spending 16 percent of our GDP on healthcare, America's healthcare quality is below that of many other nations. Report

> When medical centers close in rural areas, clinics often step in to pick up the slack. Article

> Hospital and health system supply costs are expected to rise 5.1 percent during fiscal year 2006, according to Moody's Investors Service. Article

> U.S.-based healthcare quality and accreditation group Joint …

According to a news study, almost half of Americans have experienced significant healthcare quality issues, and three quarters say the entire U.S. healthcare system needs to be revamped. Americans are also worried about their ability to pay for future healthcare. The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, which commissioned the study, reported that 42 percent of American say they've experienced quality problems, including "poorly coordinated, inefficient, or …

In a speech to the federal Medicaid commission, IHI president Donald Berwick argued that the best way to cut down on Medicaid spending is to improve healthcare quality. His recommendation is somewhat predictable in light of his recent success with then 100,000 Lives Campaign, which aimed to reduce the number of avoidable deaths at hospitals by pushing specific quality improvements. Specifically, Berwick suggests better treatment of chronic illnesses, improving physician payment …

The government is launching an ambitious five-year project which will look at ways to improve healthcare quality using pay-for-performance techniques. The Medicare Health Care Quality Demonstration will fund local and regional projects which use incentives to promote quality. CMS issued a request for proposals on Monday.

CMS administrator Dr. Mark McClellan also said his agency will shortly be releasing a call for proposals for e-prescribing demonstration projects that would test …

> A new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds that patients are often released from the hospital before all of their test results are back. Story

> Another study by University of Michigan researchers finds not charging diabetics for medicines will save lives and ultimately money for the government. …