quality care

A new study aims to assess nurse satisfaction in a number of areas, including  nutrition, housekeeping, facilities management, patient transport, patient lift teams, security, supply management and clinical equipment maintenance staff. The purpose of the project is standardize metrics that chief nursing officers can use to evaluate nurse satisfaction and, in turn, retention. The American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) hopes that the standards will "build a collaborative …

Champion figure skater and orthopedic surgeon Debi Thomas has withdrawn her support of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, a public hospital founded in the wake of the 1965 Watts Riots to serve the poorest areas of Los Angeles County. Thomas claims that in the midst of its $12.5 million renovation, administrators closed all but two operating rooms and cut the number of overnight anesthesiologists. Allegedly, many patients--some with open wounds--had to wait days for surgery. In …

Open-source software could provide the missing piece that the healthcare industry has been looking for as it moves to modernize, according to a new report by Forrester Research prepared for the California Health Care Foundation. Although healthcare providers have traditionally resisted moving to open-source solutions, economics and the demands of integrating systems on a large scale may have changed the playing field, the research group argues. While commercial software vendors will still …

For years health service researchers have known that there's tremendous practice variation across the nation, that medical errors are ever-present and that optimal clinical processes are rarely followed. Fee-for-service medicine and the current Medicare case-rate payment system have been a primary cause of these problems, as they reward over-use and rework. An unwanted consequence of …

An article in the most recent issue of Health Affairs shows that a better qualified nursing staff results in better quality care. The study found that as many as 6,700 patient deaths, 70,400 complications and 4 million days of hospital care could be avoided if hospitals hired more registered nurses and increased the hours of nursing care per patient. This study will be used by nurses unions in their continual struggle to get legislation passed with minimum staffing …

A Wall Street Journal/Harris Interactive poll finds that Americans with insurance are willing to pay out of their own pockets for access to quality care. According to a poll released Tuesday, one-in-six patients say they "sometimes use a doctor who does not take their health insurance." A further 42 percent percent said they would be willing to "pay the full cost of a doctors visit for specialized treatments or services." Tellingly, about 33 percent say they would …

The debate over electronic medical records promises to get interesting this week after the announcement from CMS that the government will provide small to midsized practices with free access to the VistA EMR system. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), in an Op-Ed in the San Francisco Chronicle, writes that the move is necessary to overcome physician hesitation. "Quite simply, the entire country should have the highest quality care we can afford." Frist goes on to tout …

Doctors are moving to states with malpractice caps in place, a new study published today in the journal Health Affairs finds. The research was conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The study found that states with caps in place are attracting more physicians by a marginal amount, around 3 percent. Supporters of malpractice reform said the study highlights an inequity in the American healthcare system which often impedes patient access to quality …