Hospitals work to speed up credit card processing; CMS delays overall hospital quality ratings;

News From Around The Web

> Some hospitals have attempted to speed up their payment processes after the adoption of new credit cards with chips in them have slowed down processes considerably, putting patient satisfaction at risk, according to Becker's Hospital Review. Article

> Hospital procedures help to encourage overprescribing opioid painkillers and therefore contribute to the current epidemic of addiction, Claims Journal has reported. Article

Provider News

> The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has decided to delay the release of overall hospital quality ratings until later this year after pushback from Congress and the provider sector. Article

> Healthcare volunteers may hold the key to a better patient experience, according to a whitepaper published by the Beryl Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to patient experience improvement. Volunteers, the white paper states, have a great impact on patient satisfaction because in many cases, at some point in their lives, they have also been patients or family members involved in the care of a loved one. "They can empathize and understand what a patient may need in that given moment in a way that a staff member may not be able to," researchers wrote. Article

Healthcare IT News

> Gaps in patient care will persist until patient health data can be shared between providers, and not closing such gaps "contributes to adverse patient outcomes and inappropriate care," according to a report from the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange. Article

And Finally... Millenium Falcon used to remove girl's tooth. Article