Fact: About 1 in 20 patients contracts an infection related to his or her hospital care. Fact: An average of 1 in 7 Medicare beneficiaries is harmed in the course of his or her care, costing the government an estimated $4.4 billion every year. Fact: Nearly 1 in 5 Medicare patients discharged from the hospital….
Continue ReadingQuality outcome measures
One Guide to a Quality Hospital: Does the CEO Have “MD” after His/Her Name?
Who runs a hospital better, a physician or a businessperson? And which is better for patient safety and healthy outcomes? As reported in the New York Times, the conventional wisdom that doctors should focus on patient care and managers should run the infrastructure was challenged by a study in the journal Social Science & Medicine…..
Continue ReadingMS Drugs Come with High Cost, Low Reward
The cost of treating multiple sclerosis (MS) with a certain class of drugs is significantly higher than the cost of addressing the symptoms of MS with other therapies, according to a study in the journal Neurology. Analyzing data from 844 individuals with early-stage MS and projecting health-care costs, including the cost of the drugs and….
Continue ReadingHow to Rate a Hospital’s Quality of Care
U.S. News & World Report recently issued its ranking of Best Hospitals in the United States as well as a host of interpretive articles to help people refine their understanding of what constitutes “best” and how to locate the “best” hospital in your area. The article “When a Hospital is Bad for You” explains that….
Continue ReadingAsthma Study Shows the Importance of the Doctor “Being There” for the Patient
Only someone who suffers from asthma can understand the panic that comes with a sudden attack that feels as though you’re suffocating. Many such victims reach for an inhaler to dispense the drug albuterol, which provides lung relief. Now, a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine confirms not only the drug’s….
Continue ReadingMaryland Says “Been There, Done That” to Federal Requirement to Track Hospital Quality
MarylandReporter.com reports that the state will request an exemption from a new requirement by Medicare that hospitals demonstrate their quality of care. Taking effect Oct. 1, the requirement financially rewards hospitals that meet the new standard and penalizes those that don’t. Robert Murray, executive director of the Health Services Cost Review Commission, said the state….
Continue ReadingExpanding the List of Medical Misadventures that Should Never Happen
Nearly 10 years ago, the National Quality Forum (NQF) published a report, Serious Reportable Events (SREs) in Healthcare. It identified 27 really horrible mistakes occurring in hospitals deemed largely preventable and of concern to both the public and health-care providers. Thanks to their extreme nature, these “adverse events” have come to be known colloquially as….
Continue ReadingAccurate quality measures needed to improve health care quality and safety
The push to make hospitals and doctors more accountable for health care quality means more attention must be paid to the accuracy and reliability of measures used to evaluate caregivers, according to Johns Hopkins patient safety expert Peter Pronovost. There is little consensus as to which measures are scientifically valid and accurate assessments of quality,….
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