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Here are the Blogs in the Blog category. Monday, 18 July 2011
According to the New York Times, the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States is hospital-acquired infections (nosocomial infections). Nosocomial infections are infections, such as pneumonia, that patients contract while receiving treatment in hospitals. These infections cost the U.S. healthcare ...Read More...
Posted on 07/18/2011 1:32 PM by ecline
Monday, 11 July 2011
In a recent survey conducted by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), clinical engineers and biomedical engineering technicians were asked to report the biggest biomedical challenges they see in their hospitals. Interfacing devices and information systems were the top ...Read More...
Posted on 07/11/2011 12:00 PM by ecline
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Nurses spend most of their time working on documentation, care coordination, and medication administration. In order to complete these tasks along with the necessary dictation and charting, nurses must constantly be on the move throughout the hospital. Unfortunately, this leaves nurses with very little ...Read More...
Posted on 05/17/2011 1:35 PM by ecline
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
The Joint Commission, a national organization that accredits hospitals, has announced that addressing alarm fatigue is one of its highest priorities this year. The Joint Commission is planning to meet with the Food and Drug Administration over the next few months to develop a strategy for effectively ...Read More...
Posted on 04/20/2011 1:36 PM by ecline
Thursday, 14 April 2011
Adverse events errors that are serious enough to harm patients occur in hospitals at least ten times more frequently than previously recorded, according to a report recently released by the journal Health Affairs.
Researchers visited three large hospitals in the U.S., all of which have well-established ...Read More...
Posted on 04/14/2011 12:03 PM by ecline
Friday, 25 March 2011
Of all healthcare professionals, nurses play the greatest role in coordinating care. They are tasked with providing patient care, communicating with physicians, and administering medication. Unfortunately, this strenuous workload sometimes results in nursing errors. Some of the most common errors are ...Read More...
Posted on 03/25/2011 11:46 AM by ecline
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
This post continues an article on methods of lowering patient readmission rates in hospitals. Click here for the first part of this article.
Stephen F. Jencks, M.D., M.P.H., and Amy Boutwell, M.D., internist at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, MA and Director of Health Policy Strategy for the ...Read More...
Posted on 03/01/2011 11:56 AM by ecline
Friday, 25 February 2011
Starting in late 2012, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin penalizing hospitals with higher than expected readmission rates. This is alarming because recent studies have shown that nearly 21% of discharged patients are readmitted within 30 days, and 34% are readmitted ...Read More...
Posted on 02/25/2011 11:49 AM by ecline
Thursday, 13 January 2011
For patients and their families, the emergence of a decubitus ulcer is painful and stressful. Thankfully, most decubitus ulcers are often noticeable in the earliest stages and are easily treated, with very few passing beyond Stage 2. In fact, many hospitals have special monitoring programs in place ...Read More...
Posted on 01/13/2011 11:29 AM by ecline
Monday, 3 January 2011
2011 looks to be an exciting year for healthcare reform. Some of the new healthcare bill’s changes are already being implemented.
Hospital-Acquired Infection Reporting
Starting this month, hospitals are now required to report hospital-acquired infection rates to Medicare. Hospitals that ...Read More...
Posted on 01/03/2011 11:41 AM by ecline
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
Androscoggin Valley Hospital (AVH) is a 25 bed critical access hospital located in the white mountains of New Hampshire. AVH may be small, but the hospital is home to a wide variety of services and technologies that place it on the level of much larger facilities.
Click Here to See the Dalcon/Polycom ...Read More...
Posted on 11/23/2010 1:48 PM by ecline
Friday, 5 November 2010
Since the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began to refuse reimbursement to hospitals for hospital acquired stage III/IV pressure ulcers labeled “never events,” there has been considerable controversy surrounding the subject.
Stage III/IV pressure ulcers are serious ...Read More...
Posted on 11/05/2010 11:36 AM by ecline
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Communicating in the modern nursing work environment is difficult. In order to provide the best level of patient care, nurses need to be constantly accessible by several sources. At any given time nurses need to be aware of patient and family requests, while maintaining ongoing communication ...Read More...
Posted on 07/13/2010 9:34 AM by ecline
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
The benefits of hourly rounding can be very encouraging for hospitals considering implementing the program. However, according to the Studer Group, the hospital consulting organization credited with first documenting the benefits of hourly nurse rounding, hospitals should not attempt ...Read More...
Posted on 06/08/2010 9:17 AM by ecline
Monday, 7 June 2010
Hourly nurse rounding seems counter-intuitive. At first glance, adding a major task to an already demanding job in order to decrease workload doesn’t make sense.
Yet researchers have found that adding an hourly nurse rounding program in hospitals makes a dramatic impact in two important ...Read More...
Posted on 06/07/2010 9:22 AM by ecline
Thursday, 20 May 2010
One of the largest complaints of hospital patients and staff nationwide is the abundance of noise in the hospital. Uncomfortable and unsafe noise levels inhibit the healing process of patients that need it most.
In fact a recent study at Johns Hopkins University Hospital has shown that loud hospital ...Read More...
Posted on 05/20/2010 9:13 AM by ecline
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
As hospitals move further into the 21st century, decentralized nursing stations are becoming the standard for enhancing the quality and efficiency of nursing care.
In the past, when medical information was stored on paper, centralized nursing stations were necessary to keep all medical data stored ...Read More...
Posted on 02/24/2010 8:43 AM by ecline
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
In October 2008, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began requiring hospitals that receive federal funding from Medicare and Medicaid to begin disclosing “never events.” CMS has stated that they will no longer reimburse hospitals for any costs associated with ...Read More...
Posted on 02/10/2010 9:47 AM by ecline
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) creates guidelines for long term care facilities (nursing homes) that receive federal funding via Medicaid and Medicare. Licensed state surveyors perform annual checkups on nursing homes to make sure that these facilities are meeting the expectations ...Read More...
Posted on 01/26/2010 9:29 AM by ecline
Monday, 30 November 2009
Patient falls are of great concern for health care facilities; they cause the patient unnecessary physical and emotional pain, and they are expensive. Not only do fall caused injuries cost thousands of dollars each; they also consume valuable time and tarnish the reputations of hospitals.
Many techniques, ...Read More...
Posted on 11/30/2009 9:42 AM by ecline
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