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Implementing clinical practice guidelines can improve the quality of patient care and positively impact a health care system's bottom line. To increase the chances of successful implementation, a study by Tamara Stone and her colleagues examines ways that guidelines can be tailored to better…
On April 29, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a final regulation for the new hospital value-based purchasing program. The final rule, which affects inpatient prospective payment system hospitals was published in the May 6 Federal Register.
Although primary care is expected to be safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable, it often is not. Research indicates that patients' overall satisfaction with primary care is limited and that substantial numbers of primary care practitioners report dissatisfaction…
The American Hospital Association (AHA), the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Nurses Association (ANA) today released a new report that found up to 766,000 health care and related jobs could be lost by 2021 as a result of the 2 percent sequester of Medicare spending mandated by…
A unique nationwide patient safety project funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) reduced the rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in intensive care units by 40 percent, according to the agency's preliminary findings of the largest national…
What is it?Students in the Basic Educational Empowerment Program (BEEP) meet at INTEGRIS Southwest Medical Center to attend GED classes four days a week. They must also complete a resume, a five-year personal strategic plan, and an online financial class, as well as participate in two community…
As health care facilities continually look to strengthen their falls prevention programs and respond to the high-risk problem of persistent patient falls, evaluation of falls events can provide additional opportunities to address this organizationwide challenge. The adoption of standardized…
The Breadth of Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia: Nonventilated versus Ventilated Patients in Pennsylvania
Considering the evolution of measures designed to prevent nosocomial pneumonia, it makes clinical and financial sense to focus efforts on patients who require mechanical ventilation. Patients at risk for ventilator-associated pneumonia are easily identified because they require an endotracheal tube…
A loading dose is an initial dose of medication administered to rapidly achieve therapeutic levels. The determination of a loading dose can be complicated, involving calculations dependent upon patient characteristics. This, combined with the need to also administer maintenance doses, creates…