Quality & Patient Safety
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration yesterday asked Endo Pharmaceuticals to remove its opioid pain medication Opana ER from the market, citing the potential for the reformulated drug to be abused. “We will continue to take regulatory steps when we see situations where an opioid product’s risks…
Sun Health in Surprise, Ariz., knows what it takes to prevent Medicare patients from returning to the hospital within 30 days of discharge.
The health care organization had the lowest 30-day readmission rates of all participants in a recently concluded five-year federally funded demonstration…
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will not update the overall hospital quality star ratings on Hospital Compare in July as scheduled due to data issues with three of the measures included in the safety group score, according to a QualityNet notice yesterday. CMS is working to correct…
Efforts to reduce hospital readmissions are working, but they don’t always save money, according to a review of 50 quality improvement studies published yesterday by JAMA Internal Medicine.
Long-term care facilities participating in a federal project led by the AHA’s Health Research & Educational Trust reduced catheter-associated urinary tract infections by 54%, according to a study published today in JAMA Internal Medicine. The project adapted the Agency for Healthcare Research…
Does your organization have an innovative palliative and end-of-life care program? If so, consider applying for the 2018 Circle of Life Award.Since 1999, the “Circle of Life Award: Celebrating Innovation in End-of-Life Care” has honored shining examples of human compassion – care that helps people…
The American Hospital Association Grassroots Champion Award recognizes those hospital leaders who most effectively educate elected officials on how major issues affect the hospital’s vital role in the community, who have done an exemplary job in broadening the base of community support for the…
Average readmissions penalties in the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program doubled in the first five years of the program, from 0.29% in 2013 to 0.6% in 2017, according to a study published today in Health Affairs. “The penalty burden was greater in hospitals that were urban, major teaching…