Janice Simmons, Senior Editor

One of the most important lessons that I learned as a Girl Scout was: "Be Prepared." And, it's an important motto that hospitals and healthcare organizations are finding that they need to consider when communicating with discharged patients: Make sure those patients are prepared with sufficient information about their conditions in the post-discharge world concerned about 30-day readmissions. [Read More]

August 13, 2009

Editor's Picks

Four Ways Health Reform Can Improve Patient Medication Adherence
Patients who do not take their medications as prescribed by their physicians are costing the American healthcare system as much as $290 billion annually in avoidable medical spending, or about 13% of total national healthcare expenditures, according to a new report from the nonprofit New England Healthcare Institute. [Read More]

Joint Commission Tailors Speak Up Campaign to Prevent Pediatric Errors
In an effort to make parents more aware of the medical errors their children are in danger of while in the hospital, The Joint Commission has launched an education campaign as part of its existing "Speak Up" program. "Speak Up to Prevent Errors in Your Child's Care" is aimed at parents and encourages them to ask the right questions to prevent a potential error from occurring while their child is at a healthcare facility. [Read More]

Safety Net Hospitals Improved Quality with Pay for Performance Incentives
On quality measures, hospitals treating larger numbers of the poor did not perform as well as hospitals serving more affluent populations back in 2003. But by 2006 that changed. When offered a financial incentive from the federal government's three year pay-for-performance incentive demonstration project, mortality rates went down and many quality measures improved closer to the level of their counterpart hospitals that treat more wealthy patients. [Read More]

AHRQ Spearheads Effort to Add Patient Voice to Error Reporting
In the past 10 years, a fair amount of headway has been made in refining error reporting systems, especially since the release of the Institute of Medicine report "To Err Is Human". One point of view missing from all of these reporting systems, however, is that of the patient and his or her family. However, a new project funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality aims to utilize the patient's perspective more when analyzing adverse events. [Read More]

This Week's Headlines

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Massachusetts takes extra steps to battle flu in fall
Boston Globe - August 13, 2009

12 Ways Health Reform May Improve Care and Save Costs
Cheryl Clark, for HealthLeaders Media - August 11, 2009

Engineering Tactics Can Identify Broader Inefficiencies in Your Hospital
Scott Wallask, for HealthLeaders Media - August 11, 2009

Do hospitalists improve the quality of care?
Wall Street Journal Health Blog - August 11, 2009

Webcasts/Audio Conferences

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Advanced Service Line Marketing: New Orthopedics Growth Strategies (August 18)

Service Lines Strategies Workshop 2009: Gastroenterology (August 20)

Service Line Strategies Workshop 2009: Spine Care (On Demand)