In their most recent checkups, Connecticut hospitals have been showing signs of stress: The state's Department of Public Health has announced six regulatory actions by the agency in the first two months of this year, compared with 12 such actions in all of 2007. Regulators say the actions reflect the state's tough rules and political priorities as the Connecticut's population ages. Patient advocates point to hospital management issues even as CEO salaries swell.
A survey taken by Deloitte Center for Health Solutions shows that consumers are hungry for information about their doctors and hospitals online. Of the 3,000 people surveyed, 62 percent report that they would visit a hospital's Web site for cost information. Sixty-four percent say they'd visit a hospital's Web site to find quality information.
An infection control expert, speaking to employees of an Albany, OR-area hospital, says healthcare organizations must work to change people's work habits and attitudes to prevent the spread of hospital acquired infections. If hospitals don't take the lead on this, he says, the government will.
During discussions about a bill that would make the reporting of infection rates mandatory in California, a state hospital association lobbyist was quoted as saying that making hospitals collect and report data wasn't a good idea because it would take a staff member away from preventing infections. But a this article argues that public reporting is the best way to decrease infection rates.
Ohio hospitals are collaborating to standardize the use of colored wrist bands to identify patient conditions. Many of the state's hospitals have used colored bands for some time, but a recent survey shows that as many as 19 different colors are used, with 28 different meanings, to indicate allergies, infections, and other conditions. This makes it difficult for caregivers that work at different facilities and increases the chance for medical errors.
The board of trustees for the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems has adopted guidelines to ensure that no patient or payer foots the bill for hospital care related to adverse medical events. The list of qualifying adverse events includes operating on the wrong body part, performing the wrong surgical operation on a patient, inadvertently leaving a foreign object inside a surgery patient and administering the wrong blood type to a patient.