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.
HealthSpring Inc., a Nashville-based managed-care company, is claiming initial success with its pilot programs that pay doctors based on quality of care. Under HealthSpring pay-for-quality program that involves 27 medical practices, 348 doctors and 25,000 members, a practice can receive a bonus of up to 20 percent of what it normally gets paid.
A little more than a month ago, I used this space to talk about President George W. Bush's State of the Union address. That column prompted a lot of feedback from readers who wanted to share their thoughts about not only electronic health records, but ways to improve America's healthcare system. Turns out, there are many different opinions on this subject.
What about Medicare Part D? "I thought it was noteworthy that you overlooked what many, or some, perceive as the landmark change under President Bush: the introduction and some would say success, of Medicare Part D," wrote Kevin Miller, executive director of Parkside Diagnostic Imaging Centers in Park Ridge, IL. "I'm not sure that everyone would agree with your sentence that little was achieved; in my opinion, however, it would be the reverse; too much was achieved and given away with the advent of Medicare Part D. But certainly it is too big to ignore or overlook or to consider as little."
Software is the problem "It would be ideal to have a standardized universal databank of healthcare information," wrote Paul Feight, RN, CNOR, education co-coordinator at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Shadyside Hospital. "But given the incompatibility of competing software languages and the huge amounts of capital investment each company puts into the development of their products, we may never see an agreement on the best product, just the one from the company that can most highly grease the palm of the politicians."
Congress, states must give support "Since setting the EHR goal in 2004, there has been significant work and reasonable progress toward this massive change to our healthcare system," said Nick Bonvino, national practice leader at CTG in Dallas. "You must acknowledge, this is an extremely complex problem that will cost a tremendous amount of money that many disparate stakeholders must agree upon and few are willing to fund. (President) Bush did not a mandate this change, nor could he. Congress has not fully supported the initiative, and we also need the support of state governments."
He continued, "I believe we will get there...it is the right thing to do. But, not before years of preventable medical errors and trillions in waste."
Healthcare needs an 'alternative' direction "The problem is much bigger than electronic medical records. Healthcare, in general, needs a new direction," wrote Sandra K. Knapp, RHIT, CCS, coding documentation educator at the Spartanburg (SC) Regional Healthcare System. "Alternative medicine/integrative medicine needs to be explored for chronic, autoimmune, and any condition that requires taking medications on a regular basis. Most likely, the cost of this approach would be far less and very possibly a much better outcome over the long haul."
Though President Bush never directly mentioned electronic health records in his January address, it's clear that the topic is one that is actively on the mind of quality leaders like these. I appreciate that these readers took the time to write me--and allowed me to publish their comments here. Did they get it right? I'm always interested in hearing what's on your mind.