Chalk one up for patient safety. Make that $110 million. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has awarded that amount in Affordable Care Act funding to 17 national, regional, or state hospital associations and health system organizations to continue efforts in reducing preventable hospital-acquired conditions and readmissions. Through the Partnership for Patients initiative – a nationwide public-private collaboration that began in 2011 to reduce preventable hospital-acquired conditions by 40 percent and 30-day readmissions by 20 percent – the second round of the Hospital Engagement Networks will continue to work to improve patient care in the hospital setting.
A hospital system in Pennsylvania's coal country has become a national poster child for the kind of carefully coordinated, data-driven health care that experts say one day could right the nation's troubled medical system, providing better care at lower costs. Geisinger Health System, whose decades of investment in technology and integration have made it a pioneer in the use of electronic medical records and other data, dominates most of the rural markets it serves. The system focuses to an unusual degree on avoiding unnecessary procedures, in part because it also runs an insurance company that covers many of its patients. [Subscription Required]
Massachusetts General Hospital will pay a record $2.3 million settlement to the federal government to resolve allegations that its lax control over the facility's drug supply allowed employees to steal thousands of pain pills, authorities said on Monday. "Diversion of these drugs feeds addiction, contributes to potential illegal drug sales, and fuels the opioid epidemic that has had a devastating effect on the Commonwealth," US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said in a statement. "We commend MGH for disclosing and addressing its diversion problems and for taking steps to ameliorate future diversion by hospital personnel."
"Imagine," said Dr. Steven J. Stack, president of the American Medical Association. "In a world where a 2-year-old can operate an iPhone, you have graduate-educated physicians brought to their knees by electronic health records." Has anyone ever summed up better the monumental frustrations that many doctors encounter when grappling with electronic medical records? And those frustrations have only been growing as federal requirements for electronic medical records have kicked in and grown teeth — to the point that the AMA has now launched a campaign — called Break the Red Tape — to call for a pause on new medical-record rules.
Conventional wisdom may predict a bleak future for independent community hospitals, critical access hospitals, and other smaller organizations without the financial and technological muscle to push through tough times in a hyper-competitive environment. As larger medical centers gobble up primary care providers and competing acute care facilities to extend their footprint within their local communities, few independent hospitals seem likely to resist the overwhelming pull of a merger or acquisition for very long. In Connecticut, however, seven community hospitals have banded together to embrace accountable care and population health management through a unique agreement that centralizes big data analytics capabilities while allowing each provider to pursue their own strategic goals.
To protect patients, more than 100,000 health care workers in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and ambulances are required to be vaccinated against the flu or wear a surgical mask. But in hospital settings alone, roughly 9 percent declined the vaccine during the flu season that ended March 31, according to an inewsource survey. San Diego County health officials issued that order last November as some local hospitals were reporting as many as 33 percent of workers declined to get vaccinated during the 2013-2014 season. Workers, including physicians, who receive flu shots or nasal mist are identified with a nonremovable sticker on their badges. Workers without a sticker are supposed to be masked when in patient care areas.