HCPro.com: Quality Improvement Report

This informative newsletter is a 12-page monthly resource that provides you with the hands-on advice, tools (including data collection forms), and best practices that you need to ensure your hospital scores high on its quality measures and receives all of the Medicare reimbursement it deserves!

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March 2008 (Volume 3, Issue 3)	view entire issue

Teamwork, support from top leaders help boost compliance with med rec
Teamwork, clear definitions of each clinician's roles and responsibilities, and strong support from senior leaders propelled medication reconciliation compliance rates from the 40th percentile to the 97%-100% range at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. "We were struggling like any other organization," says Kristine Gleason, RPh, clinical quality leader at Northwestern. "It really took an organizational group to come together and say, 'We're not going to do this just because The Joint Commission [formerly JCAHO] says we have to. We're going to do it because it's the right thing to do.' "

How one facility reduced MRSA and saved money
For those hospitals that think screening every patient for methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is too expensive, too time-consuming, and too onerous, consider this: In one year, Evanston (IL) Northwestern Healthcare system, the first in the country to start swabbing every patient for MRSA, dramatically reduced nosocomial infections and saved money. "Not only are you saving the hospital lots of money, you're saving the patients lots of suffering," says Donna M. Hacek, MT, ASCP, technical specialist of clinical microbiology and molecular epidemiology at Evanston. "It's a good patient safety thing. That was kind of the package we needed to sell, and the CEOs bought into it."

Some fear proposed NPSGs will overly tax staff
No one's saying The Joint Commission's proposed National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG) aren't the right thing to do. But many in the field worry that some of the suggested new requirements focus more on documentation than true safety. "Who can argue with the overall ideas proposed?" says Bud Pate, REHS, vice president of content and development for The Greeley Company, a division of HCPro, Inc., in Marblehead, MA. "But most of the wording is very problematic. Many of these proposed requirements emphasize 'pencil whipping' rather than safe patient care practices."

Insurer halts payment for moderate sedation
As the debate rages over the safety of the sedative propofol, another leading insurance company has announced it will no longer reimburse healthcare facilities for anesthesiology services used during routine endoscopies and colonoscopies. As of April 1, Aetna, Inc., will no longer cover anesthesiology costs for those two gastroenterological procedures, which require only conscious sedation in healthy patients. The third largest insurance company will continue to pay for anesthesiologists or certified RN anesthetists (CRNA) for higher-risk patients.

Other recently-published articles from Quality Improvement Report:

Facilities making progress on infection control?related Patient Safety Goal

Be prepared for early warning system goal

Pandemic influenza risk remains high for hospitals

Gaining stakeholder support for SBAR technique

National Patient Safety Goals: The PI connection

WalkRounds involve senior leaders with frontline staff

Use FMEA to examine the causes of heparin overdoses

Three keys to readying your anticoagulant program

Diabetic patients with many comorbidities need higher levels of insulin

Antibiotic monitoring improves quality, reduces cost

SCIP expert: OR environment can lead to infections

Timeouts need to include the entire surgical team

Q&A with Peter Angood on Universal Protocol

Assess all patients to prevent pressure ulcers

Hourly rounding, huddles help prevent patient falls

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