This year might be remembered for any number of historical moments, but for healthcare, perhaps this year will best be remembered for the idea of “zero” being a sense of accomplishment.
Any thought of relaxing the 5-year-old rules that limit medical-resident duty hours was put to rest last week by an Institute of Medicine report that called for even stricter limits on how hard to work residents at teaching hospitals. The IOM says...
Some recent newspaper stories show that in addition to achieving universal or near-universal health coverage, a lot of policymakers are becoming increasingly concerned about medical costs.
Carle Clinic Association, Urbana, Ill., reached an agreement to settle an antitrust lawsuit in which Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan alleged the 330-physician group conspired with the area’s other dominant practice to turn away new Medicaid...
Kent Clapp, the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Medical Mutual of Ohio, died along with his fiancee and a pilot when their small plane crashed into a fog-shrouded mountainside in Puerto Rico. Clapp, 62, joined the Cleveland-based...
HCA, Nashville, said its corporate information technology department is laying off 85 to 90 employees out of a total of 1,300 to cut costs in response to the economic downturn. The IT department is HCA’s largest corporate department, accounting for...
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission drafted a number of recommendations, including ones to increase payment rates for inpatient and outpatient services at the full rate of inflation in 2010 concurrent with the implementation of a quality...
Medicare Advantage plans are expected to get paid 14% more than traditional fee-for-service Medicare in 2009, a slight uptick from 2008, according to new data released at the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s December meeting (See related item,...
Any thought of relaxing the 5-year-old rules that limit medical-resident duty hours was put to rest last week by an Institute of Medicine report that called for even stricter limits on how hard to work residents at teaching hospitals. The IOM says...
A study that found little impact on hospital deaths through the use of rapid-response teams calls into question their use in patient-safety initiatives recommended by groups like the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
Two academic health systems last week announced plans to disclose consulting and research agreements that their physicians have with medical products companies, opening the door to similar actions by other providers.
While the healthcare industry has focused on patient safety in general this year, ensuring patients don’t come to harm while undergoing radiological treatment was a big theme as well at the Radiological Society of North America’s annual meeting held...
Electronic health-record systems won’t soon put an end to a niche industry that has grown up around outsourcing the release of medical records to patients and other organizations, according to both providers of and users of the service.
This year might be remembered for any number of historical moments, but for healthcare, perhaps this year will best be remembered for the idea of “zero” being a sense of accomplishment.
Channeling his background as a physician and educator, Mark Chassin, president of the Joint Commission, explains to an audience of quality and patient-safety professionals just how the changes to his organization are going to help them.
Some recent newspaper stories show that in addition to achieving universal or near-universal health coverage, a lot of policymakers are becoming increasingly concerned about medical costs.
I agree with the Joint Commission’s standard that requires healthcare leaders to address the problem of disruptive behavior (“Difference of opinion,” Dec. 1, p. 13).
The cliche “end of an era” is used much too often and is seldom apropos to the reality of a given situation. But in this case, in my opinion, the phrase does apply to Thomas Frist Jr. and his plans to retire from “active duty” as either an employee...
Insurance giant Humana has inked a deal with the “Iron Butterfly.” Country music legend Dolly Parton earned the nickname for her business savvy and steel. The Tennessee native once turned down Elvis Presley’s request to record the hit “I Will Always...
Nurses, just wear white. That’s what an aging public told researchers funded by Cintas who were conducting one of the first scientifically designed studies on how nurses’ clothes affect public perceptions of them.
