Search Tag: Quality of Care

2015 22 Sep

A small group of elderly-care nurses in Sweden have made changes to their work schedule in order to improve quality and efficiency. The nurses have switched from an eight hour to six hour working day for the same wage. This is the first controlled trial of shorter hours in Sweden. The nurses who are part of this change feel that they are much more...Read more

2015 17 Sep

Better coordination of healthcare services helps to reduce costs and improve quality of patient care. While electronic medical records guide physicians through patient encounters and facilitate the required documentation for billing purposes, the records don't actively support true care coordination, according to an opinion piece for MedCity News ....Read more

2015 14 Sep

A new Tel Aviv University study published in Pediatrics shows that rudeness can affect hospital staff's diagnostic and professional performance. The results suggest that even the most benign forms of impoliteness may impede medical personnel's ability to perform under pressure and damage the quality of patient care, according to researchers. "While...Read more

2015 25 Jul

The U.S. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has released its Health IT Safety Centre Roadmap, detailing a plan for optimising use of health IT for improved care safety and quality. In recent years, the increased adoption of health IT and electronic health record (EHR) has seen impressive advances in electronic...Read more

2015 26 Jun

A study on the implementation of an onsite attending-level physician supervising the overnight medical residents, shows that the programme had no significant impact on important clinical outcomes. The study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine , is the first to look at the impact of an overnight academic hospitalist programme. Academic...Read more

2015 09 Jun

A recent webinar hosted by Becker's Hospital Review discussed the importance of managing the physician referral process. Key benefits of having an enhanced referral process include cost savings and better patient experience. The session focused on improving two main models of referrals: many-to-one, which has a hospital or facility as a central cog,...Read more

2015 31 May

A new study by University of Southern California economists shows that hospital productivity growth — the increase in output produced from inputs such as labour and capital — has actually improved in recent years. The finding suggests that U.S. hospitals may actually be able to deliver on the assumption in the Patient Protection and Affordable...Read more

2015 25 May

An UC Davis study has shown that compared to telephone, paediatric telemedicine consultations produced significant cost savings while improving quality of care. Telemedicine systems may be expensive to install and maintain, but they more than pay their way, saving an average $4,662 per use, researchers say. The findings are reported in the journal...Read more

2015 09 May

Electronic health records (EHRs) may be important to have a more high-tech and transparent healthcare system, but new research reveals that using EHRs was not associated with better quality of care or clinical outcomes for ischaemic stroke patients. The study, reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology , analysed data of 626,473...Read more

2015 05 May

Most US clinical registries that collect data on patient outcomes are substandard and do not really track in a systematic way how well physicians and hospitals perform. The findings are from a Johns Hopkins study that examined 153 US registries containing health service and disease outcomes data. On average, a registry contained information on more...Read more

2015 16 Mar

Nationwide Children’s Hospital has received NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Recognition for using evidence-based, patient-centred processes that focus on highly coordinated care and long-term, participative relationships the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) announced. Nationwide Children’s achieved Level 3 standards, the highest...Read more

2015 05 Mar

Uninsured brain tumour patients or those who use Medicaid experience longer hospital stays and are more likely to develop medical complications, compared to patients with private health insurance. The insurance status of patient populations served by different hospitals should be considered in the assignment of hospital quality ratings, which are influenced...Read more

2015 05 Feb

The quality measures endorsed by The National Quality Forum (NQF) are not always applicable to the management of patients prior to their diagnoses, according to a report in the February 3 issue of JAMA . The new study shows that the majority of NQF measures focus on the management of patients who already have established diagnoses, and that quality...Read more

2014 12 Dec

A UCLA study has shown for the first time that higher-earning physicians make more money by ordering more procedures and services per patient, rather than by seeing more patients. This "very surprising" finding may not be in the best interest of patients, according to a research letter published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine . Researchers...Read more

2014 10 Dec

Virginia Mason has made The Leapfrog Group's annual list of Top Hospitals in the US for the ninth consecutive year. It is the only hospital in the country to be named a Top Hospital every year since the recognition programme was launched in 2006. In addition, Virginia Mason is the only hospital in Washington state to receive the 2014 Top Hospital award...Read more

2014 28 Nov

A new study has found that US children’s hospitals providing the highest-quality care for children undergoing heart surgery also appear to deliver care most efficiently at a low cost. The study, led by the University of Michigan, covered 30,670 heart surgery patients aged 0-18 years across 27 different hospitals. The findings were presented at the American...Read more

2014 22 Oct

US hospitals that converted from nonprofit to for-profit status in the 2000s subsequently enjoyed better financial health, but their conversion made no difference in the quality of care provided or mortality rates, according to researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA. Their study examined characteristics of US acute care hospitals...Read more

2013 15 Aug

Professor Antonio Artigas has been managing the Critical Care Centre at Sabadell Hospital in Barcelona, Spain since 1988. He spoke at length with Sherry Scharff at the 13th International Symposium on Infections in the Critically Ill Patient in Athens, Greece, a meeting he heads. In this discussion, he describes the successes he has experienced...Read more