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Byline: Jean DerGurahian In the winter of 1999, one ticking time bomb appeared to be the 'Y2K bug, when it was feared that computer glitches on Jan. 1, 2000, could [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Hospitals often contend that they worry about a greater influx of legal action by patients if they disclose more information when errors occur during care. But studies [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian This is the second part of a two-part series on the effects of patient-safety advocates. Part one of the series, which ran Sept. 7 (p. 6), described [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Health plan quality improvement has stalled, new figures show, with commercial plans faring better than their government counterparts, according to the National Committee for Quality Assurance's 13th [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Nearly a year ago, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality began implementing regulations for its patient-safety organization programtouted as a way for providers to share information [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Like many Chicagoland natives, Douglas Winkelhake is a diehard Cubs fan, a feeling he was able to transfer to his eldest son. His younger, more rebellious son [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian With the announcement that it was bringing on information technology guru Todd Park as chief technology officer, HHS has started to look like many IT departments in [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Mandated quality measures don't always improve qualityif a recent move by regulatory officials is any indication. A clinical process once considered to help boost patient safety and [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian The growth in the cost of healthcare impacts the economic performance of U.S. industries that typically shoulder employer-sponsored insurance, according to a RAND Corp. study. When healthcare [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian In the past year, Wellmont Health System has taken a hard look at its operating numbers, and decided things aren't adding up. After conducting audits and restating [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian The newly added readmission data to the CMS' Hospital Compare Web site might help hospitals tracking that information, but the consumers targeted by the site still might [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Hospitals in Maryland are warily eyeing the July start date of a new reimbursement program by the state that takes the concept of not paying for hospital-acquired [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian The University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System said it is cutting 245 jobs to save an estimated $15 million to $20 million a year, following the [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian A leading provider of bedside computer applications for patient engagement is promoting the use of its own and similar products by creating and helping fund a not-for-profit [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian With speed and accuracy the name of the game for laboratory results, Great Basin Scientific hopes its new diagnostic tool will help providers find infections quickly and [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Results from two recent reports on hospital performance paint the picture that healthcare hasn't improved much since the Institute of Medicine issued its landmark To Err is [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Medical students already carry a heavy academic load, but an opportunity to supplement their formal education with more patient-safety and quality topics is leading them to a [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian The number of designated patient-safety organizations, or PSOs, continues to grow faster than originally anticipated by the federal agency overseeing the program. Last week, the group purchasing [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian The cultural guidelines endorsed recently by the National Quality Forum represent the latest effort to mesh cultural competency into patient-safety and quality-of-care initiatives, hospital executives said. The [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian As healthcare executives ponder how to achieve more diversity in their board rooms, one medical college is moving to generate the diverse population needed in top leadership [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Several hundred residents, emergency medical-service providers and trauma survivors appeared at a rally to support funding for a statewide trauma network in Georgia. The Feb. 23 rally, [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Industry leaders are calling for more definition and action in HHS' national infection-control plan, with two influential groups in disagreement on how best to use the data [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Accelerating the adoption of research into best practices is helping hospitals manage requirements by states to report on hospital-acquired infections. As more states mandate infection reporting, hospitals [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian United Medical Center had seen its share of struggles even before the economy took a turn for the worse. The Washington-based hospital, troubled in the past by [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Providers got a glimpse last week of the latest federal quality standards they will be expected to follow to reduce infections and also to comply with Joint [...]

Byline: Joe Carlson and Jean DerGurahian The financial crisis may have upended the initial public offerings of some devicemakers but it didn't stop St. Jude Medical from going on a [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Expect a number of quality initiatives to become more targeted and specific to improving outcomes in 2009, experts say. Where providers last year were asked to measure [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Current funding for HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is not enough to ensure improvements to the nation's health-delivery system, quality and safety advocates say. AHRQ [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Participants in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 5 Million Lives Campaign were not disappointed when the program concluded without a firm estimate of the degree to which [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian 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 [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian 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 [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian 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 [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian 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 [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian As results of its annual report indicate that hospitals still are not performing adequately in certain performance measurements, the Joint Commission has stepped in with targeted action [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, prompted by interest from the health industry, pushed ahead with the creation of patient-safety organizations despite the lack of a [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian While accrediting organizations look at different ways to ensure hospitals are complying with Medicare regulations, a comprehensive approach to hospital quality and safety must include patient-centered care, [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian West Shore Medical Center doesn't look like an automaker but it runs its operations the way a manufacturing plant might. The 54-bed hospital in Manistee, Mich., is [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian The pressure is on for providers to demonstrate they are adhering to best infection-control practices as several leading quality and professional organizations throw their support behind uniform [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian If healthcare facilities want to know whether standardized documentation and action reports can help reduce their pressure ulcer rates, they can turn to research available on the [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian More board leadership is required if hospitals are going to increase their level of performance on quality measures enough to qualify as a top facility as named [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian HHS' announcement of a new infection-control action plan last week is a step in the right direction but by itself is not enough to motivate hospitals to [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Former Leapfrog Group Chief Executive Officer Suzanne Delbanco has landed another executive position, this time heading a private company that has developed and is hoping to sell [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian When Banner Desert Medical Center realized in 2006 that its heart attack patients were not receiving timely, crucial care, staff took a hard look into the time [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian The pressure for hospitals to show quality improvement ramped up in recent weeks as more states released statistics from their adverse-events reporting systems and California announced another [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian The Joint Commission's planned cultural-awareness standards might spur some hospitals to do more when it comes to diversity issues, experts say. The commission announced last week that [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Quality-improvement organizations are protesting the terms of their latest contract, which took effect this month. The QIOs, which contract with the CMS to help poor-performing hospitals address [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Industry officials accuse the CMS of drifting rudderless with its new quality-improvement provisions in the final acute-care inpatient prospective payment system rule for 2009. The final IPPS [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian The Joint Commission will have to apply for hospital deeming authority as a result of the Medicare law that Congress approved last week. With passage of the [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian The CMS called its first round of incentive payments to physicians through a pay-for-reporting initiative a first step; if that's so, it's a very small step, industry [...]

Byline: Jean DerGurahian Three months after the Joint Commission released its last sentinel-event alert regarding pediatrics medication safety, 14 infants in Christus Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-South received overdoses of the [...]