The AOA and ACGME have begun the process of creating a single accreditation system. The final result could be a simplified verification process, but a lot must happen before the system is fully implemented?and the target date for completion is June 2020.
The Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) program's latest scope of work, which gets underway this month, has some notable results to follow. During the three-year program period that just ended, hospital readmissions among Medicare beneficiaries declined by 13% in QIO...
CMS' final rule allowing multihospital systems to have a "unified, integrated" medical staff goes into effect this month. As with other Condition of Participation (CoP) modifications, changes won't happen overnight, and the long-term ramifications for medical staffs aren't clear. Medical...
In quality improvement circles, Just Culture came to healthcare with strong recommendations from other high-risk professions. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)'s patient safety glossary, a Just Culture is defined as "a culture that recognizes...
The Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program (HFAP) is implementing new requirements for competence assessment, including OPPE and FPPE. Medical Staff Briefing spoke recently with Karen Y. Beem, MS, RN, Standards Interpretation Specialist at HFAP, in Chicago,...
Requirements for licenses to practice medicine differ from state to state, and even when information is available across state lines, license portability can be administratively burdensome. The Federation of State Medical Boards' (FSMB) Interstate Medical Licensure Compact...
Although many hospitals are signing on with Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs), a number are still on the sidelines for various reasons. There is the fear that reported data will be discoverable; uncertainty about what reporting to a PSO entails, what data to include, and...
As the provision of healthcare becomes more integrated and focused on improving quality, organizations of all sizes will need to rethink how they credential, privilege, and conduct peer review of physicians across entities. Further, as hospitals employ more physicians, they will need to address...
After a soft launch in April 2013, the electronic credentialing verification offering from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG), the Electronic Portfolio of International Credentials (EPIC), is quietly ramping up. And that's according to plan, says William C. Kelly,...
Communication—whether among physicians, between physicians and nurses, or between physicians and patients—remains central to the ongoing discussion of quality improvement in hospitals and how to build physician ownership and involvement.