The average 30-day hospital readmission rate fell to 18.4% in calendar year 2012 from 19% during the previous five years, according to analysis by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). That translates to about 70,000 fewer readmissions for the year, CMS said.
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 14, Issue 23
A growing number of hospitals now require pediatricians to be board-certified before privileging them, although the proportion of hospitals that make exceptions to this policy is also increasing, according to researchers at the University of Michigan.
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 14, Issue 23
More hospitals and large multispecialty groups are promoting their "top doctors" as patient magnets, but leadership and physicians alike must proceed with caution when advertising their best practitioners, according to an ethics column on the amednews.com website.
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 14, Issue 23
Nurses, dentists and psychologists asked the Illinois Legislature this spring for more authority to make medical decisions with demand expected to surge under the federal health care law, but each time lawmakers sided with doctors and turned them down.
When is an action reportable to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB)? The Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration’s Data Bank News website offers periodic reporting scenario articles that answer this question. The following was posted...
When patients, information, and materials flow efficiently through the ED, all aspects of care there can improve significantly. Hospitals are working to implement various flow schemes—such as split flow, bed counting, and fast tracking—all in an effort to move patients more efficiently through...
The Joint Commission and the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) are urging healthcare organizations to recognize National Time Out Day to help draw attention to the time out as a tool to prevent of wrong-site, wrong-side, wrong-procedure, or wrong-person surgery. In a letter...
The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) has published new practice guidelines that outline best practices for delivery of online mental health services. “Practice Guidelines For Video-Based Online Mental Health Services” is designed to help practitioners provide safe, effective care when...
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 14, Issue 22
Hospitals can’t survive without doctors who have a real stake in the hospital’s success. Most doctors can’t survive in small private practice. But the obvious way to mesh their interests—physician employment by hospitals or practice acquisitions—is losing its luster in many corners, so a new...
Credentialing Resource Center Digest - Volume 14, Issue 22
As hospital and health systems examine how to improve the patient experience, one prominent constituency increasingly is not being considered to lead the effort: physicians.
