Editor's Note The Joint Commission on December 2 launched two new resources to help healthcare providers reduce readmissions and improve the discharge process. The resources include a new “Speak Up” campaign to “Avoid a Return Trip to the Hospital,” and a “Quick Safety” newsletter. “Speak Up” includes an infographic, animated…

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Editor's Note The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on December 1 launched a new webpage to provide employers and workers with strategies and tools for preventing workplace violence in healthcare settings. The new strategies and tools focus on prevention programs that include: management commitment and worker participation worksite analysis and…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on December 1 published a notice with comment period on the basis for cutting inpatient hospital payments by 0.2% in accordance with its “two-midnight” rule. The notice comes in response to an October 6 court ruling that challenged the payment…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved the administration of an Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgery Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (OAS CAHPS) Survey. The voluntary survey, which will start in 2016, includes 37 questions that will collect information monthly about a patient’s experience…

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Editor's Note Appropriate nurse staffing is associated with improved quality of care and patient outcomes. This is the conclusion of a new white paper by the American Nurses Association and Washington, DC-based consulting firm Avalere, in collaboration with nurses and policy experts. The white paper is the first in a…

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Editor's Note Patients at Veterans Affairs hospitals who developed postoperative Clostridium difficile infections had a five times higher risk of mortality and a twelve times higher risk of morbidity in this study. This analysis of nearly 500,000 surgical procedures found that out of more than 1,800 patients who developed C…

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Editor's Note Boston Scientific Corporation is recalling RotaWire Elite core wires because they may crack and separate from the rest of the Rotablator Rotational Atherectomy System and cause serious injury such as tamponade, myocardial infarction, and migration of wire fragments, the Food and Drug Administration reported November 27. Boston Scientific…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that it will reprocess ICD-10 claims with National Coverage Determination and Local Coverage Determination errors automatically and at no cost to providers. CMS is also waiting to reprocess some claims with errors resulting from Local Coverage Determinations until Medicare…

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Editor's Note Electronic health record (EHR) adoption has increased since 2010, but small and rural hospitals need strategies to address financial challenges now that penalties for lack of adoption have begun, this study finds. Using 2008-2014 national data, researchers found that 75% of hospitals have adopted at least a basic…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission summarizes sentinel event-related data reported from accredited organizations quarterly and annually. The data (from 2004 through 3Q 2015) demonstrate the need for the Joint Commission and accredited healthcare organizations to continue to address these serious adverse events, the Joint Commission says. Surgery-related events in the…

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