Editor's Note Hospitals that successfully attested to "meaningful use" of electronic health records (EHRs) experienced a shorter patient length of stay (LOS) in this study. This analysis of patient data from California categorized hospitals into one of three categories−partial adoption of EHRs, full adoption of EHRs, and meaningful assimilation of…

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Multiple requests for new equipment and technology—usually from surgeons but also sometimes from staff—are not uncommon. As part of their due diligence, OR leaders must determine whether the return on investment (ROI) justifies the purchase. Doing ROI calculations systematically—and involving key stakeholders—can help ensure that the organization makes the best…

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A common strategy for managing OR utilization is block scheduling: Assigning surgical time to individual surgeons or surgeon groups based on their volume. But what sounds like a simple process is often complicated by the potential for dissatisfaction and reduced utilization. Yet done effectively, block scheduling can significantly boost the…

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Polls leading up to the midterm elections put healthcare as the top issue of concern among likely voters, with gun policy, Supreme Court nominees, the economy and jobs, and education right behind it. In a year fraught with an ever-widening chasm along party lines, there were distinctly different priorities among…

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Interest in the OR Business Management Conference has grown steadily in tandem with the number of proposals submitted each year. More than 400 individuals attended the conference in 2018, and they left with tools and strategies to implement in a variety of clinical settings upon their return. Feedback from attendees…

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Long gone are the days when employer-based health insurance covered most, if not all, of patients’ healthcare bills. Insurance companies and employers expect individuals to pay a larger chunk of healthcare costs themselves. The 2018 benchmark Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) Employer Health Benefits Survey found that “a quarter (26%) of…

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Editor's Note New data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) shows that 93% of eligible clinicians who participated in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) under the Quality Payment Program (QPP) received positive payment adjustments for their performance last year, the November 9 EHR Intelligence reports. Only…

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Editor's Note In this study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, researchers developed, validated, and tested an algorithm called, “Discharge Referral Expert System for Care Transitions (DIRECT),” which helped clinicians identify patients most in need of post-acute care (PAC) and lowered readmission rates. The researchers conducted a 4-month…

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Editor's Note US hospitals added 13,000 jobs in October to a seasonally adjusted 5,216,100, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on November 2. That is up 106,900 more employees than a year ago. Overall, healthcare employment has increased 322,500 in the past year. The overall unemployment rate is 3.7%, matching…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and infection (CDC) on October 31 reported that the risk of hospital patients having healthcare-associated infections was 16% lower in 2015 than in 2011, largely because of declines in surgical site and urinary tract infections. The percentage of patients having surgical site and…

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