Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on May 31, announced that it has added several new and revised elements of performance (EPs) for critical access hospitals (CAHs) that address restraint and seclusion, the complaint process, and unified and integrated structures for CAHs that are part of a multihospital system, effective June…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on May 3, announced the launch of its new Health Care Equity Certification Resource Center, which provides practical strategies for meeting the new certification program’s standards and elements of performance. Resources, such as tools, templates, and guides, are organized in the center by certification domains…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on March 22, announced that it is seeking input to a survey on the implementation and utilization of electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) to better assess the impact of prospective changes to data submission practices. This applies, in particular, to a healthcare organization’s readiness in…

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Editor's Note This study from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, finds a consistent, widespread, and significant decline in activity following the onset of COVID-19 in the US. The analysis included 5,443 participants who wore a digital device tracking physical activity (Fitbit) for at least 10 days each month. Daily…

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Editor's Note In this study led by California's Stanford Health Care, researchers found significant associations of surgical team composition and dynamics with operative efficiency for total hip (THAs) and total knee arthroplasties (TKAs), independent of case complexity. The analysis included 641 total joint arthroplasties (279 THAs and 362 TKAs) performed…

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A visual management board is a communication tool that provides at-a-glance information about current process performance to help staff coordinate and guide their daily work and monitor ongoing improvement projects. Perioperative staff at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California, have a 20-minute weekly huddle at their Lean-based visual management board,…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 1 announced a revision to Performance Improvement (PI) standard PI:01.01.01, Element of Performance (EP) 4, which has to do with data collection on significant discrepancies between preoperative and postoperative diagnoses. The revision was made after healthcare organizations expressed confusion with the requirement. The…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 1 announced that updated Accelerate PI Dashboard Reports, which provide performance measurement data on certain quality measures, are available for hospitals (HAPs), critical access hospitals (CAHs), ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), and nursing care centers (NCCs). ASC reports contain data through the fourth quarter…

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Editor's Note Sherry Rogers, Director of Robotics at Emory Healthcare, shared the key tactics to building and sustaining a high performing robotics program in a 2-part workshop at the OR Business Management Conference. In the session, Rogers offered a breakdown of several components of her successful program, including the training…

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Noreen Hudson, MSN, RN, Associate Director, Berkeley Research Group and Bill Orrell, MBA, MSN, RN, Managing Director, Berkeley Research Group concluded the OR Business Management Conference in a session, "Weathering the Storm - Moving Your Health System Forward in 2023 and Beyond." Their presentation focused on “putting it all together”…

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