Quality and Safety

Munir Uwaydah, 49, owner of Frontline Medical, his personal lawyer and his former office manager are among 15 defendants named in the case that also alleges surgical procedures were performed by a physician's assistant who never attended medical school.

Payment initiatives and increasing patient expectations are slowly forcing changes, encouraging doctors to be better listeners and more sensitive.

Two Geisinger researchers, leading a large team of investigators, have been awarded more than $3.5 million as part of a national effort to better understand the genetic basis of disease.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is offering a series of grants of up to $1.5 million for research projects that examine patient safety in ambulatory care and long-term facilities.

Partners HealthCare, one of the largest hospital operators in Massachusetts, this week opened its first walk-in urgent care clinic as more hospital operators rush to open clinics to provide better, more accessible care for pressing medical issues.

Heart-attack patients whose ambulances were diverted from crowded emergency rooms to hospitals farther away were more likely to be dead a year later than patients who weren't diverted, according to a recent study published in the journal Health Affairs.

Patients whose physicians worked from midnight to 7 a.m. the night before a daytime operation were as likely to die, be readmitted to the hospital or suffer complications within 30 days of their procedure as other patients who had the same operations in the daytime from physicians who had not worked after midnight, researchers said.

Another Pioneer ACO participant, Beacon Health in Maine, is considering exiting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services program after being hit with millions in penalties two years in a row.

Nine ACOs that partner with CHS generated $27 million in the Medicare Shared Savings Program.

Universal compliance with the practice, and auditing such compliance, is feasible, says Robert Wachter.