Quality and Safety

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.

As hospitals chase better patient ratings and health outcomes, an increasing number are rethinking how they function at night -- in some cases reducing nighttime check-ins or trying to better coordinate medicines -- so that more patients can sleep relatively uninterrupted.

St. Mary's Medical Center in Palm Beach, Florida on Monday said it was closing its pediatric cardiothoracic surgery program following a CNN report that pointed to abnormally high mortality rates for the procedure.

As the clinical-financial relationship tightens, hospitals may want to consider whether they have appropriately organized their staffing roles and relationships to take the greatest advantage of the trend.

Providers should use outcomes-based evidence to drive decisions about what they will continue to offer and what they won't, experts say.

Successful boards spent more meeting time discussing quality and performing and held more frequent performance reviews with middle management, according to Health Affairs study.

As hospitals acquire physician practices, administrators must be less "hospital centric" when it comes to setting benchmarks and reporting quality.