Quality and Safety

Federal overseers have seldom penalized the healthcare organizations responsible for safeguarding this data, a ProPublica review shows.

A recently unsealed federal lawsuit alleges hospital owner HCA Holdings subjected patients to medically unnecessary, invasive and high-risk cardiology procedures for years and then submitted false medical claims for federal reimbursement, according to court documents.

Bacteria caused 453,000 infections in 2011 and was associated with 29,000 deaths according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

Some Kaiser patients still have to wait weeks or even months to see a therapist or psychiatrist, which violates state laws intended to ensure timely access to mental health treatment.

Single safety incident caused the issue that could present major risk to patients.

Patients' assessments of the quality of the clinical care they received did not improve any more than they did for patients treated in older facilities.

The HHS grants were doled out across all 50 states, with separate amounts earmarked for major metropolitan areas in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Hospitals saw a 43 percent drop in adverse drug events, a 15 percent drop in hospital-acquired pressure ulcers and a 20 percent drop in urinary tract infections related to catheter use.

Healthcare workers should treat hospitalized measles patients with Vitamin A, according to a new recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and all providers should be prepared in advance for documentation.

The bacterial outbreak at a Los Angeles hospital highlights shortcomings in the federal government's efforts to avert the most lethal hospital infections, which are becoming increasingly impervious to treatment.