Quality and Safety

Patients admitted to rural hospitals have greater risk of death during hospitalization than they do in urban hospitals, a study finds. That means it's time for healthcare executives to address this problem.

Hospitals take their ratings seriously, despite hospital industry experts' skepticism about their scientific methodology and studies showing that scores may not have a huge influence on patient behavior. In a highly competitive market, no one wants to be a "C"-rated safety hospital any more than a "C"-rated restaurant for cleanliness.

The coming shortage of primary doctors has been well-documented and now new research suggests that many specialists will also be in short supply.

The new outcome measures are for inpatient rehabilitation facilities and long-term hospital stays.

Patients, clinicians and even visitors all find alarms, alerts, beeps and loudspeaker pages make hospitals stays more exasperating.

While 3-D mammography screening are FDA-approved, only about half of the National Cancer Institute's Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium participants offer the service.

New research finds patients could benefit if they are invited to co-produce medical notes with doctors rather than simply reading them.

Community-based nursing homes that participated in this project lowered CAUTI rates by 54 percent.

Chicago-based Saint Anthony sued Leapfrog in November for giving the hospital an inaccurate grade -- but Leapfrog claims the grade is based on self-submitted data the hospital failed to review.

Injuries resulting from medication use are among the most common types of inpatient injuries at U.S. hospitals, affecting hundreds of thousands of patients every year.