Quality and Safety

Two Kentucky-based companies, Humana and Norton Healthcare, are launching the region's first commercial Accountable Care Organization.

Three top New York hospitals are seeking advice from aviation safety experts in an effort to reduce medical errors.

Pittsburgh-based Highmark will offer a childhood obesity prevention benefit to its members starting in 2011 in collaboration with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a program that is expected to help about half a million children.

The Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System will receive more than $1 million in dividends from its medical liability insurance provider for improving patient safety.

The majority of emergency department directors in a recent survey report inadequate on-call trauma coverage, and nearly one-quarter report a loss or downgrade of their hospitals' trauma center designations.

Diabetes care for Native Americans is significantly underfunded, although that population has the highest per capita incidence of diabetes in the United States.

H.D. Smith, a Springfield, Ill.-based pharmaceutical wholesaler, has been selected by the Moffitt Cancer Center as its primary pharmaceutical supplier of critical therapies designed to help patients undergoing treatment for cancer.

A federal report shows more than 14 percent of Medicare patients who enter the hospital are harmed by errors or oversights before they leave.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has formally established the new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is requesting stakeholders - particularly physicians - to give their two cents on accountable care organizations.