Quality and Safety

In a press conference on Tuesday morning, New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie said 91 healthcare facilities throughout the state, including 29 hospitals and 58 long-term care facilities, had reported losing power due to post-tropical storm Sandy.

As Hurricane Sandy made her approach into the New Jersey and New York coastlines, Hackensack University Medical Center, in Hackensack, N.J., was busy taking all possible precautions and preparations in order to continue to safely provide necessary patient care and ensure sufficient supply levels.

At the same time the government is encouraging healthcare providers, doctors and insurance companies to digitize healthcare information, the landscape for attacking that info is increasing dramatically. One industry insider provides seven tips for how to prevent a data breach.

With the myriad of issues healthcare organizations face, it is often easy to lose sight that they face the same decisions every business does. Advancing the organization and achieving business success require developing new products, finding new markets and building enabling systems and infrastructure.

According to a recent study released by the North Dakota Hospital Association, North Dakota hospitals and their employees contribute an estimated $4.7 billion each year to the state economy.

I spent a couple days this week at the annual meeting of the Medical Group Management Association, in San Antonio. As always, the hallway conversations, chats with vendors in and around the trade show booths, and the twitter back channel were among the most interesting parts of the experience.

In light of the recent Readmissions Reduction Program under the Affordable Care Act, numerous hospitals and medical industry experts are examining new approaches that will decrease the rate of hospital readmissions. "The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates $15 billion is spent annually on readmissions for Medicare patients, with $12 billion of that amount being preventable," said Jeff Huber.

The Federal Trade Commission recently held a daylong workshop to examine the ways pet medications are distributed in the U.S. and how the current practices affect consumer choice and price competition. Pet meds are big business -- American consumers spend $7 billion on them annually -- and veterinarians and pharmacists are wrangling for their piece of the pie.

Looking for a way to send ObamaCare foes into a tizzy? Try suggesting emulating the French system. In any way.

With medication shortages, patient safety and accurate dosing creating daily challenges, some providers have found financial benefits in pharmacy automation solutions.