Quality and Safety
On Friday, the Mayo Clinic and Dartmouth-Hitchcock (D-H) in New Hampshire announced a formal collaboration with the goal of improving health and healthcare quality at both institutions while lowering overall costs.
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is now offering a case management accreditation program and three organizations have already signed on.
According to a recent report published in the August issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) doubled at academic medical centers nationwide in five years.
A new accountable care health plan from Aetna offered in conjunction with Aurora Health Care will offer a price guarantee to employers, many of whom may see an average reduction of 10 percent based on their past claims expenses.
When it comes to patient experience, U.S. safety-net hospitals -- those serving a disproportionately larger number of low-income and Medicaid patients -- are getting poor performance reviews, which may indicate they will struggle under value-based purchasing models.
A new study sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund found that less than 3 percent of hospitals use all 10 recommended practices for reducing readmissions for patients admitted with heart failure or acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
During a White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) conversation on July 24, leaders in healthcare and policy discussed the Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI) to reduce the environmental footprint of hospitals, lower costs and improve overall patient health by including sustainability efforts and initiatives into their business models.
According to Medicare's latest hospital readmissions data on its Hospital Compare website updated last week, very few hospitals are singled out as poor performers when it comes to readmissions, despite the fact that readmission rates haven't been improving nationwide.
Last week, the Joint Commission International (JCI) announced a new set of standards for international academic medical centers accredited by the JCI.
Medicaid agencies from seven states have signed on to an accountable care organization collaborative effort via the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) that will help states tailor ACOs based on the unique qualities of their health systems.