"There is more to healthcare than drugs, dollars, and documentation!"

-John O’Malley

The Cost of Medical Errors Report from the 
Society of Actuaries.

Is the cost of medical errors killing the Nation and Americans?

A Patient Perspective...

From a patient’s perspective, their well being and satisfaction must be “Priority One” by every single person who interacts with them. Every day is patient satisfaction day.

Patient contact, no matter how trivial, affects their mental and physical satisfaction, and medical outcome. Sadly, and all too often, a mechanical approach to caring infects healthcare providers. 
Though engrained with caring, the result  is a perfunctory service by unsuspecting physicians, nurses, and support staff. 

Time is the greatest deterrent to quality care and patient satisfaction. Healthcare providers have too many things to do, too many interruptions, and too much reliance on memory is the foundation of poor patient satisfaction and outcomes.

When a person’s workload is consuming, they become consumed by the lack of time, and rush.

Unconsciously, the tendency is to deliver ritual care and service takes over. Patients are quickly daunted  by efficient staff that exhibit a cold, distant, and busy demeanor. Too busy for the essence of caring, staff slowly drifts away from comforting interactions with their patients.

As health care and medical providers, we need to pause to reflect on how well our care is delivered.  We must ask ourselves, how do we make patient satisfaction and well being “Priority One” throughout the organization.

New AMA Study Finds Anti-Competitive Conditions Exist in 4 of 5 U.S. Health Insurance Markets

For immediate release: Oct. 25, 2011

Heath insurer mergers deserve a critical look.  

Chicago – A new analysis from the American Medical Association (AMA) notes that four out of five metropolitan areas in the United States lack a competitive commercial health insurance market.

"New data presented by the AMA demonstrates the degree of anti-competitive market clout that some health insurers have gained through mergers and acquisitions," said AMA President Peter W. Carmel, M.D. "Our new report is intended to help regulators, lawmakers, researchers and policymakers identify markets where mergers among health insurers may cause competitive harm to patients, physicians and employers."

The 2011 edition of Competition in Health Insurance: A Comprehensive Study of U.S. Markets is the most comprehensive analysis of its kind, reporting commercial health insurance market shares and federal concentration measures for 368 metropolitan markets and 48 states.

The scope of the analysis provides a complete picture of fully-insured and self-insured enrollments for both health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations.

The AMA’s latest findings regarding competition in the health insurance industry include:

National Patient Recognition Week is  the first seven days in February, with February 3rd being National Patient Recognition Day...

Generic News Release you can customized.

-Stay Informed-

Healthcare Reform Review
Overview, timeline, and immediate requirements

Visit the National Patient Safety Foundation to learn more about staying safe.

Take a Moment...





















Though every day is patient recognition day-or should be-the first seven days in February is a special time for all healthcare providers, physicians, nurses, administrators, executives, technologists, technicians, environmental and patient services, volunteers, and ancillary support personnel to stop and seriously reflect on their stewardship of patient care and their dedication to patient satisfaction. 

No person is insignificant or so distant from patient care that they should go unnoticed. All direct and indirect providers of patient care and those supporting the people who administer care are part of the care team. 

“One favorable and memorable care experience is the sum of hundreds of direct and indirect staff encounters.” -John O'Malley

Must Read... Sleepy Medical Residents

When encountering a medical resident (doctor in training), say, "You look tired." and have that statement entered into your medical record...

Sick Medical Residents Caring for the Sick...

Many medical residents work while they are sick, according to survey results published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

This phenomenon is called presenteeism, and it means that workers may be spreading illnesses to colleagues and clients (or, in this case patients) because they don't take time off when they should.

For medical residents, poor health may also lead to declines in performance that affect patients and fellow health professionals, the authors wrote. They are Dr. Anupam Jena, Dr. DeWitt Baldwin Jr., Steven Daugherty, Dr. David Meltzer, and Dr. Vineet Arora.

Researchers surveyed 744 residents in a variety of specialties at 35 programs in 12 hospitals. Participants answered questions about their health and work habits during the 2008 to 2009 academic year.

The study authors found that about 58 percent of participants said they worked while sick at least once and 31 percent said they showed up for the job sick more than once that year. Residents were more likely to have worked while sick if they were in their second postgraduate year than in their first.

These results are similar to those found in 1999, the study authors said.

Presenteeism may depend on hospital culture, the authors say. At one hospital, 100 percent of respondents said they had worked while sick. The rate ranged from about 51 to 72 percent at the 11 other hospitals.

"Residents may work when sick for several reasons, including misplaced dedication, lack of an adequate coverage system, or fear of letting down teammates," the authors wrote. "Regardless of reason, given the potential risks to patients related to illness and errors, resident presenteeism should be discouraged by program directors."

Patient-safety events common: HealthGrades study

By Jean DerGurahian

April 7, 2009 - 12:00 pm EDT

Patient-safety events are common at hospitals across the country, with Medicare beneficiaries experiencing an event every 1.7 minutes, according to the annual HealthGrades study of Medicare patients.

There were 913,215 patient-safety events between 2005 and 2007 and 97,755 in-hospital deaths among patients who experienced one or more of those events, HealthGrades reported in its study. The events account for more than $6.9 billion in costs, according to the organization, which also announced its 2009 HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence Award winners.

The healthcare ratings organization identified the incident rates of 15 indicators developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality—such as select infections, anesthesia complications, accidental puncture, bed sores and death in low-mortality diagnosis-related groupings—to determine performance in the country's 5,000 hospitals.

Performance improvement was not evident in seven of the 15 indicators—including bed sores, sepsis and pulmonary embolism—in 2007 compared with 2005, HealthGrades said. The organization concluded that had all hospitals produced outcomes to the level of its top 5% performing hospitals, the industry could have avoided 22,771 deaths, 211,697 events and saved $2 billion.

NATIONAL PATIENT SATISFACTION SURVEY
ARE YOU READY?

Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey

The HCAHPS survey is the first national, standardized, publicly reported survey of patients' perspectives of hospital care. HCAHPS (pronounced “H-caps”), also known as the CAHPS® Hospital Survey, is a survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients’ perceptions of their hospital experience. While many hospitals have collected information on patient satisfaction for their own internal use, until HCAHPS there was no national standard for collecting and publicly reporting information about patient experience of care that allowed valid comparisons to be made across hospitals locally, regionally and nationally.

• HCAHPS Fact Sheet