health care quality

Behind-the-scenes work to reduce injuries and infections in hospitals has paid off. Further improvements may be more challenging.

Health & Safety

Hospital Injury Rates Plateau, After 3 Years Of Decline

2:23pm December 03, 2015

by Jordan Rau

Hospitals have averted many types of injuries where clear preventive steps have been identified. But complications with less clear-cut solutions remain a problem, a government report finds.

Errors in diagnosis, such as inaccuracies or delays in making the information available, account for an estimated 10 percent of patient deaths, a blue-ribbon report says.

Health & Safety

Report: Errors In Diagnosis Are Common And Will Take Teamwork To Fix

8:03pm September 22, 2015

by Julie Appleby

Mistakes in diagnosis are a factor in 10 percent of patient deaths, the Institute of Medicine says. Better training, computer systems and coordination of care are needed to curb the problem.

Nursing attendant Tracie Bell helps manage patients at the ophthalmology clinic at Los Angeles County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The clinic created a color-coded system to reduce wait times for patients.

Hospitals Turn To Toyota To Make Care Safer And Swifter

3:16pm August 07, 2015

by Anna Gorman

Public hospitals are adapting the automaker's production system to health care, with the goal of making tasks like scheduling surgeries more safe and efficient.

PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby says grants to medical societies are needed to get through to busy professionals who "may not answer our phone calls."

Health & Safety

Is Obamacare's Research Institute Worth The Billions?

1:11pm August 05, 2015

by Fred Schulte

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute is supposed to figure out which medical treatments work best. But there are sharp political and scientific disagreements over how to do that.

Coordinating care for high-risk patients was expected to save money and improve quality of care. A Medicare experiment didn't pan out.

Health & Safety

Experiment In Coordinated Care For Medicare Failed To Show Savings

12:05pm July 27, 2015

by Jay Hancock

The test aimed to help high-risk Medicare patients navigate the health care maze. But after three years, expected improvements in quality and savings failed to materialize.

Choosing a home health agency can be even more difficult than picking a nursing home.

Health & Safety

Home Health Agencies Get Medicare's Star Treatment

3:13pm July 16, 2015

by Jordan Rau

For the first time, the government is using a star system to rate agencies that care for seniors in their homes. Medicare was stingy with top ratings and also the poorest scores.

In order to improve the quality of healthcare and reduce its costs, researchers need to know what works and what doesn't. But hospitals and doctors have lots of reasons for keeping any data that's collected private.

Who Keeps Track If Your Surgery Goes Well Or Fails?

4:37pm May 04, 2015

by Richard Harris

The outcomes of many medical procedures and treatments done in hospitals nationwide aren't tracked or even measured, says a surgeon who thinks that's bad. Understanding outcomes, he says, saves lives.

Health & Safety

Top Hospital Ratings Prove Scarce In Medicare's Latest Tally

10:27am April 17, 2015

by Jordan Rau

Only 7 percent of the nation's hospitals assessed by Medicare were good enough to win 5-star ratings. The government used patient reviews to come up with the grades.

Patient perceptions have been tough to change at Rowan Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, N.C.

With Medicare Pay On The Line, Hospitals Push Harder To Please Patients

7:33am March 11, 2015

by Jordan Rau

The federal government now factors patient satisfaction ratings into the rates Medicare pays hospitals. Some hospitals with lower ratings are finding it's difficult to change patients' perceptions.

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Health & Safety

What's A Patient To Do When Hospital Ratings Disagree?

12:46pm March 10, 2015

by Scott Hensley

Many people check up on hospitals before they check in as patients. But there's a catch. A hospital that gets lauded by one group can be panned by another.

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