Quality/Equality

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    News digest

    This frequently updated news digest on the subject of Quality/Equality highlights key articles from major journals and news publications. The digest is a free service of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, by The Advisory Board Company. © 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved. Sign up to receive the digest free via e-mail.

    Nov 20, 2009 Monitoring Tools Tapped to Improve Chronic Disease Management
    Remote patient monitoring tools are increasingly being leveraged to improve care for seniors and patients with chronic conditions, Kaiser Health News reports.
    Nov 19, 2009 Report Suggests EHRs Do Little to Improve Care Quality
    A new report suggests that implementation of a comprehensive electronic health record (EHR) system results in only marginal improvements in the quality and cost of health care, the New York Times reports.
    Nov 19, 2009 Southern Maryland to Receive $5 Million for Health Projects
    Southern Maryland is poised to receive an estimated $5 million in federal stimulus funding for care quality improvement projects, the Associated Press reports.
    Nov 18, 2009 Inpatient Satisfaction Scores Reached 'New Peak' in Late 2008
    A new report from Press Ganey Associates suggests that, despite the ailing economy, hospital-reported patient satisfaction scores reached record levels in October 2008, AHA News Now reports.
    Nov 18, 2009 CMS Paid Quality Reporting Initiative Participants More Than $92M in 2008
    The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has awarded more than $92 million in bonuses to health care professionals who successfully reported quality measures under the 2008 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI), a rate far higher than the $36 million awarded in 2007, Modern Healthcare reports.
    Nov 17, 2009 NQF Releases Data Sets for Collection of Quality Data from Health IT
    The National Quality Forum (NQF) has released new data sets that identify the specific care quality measures that health information technology (IT) should be able to capture in all health care settings, Government Health IT reports.
    Nov 17, 2009 USDA Awards Funding for Telemedicine, Remote Education Programs
    The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded $34.9 million to expand access to telemedicine and remote education opportunities in rural areas, Federal Computer Week reports.
    Nov 16, 2009 HHS, Joint Commission Partner for Provider Communication Video
    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of Civil Rights and the Joint Commission have partnered to create a video designed to improve patient-provider communication, AHA News Now reports.
    Nov 13, 2009 HHS Awards $9 Million for Tracking Infections at Ambulatory Surgical Centers
    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced plans to award $9 million to help state health departments improve infection monitoring at ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), Modern Healthcare reports.
    Nov 13, 2009 Florida to Offer PHRs to State's Medicaid Beneficiaries
    Florida will soon begin offering Web-based personal health records (PHRs) to the state's 2.6 million Medicaid recipients, Government Health IT reports.
    Nov 12, 2009 Researchers Experiment with Sensor Technology to Reduce Fall Risk Among Elderly
    A group of researchers is experimenting with digital tools designed to help reduce falls among elderly patients, the New York Times reports.
    Nov 12, 2009 Sarasota Memorial Taps iPhones to Improve Nurse Care, Satisfaction
    Florida-based Sarasota Memorial Healthcare System is leveraging a series of iPhone applications to improve the quality of bedside care and improve nurse satisfaction, Healthcare IT News reports.
    Nov 11, 2009 Care Quality Not a 'Top Priority' for Nearly One-Half of U.S. Hospital Boards
    A new study published in Health Affairs suggests that slightly more than one-half of a nationally representative sample of U.S. hospital board chairs identified care quality as one of two top board priorities, Modern Healthcare reports.
    Nov 11, 2009 Intermountain Healthcare's Evidence-Based Care Protocols Improve Patient Outcomes
    Efforts at Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare to standardize care using internal, evidence-based protocols have resulted in improved patient outcomes, the New York Times reports.
    Nov 10, 2009 New Jersey Health Officials Release Detailed Performance Reports on State's Hospitals
    New Jersey health officials have published a report detailing the safety performance and incidence of medical errors for individual hospitals throughout the state, WCBSTV reports.
    Nov 10, 2009 Data Suggests Sleep-Deprived ICU Nurses Make More Mistakes than Peers
    Research presented recently at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) suggests that nurses who work in intensive care units (ICU) may get less sleep than their peers who practice on other units and are more likely to make medical errors as a result, United Press International reports.
    Nov 9, 2009 FDA Announces Initiative to Reduce Medication Errors
    Reaching beyond its traditional role as industry regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has unveiled an initiative aimed at reducing the "longstanding problem" of preventable medication errors, MedPage Today reports.
    Nov 9, 2009 NIH Awards $208 Million to Fight Infectious Disease
    The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $208 million in funding to two groups to study and develop treatments for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, AHA News Now reports.
    Nov 6, 2009 Tracking System Helps Arkansas, Oklahoma Hospitals Improve ED Efficiency, Quality
    A coalition of 28 hospitals in Arkansas and Oklahoma has helped to improve emergency department (ED) efficiency, enhancements that can be partially attributed to the implementation of a patient-tracking system, Healthcare IT News reports.
    Nov 5, 2009 Maryland Launches Physician Hand-Washing Surveillance Program
    Maryland officials have announced plans to launch a first-of-its-kind physician hand-washing surveillance program, the Associated Press reports.
    Nov 5, 2009 Maine's Rural Medical Centers Benefit From Teletrauma Service
    A telemedicine program that connects rural medical centers in Maine with trauma specialists at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor has helped improve the quality of rural emergency care in the state, the Bangor Daily News reports.
    Nov 4, 2009 Massachusetts Groups Lobby for Nurse-Patient Ratios to Improve Care Quality
    The Coalition to Protect Massachusetts Patients testified before the state legislature's Joint Committee on Health Care in support of a measure that would impose restrictions on the number of patients a nurse can care for at any given time, WWLP reports.
    Nov 3, 2009 N.J. Hospitals Receive Funding to Implement Care Quality Improvement Effort for Nurses
    The New Jersey Hospital Association's (NJHA) Institute for Quality and Patient Safety has received a $732,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to help hospitals throughout the state implement a program aimed at improving the quality of care provided by nurses, AHA News Now reports.
    Nov 3, 2009 North Carolina Seeks to Boost Interpreter Services
    North Carolina health care facilities are making efforts to comply with a law that requires them to provide medical interpreter services for patients, the Asheville Citizen-Times reports.
    Nov 2, 2009 Some Hospitals Praise eICUs Effect on Outcomes, Staffing Woes
    The use of remote intensive care unit (ICU) monitoring systems to track patients receiving critical care may help hospitals address a growing shortage of intensivists while reducing costs and mortality, the Wall Street Journal reports.
    Nov 2, 2009 NIH Awards $75 Million to Study Care Disparities
    The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $75 million to study conditions that disproportionately impact minorities and other medically underserved populations, AHA News Now reports.
    Oct 30, 2009 Implementing ICU Checklist is 'Complicated,' Developer Suggests
    Although an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) checklist initiative helped Michigan hospitals "dramatically" reduce rates of bloodstream infections, "meaningful use" of the five-step checklist is limited, nearly three years after the findings were published, the Wall Street Journal reports.
    Oct 30, 2009 Bay Area Nurses Experiment with Strategies to Reduce Medication Administration Errors
    Several San Francisco Bay-area hospitals have experienced significant reductions in medication errors through a program that prohibits nurses from being disturbed while they administer drugs, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
    Oct 29, 2009 EHR Adoption Lags at Hospitals Caring for More Low-Income Patients
    A study in Health Affairs finds an "emerging digital divide" in terms of electronic health record (EHR) system adoption among hospitals disproportionately caring for low-income patients and facilities caring for more general populations, Modern Healthcare reports.
    Oct 29, 2009 IBM Opens Health Data Analysis Center to Improve Care
    IBM Corp. has announced plans to open a center dedicated to collecting and analyzing patient data, with the ultimate goal of improving health care outcomes, the Dallas Morning News reports.
    Oct 28, 2009 Study Suggests Electronic Tools Can Improve Patient Outcomes
    A new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) suggests that consumer health IT applications can help improve outcomes for a variety of diseases and health conditions, Government Health IT reports.
    Oct 27, 2009 Rhode Island Taps E-Prescribing Data to Track H1N1 Outbreak
    Rhode Island health officials have tapped electronic pharmacy prescription data to monitor the spread of the H1N1 influenza virus, the Associated Press reports.
    Oct 27, 2009 HHS Announces Funding for Projects to Target HAIs
    U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced plans to award $17 million to fund projects aimed at preventing health care-associated infections (HAIs), Modern Healthcare reports.
    Oct 26, 2009 Pilot Project in Texas Determines MRSA Reporting to be Burdensome, Costly
    A trial study in several Texas counties concludes that requiring health officials to track cases of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is both burdensome and costly, Amarillo.com reports.
    Oct 23, 2009 Some Health Care Workers May Be 'Superspreaders' of Infection
    A study published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that health care workers, such as radiologists and physical therapists, may play a disproportionate role in spreading hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), suggesting the need for hospitals to evaluate hand-hygiene compliance "individually, rather than globally," MedPage Today reports.
    Oct 23, 2009 Insurer to Reimburse Physicians for Web-Based Patient Consultations
    Schenectady, N.Y.-based health insurance provider MVP Health Care has announced plans to begin reimbursing network physicians for conducting Web-based patient consultations, Health Data Management reports.
    Oct 22, 2009 Errors More Common in Teaching Hospitals at Start of Academic Year
    A study published in the British Medical Journal suggests that the rate of medical errors among medical interns and residents at teaching hospitals is significantly greater at the beginning of the academic year regardless of trainees' level of clinical experience, Reuters reports.
    Oct 22, 2009 RWJF Awards Funding for Projects Designed to Reduce Care Disparities
    The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has awarded grants of up to $258,500 each to seven organizations to support the development and testing of interventions aimed at reducing racial and ethnic care disparities, AHA News Now reports.
    Oct 21, 2009 Vermont Group Receives Funding to Offer Free E-Prescribing to Physicians
    Vermont Information Technology Leaders (VITL) Inc., which operates Vermont's health information exchange, has received $1 million in federal funding to advance the adoption of electronic prescribing among physicians in the state, Health Data Management reports.
    Oct 20, 2009 West Virginia Hospitals Receive Funding for Pilot Project to Reduce Hospital Readmissions
    The West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services has received a $725,000 grant from the U.S. Administration of Aging for a three-year demonstration project aimed at reducing hospital readmissions among patients with chronic illness, the Associated Press reports.
    Oct 19, 2009 Study Suggests Lack of Sleep, Not Overnight Shifts, Tied to Higher Complication Rates
    A study published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that attending surgeons and obstetricians who sleep fewer than six hours between shifts may be at increased risk for making surgical errors, the Boston Globe reports.
    Oct 19, 2009 Colorado Groups Select Sites for Telemedicine Pilot Project
    Three Colorado medical facilities have been selected to participate in an initiative designed to expand telemedicine capabilities in rural areas of the state, the Denver Business Journal reports.
    Oct 16, 2009 Iowa Groups Unveil Web-Based Electronic Prescribing Tool
    Iowa Health System and health IT vendor Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions have launched a new Web-based tool designed to facilitate electronic prescribing among physicians in Iowa and western Illinois, Healthcare IT News reports.
    Oct 16, 2009 Kaiser Permanente Receives $54 Million for IT, Medical Research Projects
    Kaiser Permanente has announced the receipt of $54 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants for 22 projects, a number of which focus on the role of health information technology (IT) in improving care, Government Health IT reports.
    Oct 15, 2009 AMI, HF Mortality Rates Better at High-Performing GWTG Facilities, Study Finds
    A study published in the American Heart Journal finds that hospitals receiving achievement awards from the American Heart Association's (AHA) Get With The Guidelines (GWTG) hospital-based quality improvement program appear to have modestly lower risk-adjusted mortality rates for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and heart failure (HF) patients, compared with all other hospitals, HealthDay reports.
    Oct 15, 2009 HealthGrades: U.S. Hospital Mortality Rates Improve but Gap Persists
    A new report from HealthGrades suggests that, although in-hospital risk-adjusted mortality rates nationwide improved about 11 percent between 2006 and 2008, the gap between hospitals that received top quality ratings and those rated as average or poor performers continues to widen, Modern Healthcare reports.
    Oct 14, 2009 Buffalo, N.Y., Group Launches EHR Project to Improve Kidney Disease Care
    UBMD, the University of Buffalo's physician practice plan, and the Buffalo-based Computer Task Group are collaborating on a $29 million electronic health records (EHR) project aimed at improving the care of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), Buffalo Business First reports.
    Oct 14, 2009 Connecticut Receives Federal Funding for Infection Control Efforts
    Connecticut is receiving more than $1.2 million in federal stimulus funding to support infection control practices at hospitals throughout the state, the Associated Press reports.
    Oct 13, 2009 Google Health Adds Telemedicine Capabilities to Service Lineup
    Google Health has announced plans to partner with MDLiveCare to offer telemedicine services, Healthcare IT News reports.
    Oct 12, 2009 Hospitals, Vendors Seizing on Physicians' Use of 'Smart Phones'
    A rise in physician use of 'smart phones' is leading hospitals to experiment with the devices to find new efficiencies, as well as prompting device makers to create new medical applications in an effort to attract more customers in the health care field, the Wall Street Journal reports.
    Oct 12, 2009 University of Virginia Employs Scribes to Advance EMR Adoption
    After switching last fall to a nearly paperless patients records system, the University of Virginia (UVA) Medical Center emergency department (ED) now employs staff members equipped with laptops to trail physicians and take detailed notes that are added to patients' medical records as part of the hospital's efforts to entirely digitize patient records, USA Today reports.
    Oct 9, 2009 Scorecard Finds State-Level Gaps in Health Performance
    Citing "wide variability" in health care quality, a new state-by-state scorecard released by the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System finds that "closing the gap" of state-level health care disparities could cut Medicare spending by as much as $37 billion and free funds to help extend coverage to 29 million individuals, according to Modern Healthcare.
    Oct 8, 2009 Microsoft Launches New Online Tools for HealthVault
    Microsoft Corp. has launched a new version of its online tools to help patients better manage the information stored in their HealthVault personal health records, Health Data Management reports.
    Oct 7, 2009 Publishing Medical Outcomes Data Drove Pennsylvania Hospital Improvement
    By regularly publishing hospitals' mortality and complication rates for more than 50 treatments and procedures, a Pennsylvania agency has spurred facilities to improve while enabling employers and unions to play a key role in driving down medical costs, according to the Wall Street Journal.
    Oct 7, 2009 New Online Portal Crafts Personalized Health Plans
    The former head of Google Health has launched a new online system that generates personalized health plans based on an individual's health information and other data, the New York Times reports.
    Oct 6, 2009 Patient Safety Experts Call for Physician Accountability
    Marking the 10th anniversary of the Institute of Medicine's groundbreaking To Err is Human report, a report in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that the 'no blame' model to improve patient safety has not done enough to improve practices and calls for hospitals to adopt an accountability approach that enforces penalties when providers fail to adhere to protocols, the Wall Street Journal reports.
    Oct 6, 2009 West Virginia Broadband Network to Link Medical Facilities
    The West Virginia Telehealth Alliance has announced plans to connect several of the state's medical facilities through a broadband network, the West Virginia State Journal reports.
    Oct 5, 2009 New York-Based Hospital Alliance Receives Funding for Clinical Laboratory
    The three-hospital East End Health Alliance in New York has received nearly $13 million in state grants to establish a clinical laboratory designed to reduce costs and improve care quality, the East Hampton Press reports.
    Oct 2, 2009 Study Finds Just 31 Percent of U.S. EDs Met Recommended Wait Times
    A study recently published online in the Annals of Emergency Medicine finds that few acutely ill U.S. hospital emergency department (ED) patients are seen by physicians within recommended time frames, Modern Healthcare reports.
    Oct 2, 2009 HHS Awards Grants for EHR and IT Adoption, Implementation
    U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced that the agency has awarded $27.8 million to help hospitals and health centers implement electronic health records (EHRs) and other health information technology (IT), AHA News Now reports.
    Oct 1, 2009 AP Explores Interoperability Obstacles to EHR Adoption
    Although many physicians and health care facilities are working to adopt electronic health records (EHRs), fewer than 10 percent of U.S. providers currently deploy the systems, the Associated Press reports.
    Sep 30, 2009 N.Y.-Based Health System Invests $400 Million in EHR Effort
    North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System (North Shore-LIJ) has announced plans to invest $400 million to help more than 7,000 affiliated physicians in New York City and Long Island adopt electronic health records (EHR) systems, the New York Times reports.
    Sep 30, 2009 Vermont IT Group Works to Facilitate Statewide EHR Adoption
    A Vermont-based information technology (IT) organization has announced plans to partner with Chicago-based Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions to advance electronic health record (EHR) adoption among Vermont health care providers, Healthcare IT News reports.
    Sep 29, 2009 Report Analyzes Pennsylvania Hospital Mortality, Readmission Rates
    A new report from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) finds that, although hospitals in the state made progress between 2002 and 2008 toward reducing mortality rates, readmissions for several conditions increased during that time, Modern Healthcare reports.
    Sep 29, 2009 New York Health Department Awards $174 Million for Care Quality, Efficiency Improvement Projects
    The New York State Department of Health has awarded more than $174 million in grants to 25 hospitals in the state to support collaborative projects that aim to improve care quality and efficiency, Modern Healthcare reports.
    Sep 28, 2009 New Web Tools Designed to Reduce Care Disparities
    Two quality assurance organizations have recently launched Web-based tools designed to help hospitals and health care providers reduce health care disparities, Healthcare IT News reports.
    Sep 25, 2009 Groups Issue Strategies for EDs to Improve Pediatric Care
    The American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Emergency Physicians and the Emergency Nurses Association have issued updated guidelines for the treatment of children in U.S. emergency departments (EDs), United Press International reports.
    Sep 24, 2009 HHS Officials Suggests Health IT Could Reduce Care Disparities
    Speaking at a recent conference as part of National Health IT week, Garth Graham, M.D., deputy assistant for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health, suggested that telemedicine and other health information technology (IT) tools could be leveraged to reduce racial and ethnic care disparities, Government Health IT reports.
    Sep 23, 2009 Study Suggests Humans to Blame for Most ED Errors
    A study published in BMC Emergency Medicine finds that the majority of errors occurring in hospital emergency departments (EDs) that resulted in or may have resulted in adverse events are attributable to human error, MedPage Today reports.
    Sep 23, 2009 Camden, N.J. to Launch EHR Exchange
    The three major health systems serving Camden, N.J., have announced plans to create an electronic health record (EHR) exchange, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
    Sep 22, 2009 Delaware Adopts Standardized Wristband Coding System
    The Delaware Healthcare Association has implemented a voluntary standardized patient wristband color coding system for hospitals throughout the state, AHA News Now reports.
    Sep 22, 2009 Maryland to Launch Statewide HIE
    Maryland officials have announced plans to create a statewide health information exchange (HIE), the Baltimore Sun reports.

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