The following article was written by Kathleen Bernicky, RN, BSN, director of clinical operations for Regent Surgical Health.
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The following article is a Q&A with Wava Truscott, PhD, MBA, Director of Medical Science & Education for Kimberly-Clark Health Care.
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Wrong site/side surgery is a serious concern in the healthcare industry: Based on state data, Joint Commission officials estimate the problem occurs 40 times a week in U.S. hospitals and clinics.
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UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, Calif., participates in the Delivery System Reform Incentive Program, a five-year pay-for-performance initiative in which California public hospital systems aim to meet benchmarks related to healthcare access, quality and safety outcomes.
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Marcia Patrick, RN, MSN, CIC, an infection prevention consultant and a member of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology's board of directors, discusses six fundamentals for maintaining a safe and effective sterile processing department in ambulatory surgery centers.
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Central sterile processing plays a key role in hospitals' infection prevention efforts, particularly in relation to surgery patients.
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Measuring and tracking patient care processes and outcomes is essential for determining a surgery center's quality performance and identifying areas for improvement.
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Cleanliness is next to godliness in a surgical facility; patients demand it, regulatory bodies require it, and physicians and staff members expect it.
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The introduction of mandatory quality reporting for ambulatory surgery centers is expected to cause "major changes in the ASC marketplace," according to a HealthLeaders Media report.
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Disposing of fluid waste in a surgical facility seems like an obvious task — and yet many surgical facilities botch the process, endangering employees through potential exposure to infection.
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CMS issued a rule yesterday that will update Medicare payment policies and rates for inpatient stays in acute-care hospitals under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System and hospitals paid under the Long-Term Care Hospitals Prospective Payment System in fiscal year 2013.
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Research results out of Harvard Medical School suggest that global payments could lower healthcare spending while improving healthcare quality.
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Donna Tiberi, RN, a standards interpretation staff member with the Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program, discusses 10 common roadblocks observed during the surveying process of achieving ambulatory surgery center accreditation.
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The nature of ASCs could make efforts to achieve accreditation more challenging.
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Data on outbreaks related to unsafe injection practices in ambulatory care settings are limited and may underestimate the full extent of such outbreaks, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
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More than 10 years ago, the Institute of Medicine in its landmark report, "To Err is Human," pointed out that at least 44,000 people, and perhaps as many as 98,000 people, die in hospitals each year as a result of medical errors that could have been prevented. IOM therefore called for the building of a safer healthcare delivery system.
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David C. Watts, MD, the Vice President of Education for the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities(AAAASF), discusses five mistakes to avoid when pursuing Medicare accreditation in an ambulatory surgery center.
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