The Quality letter for healthcare leaders最新文献

The National Committee for Quality Assurances (NCQA's) annual assessment of healthcare quality noted some good news and some bad news for the healthcare community. For the good news, more health plans and providers are approaching optimal results for several measures related to cardiovascular care and cancer prevention. However, failure of all plans to deliver the right preventive or follow-up care for other common conditions--such as diabetes and high blood pressure--means that more than 57,000 Americans are dying unnecessarily every year, NCQA estimated.

All hospitals and health systems in the country face the same problem: What do they do with the millions of tons of waste they generate each year? This issue of The Quality Letter for Healthcare Leaders reveals what a number of award-winning organizations and individuals are doing to make a difference in the healthcare environment through new and innovative ways while impacting the lives of patients, employees, community members, and future generations. Their methods include eliminating the use of products containing mercury, recycling to creating new consumer products, and reviewing the hazards of pharmaceutical disposal.

Physicians and medical groups that provide quality care to patients with heart disease or stroke now can be recognized under a program launched last month by the National Committee for Quality Assurance and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

In recent years, many hospitals and some state agencies with healthcare oversight have called for the creation of restraint-free environments. But can these changes lead to an actual increase in falls? A new web-based system that uses real-time data is providing a picture of the impact of reduced restraint use.

Much has been written and discussed about low clinical and decision-support tools can help providers deliver quality care to their patients. But there are theories--and then there are realities--about what will actually work in the real world and how useful they will be. When incorporating decision-support tools into electronic health records, the results may not always be predictable.

For 35 years, J.D. Power and Associates has presented its much-coveted awards recognizing product and service quality and customer satisfaction in a variety of industries. This year, the company added a new category: hospitals. To better understand patients' reactions to their hospital experiences, the company looked at five key drivers of customer satisfaction: dignity and respect, speed and efficiency, comfort, information and communication, and emotional support. This issue looks at five hospitals recognized by the company for their service excellence and why they emphasize employee satisfaction as well as patient satisfaction.

The pay-for-performance movement received a boost in July when Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced a new Medicare pilot project, which starts October 1, that will use financial incentives to encourage hospitals to provide high-quality care for 35 measures in five clinical areas.

After 2 years of reviewing current research and studies on patient safety, the National Quality Forum released its evidence-based consensus report listing 30 "safe practices for better healthcare" at a meeting in Los Angeles. The forum's president and CEO, Kenneth Kizer, calls the report "basically a road map for safety" that can be used in not only hospitals but also other healthcare facilities such as nursing homes and ambulatory care settings.

A recent survey from the American Medical Association Foundation found that the issue of health literacy is just a blip on many physicians' radar screens. However, this problem is beginning to receive greater attention because of its magnitude: An estimated 90 million adult Americans face challenges in understanding basic, common instructions given to them by their physicians. Related to low health literacy is the potential impact on patient outcomes, which could mean additional healthcare costs of up to $73 billion annually. This issue of The Quality Letter for Healthcare Leaders looks at how health literacy is defined and what can be done to improve communication among providers and patients from all walks of life to promote quality healthcare.

With each tick of the clock, healthcare leaders are coming face to face with a pressing quandary: How can they best guide their organizations to success and sustainability in a rocky and ever-changing healthcare environment? A new "model of sustainability," developed with input from nine CEOs of top medical institutions, may provide some guidance. The model includes six leadership imperatives that underscore critical approaches to supporting the hospital of the future: Build strong organization-wide leadership, become the employer of choice, generate financial strength, redesign structures and processes, develop productive physician relationships, and engage consumers.