Las Vegas resident Vertis Boyce has always liked to travel to visit friends and family. But for the past 9½ years, her travel has been limited by her need for dialysis treatments. Boyce experienced renal failure in 2008 due to a combination of high blood pressure and a genetic disposition."Traveling was an inconvenience because I always had to set up appointments for … [Read more...]
Home healthcare providers' infection prevention efforts hampered by dearth of data, tools
Bayada Home Health Care had to go it alone when it developed infection control and prevention protocols for its clinicians.Unlike the numerous infection prevention resources available to hospitals and nursing homes, there isn't much published guidance for home health providers on how to best protect patients from infections.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn't … [Read more...]
Editorial: A strategy for combating opioid addiction
Everyone in Washington agrees bold action to combat the opioid epidemic is long overdue. Yet the legislation advancing in Congress barely qualifies as a start.The bipartisan Opioid Crisis Response Act, sponsored by Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), would spend a paltry $6 billion over two years in more than two dozen programs. They include more support … [Read more...]
Top health systems strive to reduce variation in performance across network
At the three hospitals in the Asante health system, the process for preventing central line-associated bloodstream infections is designed to proceed in exactly the same way.The nurse manager in each unit is tasked with rounding on all patients who have a central venous catheter to check if it's clean and properly in place. To do this, she begins each shift by logging onto her … [Read more...]
Guest Commentary: Some lessons from an ACO's evolution
Five years ago, the term accountable care organization became a trending buzzword. However, as we quickly learned, if you've seen one ACO, you've seen just that … one ACO.That's because virtually all ACOs have a unique governing structure and provider participants—from physician-only, to physicians and hospital partners, or hospital and skilled-nursing facilities, … [Read more...]