Hospital Ratings May Not Be True Quality Measure

From the Washington Post:
Conventional wisdom holds that one sure way to improve health-care quality is to measure it. A study being published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association comes to the unconventional conclusion that it’s not necessarily so.
The study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine foundthat going to [...]

Proposed Changes to JCAHO Emergency Management Standards

Proposed Changes to JCAHO Emergency Management Standards
JCAHO is seeking comments on proposed revisions to the Emergency Management Standards that would require organizations to establish a more rigorous emergency management plan in response to communitywide emergencies. The proposed standards revisions emphasize a scalable approach to emergency management. These revisions would establish specific operational requirements for planning [...]

Education About Fraud, Waste & Abuse

From the NY Times:
Starting Jan. 1, companies that do at least $5 million a year in Medicaid business must educate all employees and officers on how to detect fraud, waste and abuse. Moreover, health care providers must tell employees that if they report fraud, they will be protected against retaliation and may be entitled [...]

The Joint Commission will now be officially called…

From Health Decisions:
Beginning in January, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations–for decades commonly referred to as “The Joint Commission”–plans to change its name to “The Joint Commission.”
A December 11 memo from JCAHO President Dennis O’Leary, MD, to all JCAHO employees reveals the name change plans. “This change is simply intended make our name [...]

Congress Eliminates Medicare Pay Cut to Doctors

Despite the predictions that it wasn’t going to happen, House and Senate negotiators reached a compromise that rescinded the scheduled 5% Medicare rate cut for physicians in 2007 and established a 1.5% incentive increase - beginning July 2007 - for doctors who report on quality measures. The measure also creates a fund to stabilize [...]

Watchful Waiting

From CNN.com
Sometimes, his doctor prescribes antibiotics. But in many cases, his parents have waited it out, using Tylenol, warm baths and some extra tender loving care to ease him through it. And he recovers on his own.
More than ever, many parents and doctors these days are taking a “watchful waiting” approach with children older than [...]

2007 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule

December 11, 2006 — Late in the evening on Saturday, December 9, the U.S. Senate passed the “Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006″ (H.R. 6111) by a vote of 79-9 with 12 not voting.  The legislation, passed by the House on December 8 contains a fix of the 2007 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, [...]

Medicare Rate Compromise

From Modern Healthcare:
House and Senate negotiators reached a compromise bill that would eliminate a scheduled 5% Medicare rate cut for physicians in 2007 and establish a 1.5% incentive increase for doctors who report on quality measures. A House vote on the bill is expected later today, while the Senate may vote late tonight or tomorrow.

Failure to Ascertain Signs of Life?

From the Reno Gazette-Journal:
PAHRUMP, Nev. (AP) — Two emergency medical technicians were facing felony charges after police say they failed to provide medical aid to a man with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Carrol L. Meeks and Rod Fernandes were arrested Nov. 30, six days after the death of 64-year-old Linus Windler, Nye County [...]

Medtronic Spinning Off Physio Control

From Medgadget:
Medtronic has announced the spinning off of its external defibrillator business into a publicly traded company called Physio-Control, Inc. According to Medtronic, Physio-Control is already in many ways an independently functioning entity, with its own manufacturing facilities, headquartered in Redmond, Washington.
Press release