Supporting Safer Healthcare

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations is requesting a field review of proposed revisions to standards that would require organizations to perform more thorough evaluations of planned emergency management drills.  The proposed revisions would be applicable for the ambulatory care, office-based surgery, behavioral health care, critical access hospital, hospital, home care and long [...]

On May 16th Grand Challenges in Global Health  a fund managed and administerd by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health received a $250 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  The initiative was established in 2003 to support world class research on the diseases that disproportionately affect people in the developing [...]

The MSSPNexus Blog suffered a meltdown a few days ago, and because I had it set up on Blogger, which is a free service, there wasn’t much technical help available to get it fixed.  So, for the past few days I’ve been working to move it to a new server.  Sometimes learning new technology is [...]

It will come as no surprise to those of us who work with physicians, many are sliding down a slippery slope toward burnout. Because burnout impacts patient care, it also carries a malpractice risk. Doctors headed toward burnout typically are irritable and abrupt with patients, and they don’t listen. They make mistakes, and mistakes are [...]

Listen to yourself today. Is your conversation filled with grumbling and complaining about your lot in life? Is it focused on the negative? If so, consider this. If you perceive that it’s someone else’s fault that you’re not happy and successful, then conversely, any happiness and success you achieve must also be someone else’s doing. [...]

Per JCAHO E-mail dated June 1, 2005: Correction:  In the May 2005 issue of JCAHOnline, an article introduced revisions to Leadership standard LD.3.70. The standard, effective January 1, 2006, addresses an organization’s responsibilities for individuals not employed by the organization who are providing services in the organization under the direct responsibility of a licensed independent [...]

For a while this seemed like it would be a year of endless Winter… but the beauty of Spring has finally arrived, and with it the annual sense of new beginnings and limitless possibilities.

Minnesotans may be surprised to learn that some of the state’s best-known hospitals have not made the cut as preferred providers for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. The tier rankings, which will be officially released by Blue Cross next week, are part of an attempt to steer Blue Cross members to less-expensive facilities, [...]

NOTE: Per an April 2005 JCAHO news release, implementation of EP 19 has been delayed until 2007.http://www.jcaho.org/about+us/news+letters/this+month+/#New2

The healthcare industry’s focus on Complimentary and Alternative providers (CAM), also known as AHPs (Allied Health Professionals) is changing the scope of our roles in Medical Staff Administration. These jobs represent fields that are among the fastest growing in healthcare. In many organizations MSSPs work closely with Human Resources to develop and maintain polices, practices, [...]