Supporting Safer Healthcare

The Joint Commission released a statement applauding the revised Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Telemedicine Credentialing and Privileging requirements. The new rule, long supported by the Joint Commission, becomes effective on July 5, 2011. The rule, which applies to all hospitals that participate in Medicare, and inpatients at critical access hospitals (CAH), upholds The Joint Commission’s [...]

CMS plans to add new patient safety measures in the areas of hospital acquired conditions and healthcare associated infections, to the Hospital Compare Web site in 2011. CMS also intends to begin utilizing displays of composite measures summarizing both process and outcome measures. This information collection request covers consumer research on displays, labels, and explanatory [...]

Prior to providing care, treatment, and services, the hospital obtains or renews orders (verbal or written) from a licensed independent practitioner. Sounds like a no-brainer right?  How difficult can it be for hospitals to comply with such a simple standard? Turns out, pretty difficult.  Nearly every hospital struggles to comply with at least one aspect of that simple-sounding [...]

Each hospital with an individual Medicare provider agreement must have a single medical staff and a medical executive committee, according to CMS Conditions of Participation, 42 C.F.R. §482.22.  This rule applies whether or not the hospital is part of a unified system. While system credentials committees are acceptable, because credentials committee’s are not mentioned under the CoPs, joint [...]

Proposed change to hospital Conditions of Participation regarding credentialing telemedicine providers published in today’s Federal Register. Federal Register – May 26, 2010, CMS In a move that is no doubt welcomed by every medical services professional around the country, as well as every credentials committee and telemedicine group, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) [...]

Do you or a staff member want to brush up on the CMS hospital requirements pertaining to patient grievance? A 20 question quiz on Patient Grievance has been added to the free interactive Healthcare Administration Quizzes available at Simple Data Solutions.com.  Stop over and test your knowledge.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulations for Dialysis centers, updated in 2008, serve as minimum standards that dialysis facilities must meet in order to meet to be certified under the Medicare program.  The revised rule focuses on the importance of patient rights, patient safety and the patient’s participation in the development of his [...]

CMS and Joint Commission are taking the issue of patient restraint and seclusion seriously.  Hospitals and individual care givers must do the same,  Not just because of the regulatory agencies, but because patients deserve to feel safe, and to be treated with dignity.  That having been said, some patients need to be restrained, for their own [...]

Kathy Matzka, CPMSM, CPCS was kind enough to forward a link this week that I’ve been searching for with limited success.  In October, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued an update to their interpretive guidelines for the Hospital Conditions of Participation.  One would think that release would be well advertised and easy to find; not so.   Since all hospitals [...]

CMS has added three additional hospital acquired conditions (HAC’s) to it’s list of events that qualify for reduced reimbursement as of October 1, 2008. In last year’s final rule, CMS listed eight preventable conditions for which it would not make additional payments.  In this year’s proposed rule, CMS identified nine potential categories of conditions, but [...]