News
Tackling the Readmissions Problem
May 7, 2016
Virtually every hospital system in the country deals with the challenge of readmissions, especially 30-day readmissions, and it’s only getting worse.
News
New Hospitalist Billing Code Should Benefit Hospitalists, Patients
May 5, 2016
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that within the year hospitalists will be assigned their own specialty designation code. [caption id="attachment_14677" align="alignright" width="300"] Illustration/Paul Juestrich; Photos Shuttershock.com[/caption] Up to
News
Five Situations Where Hospitalists Need a Healthcare Attorney
May 4, 2016
It is inevitable that, at some point in your career, you will need to hire a healthcare attorney. Proper representation is the best way to ensure a positive outcome in any situation. [caption id="attachment_12942" align="alignright" width="150"] Dr.
News
Benefits of Earlier Palliative Care
May 3, 2016
Offering palliative care early to hospitalized patients with multiple serious conditions could improve care and help reduce healthcare spending, according to “Palliative Care Teams’ Cost-Saving Effect Is Larger for Cancer Patients with Higher Numbers of Comorbidities,” published in Health Affairs.
News
Email Alerts Can Help Improve Quality in a Hospital
May 3, 2016
Alert emails can be a simple, low-cost means of improving quality in a hospital, as the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston learned.
News
Proposals Pave the Way for New Drugs
April 30, 2016
To promote achievable solutions in the ongoing debate on drug financing, Anthem, Inc.
News
Video Feedback Can Be a Helpful Tool for QI, Patient Safety
April 30, 2016
Procedures are the most expensive item in healthcare, but tremendous variation remains in quality. “In part that’ s because we have weak systems of peer support and in part because medicine sanctions a physician to do procedures, and then for the next 40 or 50 years, a surgeon can receive no inpu
Opinion
Attributes of Successful Hospitalist Groups
April 27, 2016
In the first two installments of my own list of attributes that are important underpinnings of successful hospitalist groups, I covered group culture and decision making, recruiting, the importance of a written policy and procedure manual and performance dashboard, and roles for advanced practice cl
News
Tool Offers Hand Hygiene Help
April 23, 2016
The healthcare industry is not yet at zero when it comes to healthcare-associated infections—and that’s a problem.
News
When Introducing Innovations, Context Matters
April 23, 2016
Are we overlooking factors that could help bring about necessary changes to the healthcare industry? Elliott S.