News
Barriers to Achieving High Reliability
May 10, 2016
The conceptual models being used in healthcare’s efforts to achieve high reliability may have weaknesses, according to Marc T. Edwards, MD, MBA, author of “An Organizational Learning Framework for Patient Safety,” published in the American Journal of Medical Quality.
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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.
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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
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Stigma Keeps Some Cancer Patients from getting Palliative Care
April 26, 2016
(Reuters Health) - Some cancer patients may turn down care that could ease their pain and improve their quality of life because they think this type of "palliative" treatment amounts to giving up and simply waiting to die, a small Canadian study suggests. Even though the World Health Organizatio
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Early Palliative Care Can Save Money
December 25, 2015
Clinical question: Does time to consult after admission change the effect palliative care consultation has on cost of care? Background: Studies have shown that early palliative care involvement improves quality of life and survival among cancer patients while reducing the cost of care.
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How to Develop a Comprehensive Pediatric Palliative Care Program
October 5, 2015
For Ami Doshi, MD, FAAP, a hospitalist at Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, the path to establishing a comprehensive pediatric palliative care program began with her realization during medical training that doctors didn’t always adequately address the suffering of young patients with advanced dise
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Palliative Care, Advance Care Planning Conversations Needed Between Patients, Hospitalists
September 9, 2015
Editor’s note: In July, SHM board member Howard Epstein supported the new CMS proposal to pay for advance care planning, calling it a “procedure” for hospitalists. Below are excerpts from his blog post.
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Most Important Elements of End-of-Life Care
July 29, 2015
[caption id="attachment_10755" align="alignright" width="275"] Image Credit: SHUTTERSTOCK.COM[/caption] An Australian team conducted a literature review of expected deaths in the hospital—where the majority of deaths in the developed world occur—and identified elements of end-of-life care that ar
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Joint Commission Leaders Call on Physicians to Embrace Quality Improvement
July 29, 2015
In a May 12 JAMA “Viewpoint” article, Mark Chassin, MD, FACP, MPP, MPH, The Joint Commission’s president and CEO, and David Baker, MD, FACP, MPH, The Joint Commission’s vice president for healthcare quality evaluation, called on American physicians to acquire the necessary skills to take on new resp
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PHM15: New Quality Measures for Children with Medical Complexity
July 24, 2015
Pediatric Hospital Medicine 2015's keynote speaker, Rita Mangione-Smith, MD, MPH, reviewed quality measures being developed for medically complex patients by the Center of Excellence on Quality of Care Measures for Children with Complex Needs (COE4CCN).
