All Features
Patrick Stone
How often do we see Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) violations issued because a regulated entity did not secure the electronic records at the hospital and small clinics? Large-scale security breaches and, sometimes, reports of illegal sales of electronic medical records by…
Knowledge at Wharton
When you overhear a person five spots ahead of you at the coffee shop ordering a mocha light decaf, no whip, one pump, it might be enough to make you abandon your place in line and walk out. But what if the context is different and what’s at stake isn’t a hand-crafted drink, but your health—or…
John Roth
In an earlier article, I explained how the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of Criminal Investigation (OCI) works when a small portion of the industry fails to adequately respond to regulatory action. For Abbott Laboratories and Amgen, the price for regulatory malfeasance was high: $1.4…
Gallup
If you’re a hospital leader, the safety of your patients and your employees might be keeping you up at night. That’s because senior management is accountable for creating and maintaining a safe environment for hospital staff and patients. You’re right to be concerned. Research has shown that the…
Quality Digest
On March 28, 2013, the world lost a person whom many consider to be a major contributor to the world of industrial statistics: George E. P. Box. Relatively unknown outside the world of statistics, Box was certainly very well known by those who have studied or practiced industrial statistics.
His…
Harry Hertz
According to a recent PBS report based on information from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United States’ healtcare expenditures are 2.5 times greater than that of the most developed nations around the world. Depending on which report you read, our healthcare…
Matthew E. May
Recently I had a conversation with a friend who was upset about some directional shifts and a looming job shuffle within his company. As I listened to the lament, I recognized that the changes he described focused on the symptoms of the issue. All of his reactions and proposed courses of action…
Davis Balestracci
The 24th Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Annual Forum took place on Dec. 9–12, 2012. It is probably the leading health care improvement event in the world. I have presented there for 20 consecutive years and watched it evolve from barely 1,000 attendees to well over 5,000. What’s changed…
Margaret A. Hamburg
Every year, millions of products regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) flood into the United States from 150 countries. Ensuring these products are safe and effective can be daunting task. It was heartening for me to sign two cooperative arrangements with some of our international…
Matthew E. May
I remember when I first discovered the work of Mark Graban. The year was 2008, and I was preparing to speak to the Massachusetts Hospital Association, an audience of about 400 hospital CEOs and administrators. They wanted me to tie my work with Toyota to healthcare, which I had no firsthand…
Jay Arthur—The KnowWare Man
The United States spends $2.5 trillion for healthcare. Healthcare spending is expected to reach $4.5 trillion by the end of the decade. With Obamacare becoming a reality, we need to find a way cut the cost of healthcare to help pay for these increasing costs. The Institute of Medicine (IOM)…
University of Michigan
At hospital shift changes, doctors and nurses exchange crucial information about the patients they’re handing over—or at least they strive to. In reality, they might not spend enough time talking about the toughest cases, according to a study led by the University of Michigan.
These quick but…
Johns Hopkins University
Computational medicine, a fast-growing method of using computer models and sophisticated software to figure out how disease develops—and how to thwart it—has begun to leap off the drawing board and land in the hands of doctors who treat patients for heart ailments, cancer, and other illnesses.…
Gallup
The rising cost of healthcare in the United States coupled with the absence of return on investment for Americans’ health is an important concern for many leaders across the country. And as many health systems adopt new strategies to reduce patient readmission rates and improve Hospital Consumer…
Michael Causey
There are two things right now that get relatively bipartisan support in Washington, D.C. The first is that a major league baseball team in D.C. won a pennant for the first time since we stopped huddling around our radios for entertainment. [Editor’s note: The Nationals lost in the first round of…
Tefen Management Consulting
One of the many hidden challenges in hospital systems is to ensure required supplies are readily available and in the right quantity. Significant manpower is invested in material management so that patients receive care without interruption. An optimized supply system that uses modern technology…
Tefen Management Consulting
When a medical institution aspires toward excellence and patient safety, quality enhancement proves to be a key factor essential to the process.
It goes without saying that there are countless risks in the healthcare system, and that it is always a priority to minimize these. There is nothing new…
Institute of Medicine
America’s healthcare system has become too complex and costly to continue business as usual, according to the report, “Best Care at Lower Cost: The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America” from the Institute of Medicine.
Inefficiencies, an overwhelming amount of data, and other…
Tracey Lynn King, Brian A. Stockhoff, Mary Beth Edmond
Editor’s note: This is the third of a three-part series on quality in healthcare. Part one described the Juran Model for Patient Safety, and part two identified elements of a patient safety officer program.
With between 44,000 to 98,000 patients dying each year in hospitals as a result of medical…
Mike Roberts
Adverse food safety events can have disastrous effects on branding and profitability. Because information today can go viral in a matter of hours, companies in the food and beverage industry are faced with increasing pressures to operate seamlessly, with little or no room for error…
Mary Beth Edmond, Jonathan Flanders
Editor's note: Part one of this three-part series on patient safety, "Establishing a Patient Safety Culture," offered an overview of the Juran Model for Patient Safety. Part Two takes a closer look at Juran's patient safety curriculum and certification.
It has been 22 years since the Institute of…
Mary Beth Edmond, Jonathan Flanders
Ensuring patient safety is one of the most vital and challenging roles in health care. Public reporting of preventable medical errors has forced hospitals to report their medical error numbers accurately and to improve the quality of care. Organizations such as the Institute of Medicine recommend…
Patrick Stone
Speed up approval for new health care products and minimize a major drug shortage. Sounds good so far, right? Let’s hope lawmakers get this right with a new bill designed to speed delivery and avert shortages of life-saving medicines.
Throughout the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) history,…
Alberto Gutierrez
During the next few months, manufacturers of certain in vitro diagnostic and radiology products may start to notice they are getting decisions on their premarket notification submissions, aka 510(k), sooner than expected. This will be due to a six-month pilot program called Triage, launched…
Mark Graban
As the Supreme Court debates the fate of “Obama Care,” we should recall the formal name of the law: the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Most of the public debate has been about the cost of health care, losing sight of the urgent need to fix the ongoing crisis of quality and…
