The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) will release the largest known report of perioperative medication errors and discuss how surgical patients face an increased risk of harmful medication errors due to a fragmented system.

(Logo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070119/DCF013LOGO )    WHEN: Tuesday, March 6, 2007, 11:00 a.m. ET

WHO: The Webinar will be presented by: Diane D. Cousins, R.Ph., vice president of USP's Department of

Healthcare Quality and Information;  Rodney Hicks, Ph.D., ARNP, manager of patient safety research and

practice in USP's Department of Healthcare Quality and Information; and Shawn C. Becker, M.S., B.S.N., R.N.,

director of patient safety initiatives for USP's Department of Healthcare Quality and Information    COMMENTARY:

Commentary will be provided by representatives from organizations that contributed to the report, including:

-- American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses (ASPAN);    -- Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN); and Uniformed Services University

of the Health Sciences (USUHS)    To Register for the Webinar:

To participate in the Webinar (or listen in via phone), please RSVP to medmarx@ecius.net or for further information contact Tracy Krughoff at tlk@ecius.net.

The National Association of Specialty Health Organizations’ (NASHO), board of directors announced that it has approved a position statement supporting increased transparency of health information. NASHO represents specialty health organizations – businesses that facilitate and support the delivery of specialized healthcare services in partnership with insurance carriers and employers. NASHO believes that transparency will ensure consumers have information on quality and cost of health care to support informed decisions about health care.
for more, click here

Cardinal Health, the leading provider of products and services supporting the health-care industry, today launched a new point-of-care offering to help hospitals reduce medication errors.
For the first time, nurses and other clinicians will be able to use one application to monitor orders for their patients, determine the location of medications, pre-program pumps for IV infusions, verify the accuracy of medications administered and document to the hospital’s existing IT systems. This is made possible by new technologies from Cardinal Health and a new seamless information flow among its Care Fusion(R) bedside verification application, Pyxis MedStation(R) units and Alaris(R) System IV pumps.
Cardinal Health is the first and only company who can offer a complete suite of automated dispensing cabinets, smart infusion pumps and bedside bar code verification systems, and have them communicate seamlessly with one another. The new point-of-care technology also allows clinical data to flow from the hospital pharmacy information system through a single Cardinal Health interface. The system will also support reporting to other information technology systems in the hospital.
for more, click here

HIMSS THOMSON HEALTHCARE BOOTH #4437 — In light of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) 2006 Preventing Medication Errors report, Thomson Healthcare is showcasing innovative new clinical decision support solutions for improving a hospital’s medication safety and performance management processes at the HIMSS annual conference Feb. 25-March 1 in New Orleans, La. Thomson Healthcare, part of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC), is the leading provider of healthcare decision support solutions to improve clinical and business performance outcomes.
The three integrated medication safety solutions — Order Sets, Patient- Specific Dosing and Medication Reconciliation — support the healthcare industry’s need to connect clinicians to relevant medical knowledge at any point in the patient care process. The solutions are a core component of the Thomson Healthcare Clinical Xpert(TM) family of Web-based clinical workflow applications. The applications link to Thomson Healthcare’s authoritative clinical knowledge, which is updated with the latest evidence by a team of practicing physicians, nurses and pharmacists, and helps hospitals and health systems meet Joint Commission core measures.
for more, click here

Most boards are not comfortable taking responsibility for quality of care, according to the Institutes for Healthcare Improvement. To help address this need, IHI is pleased to offer “From the Top: The Role of the Board in Quality and Safety.” Led by national experts in governance and quality, this program will improve the capability of your organization’s board to oversee quality and safety endeavors. Participants will be equipped with the practical tools and skills to take responsibility for the quality performance of the organization.

This program is ideal for ahead-of-the-curve organizations that already have quality as a prominent item on their agenda. Ideal participants are those that have had some initial success building the “will” for change within their system and now are ready for the most effective tools for implementing the quality and safety agenda at the top of their organization.

for Institute for Healthcare Improvement website, click here

According to a UPI story, about 45 percent of Americans surveyed believe healthcare costs are the No. 1 health issue in the United States today. Forty-two percent said their health insurance has at one point refused to pay for a medical or hospital bill they received, and 30 percent said they have hesitated to go to the doctor because they had no insurance.

The interactive poll compiled data from 10,258 U.S. participants regarding health issues from Feb. 9 to 12. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point.

When Americans put off going to the doctor, they increase their risk of the major causes of death, such as heart disease and cancer — conditions that are also sometimes preventable, said Rick Mill of the American Medical Association.

For instance, a stroke occurs every 45 seconds and kills more than 150,000 people in the United States every year, according to the American Stroke Association, although regular blood-pressure checks can detect the risk factors of a stroke and perhaps prevent them from happening.

High-blood pressure, a “silent killer,” can be treated when detected early, said Rick Kellerman, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. But without insurance, many Americans cannot afford the screening procedure.

for full story, click here

Ongoing cuts to the Medicare and Medicaid programs; the rise of managed care’s delays and denials of healthcare reimbursement; competition from freestanding ambulatory care centers; a growing gap in charity care funding combined with an uninsured number that has grown to 1.4 million have landed many of our facilities on the critical list.
Recent media accounts talk of some hospitals filing for bankruptcy, others putting the “for sale” sign in their windows and still others seeking relief by looking for municipal and taxpayer support.
for full story on New Jersey Hospital Association Website, click here

Joining the national debate over the 47 million people without health insurance, a group of the largest commercial hospital chains plans to propose today that individuals be required to have basic health coverage.

The proposal, which the hospital group hopes might eventually find its way into federal legislation, would require individuals to take coverage through employers, when health benefits are offered; purchase it on their own; or if they are eligible, to receive it through existing government programs.

In less than two decades, half of everything seniors consume may be health care, according to a new study by the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA). For today’s oldest seniors, this has already happened.

For the oldest seniors health care spending is higher than spending on housing, food, savings and taxes combined,” said Andrew Rettenmaier, executive associate director of the Private Enterprise Research Center at Texas A&M University and an NCPA Senior Fellow who co-authored the report. “However, most of the money spent on seniors’ health care comes from sources other than their own. In addition to out-of-pocket spending and premium payments, seniors’ medical expenses are paid by Medicare, Medicaid and former employer health plans.”
The study notes that total health care spending on the elderly — including both out-of-pocket spending by seniors and third-party expenditures — will constitute a growing portion of seniors’ “total potential consumption.” “Total potential consumption” includes everything seniors can consume: all their personal income plus all health care expenditures by third parties net of premium payments.
For full story, click here

“We are losing the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of patients every day due to preventable medical errors,” said Jim Henry, global industry leader for the healthcare practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The safety and quality of healthcare is of growing concern to the US because health status and national productivity are directly linked. Healthcare quality has been a source of concern to the US, which spends the most per capita on healthcare in the world yet ranks lowest among developed countries on the most basic measures of health status such as life expectancy at birth and infant mortality. Nearly 100,000 hospital patients die annually — 274 people a day — because of preventable medical errors, according to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.