Hospitals have been working toward better patient satisfaction for years. Now, with patient experience survey results posted publicly and a new national value-based purchasing system in place, it's mo...

In healthcare facilities across the United States, ­x-rays and CT scans are used widely and often. Because of them, patients rarely undergo risky exploratory surgery, and countless lives are undou...

Joint Commission issues alert on fatigue On December 14, 2011, The Joint Commission released a Sentinel Event Alert warning hospitals of the link between healthcare worker fatigue and adverse even...

As the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, medical errors just don't seem to be going away. Many healthcare professionals agree that reporting such errors is the only way to learn from...

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has released its most recent Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2012 User Comparative Database ­Report, which includes responses fro...

There are always times to come back to center-to return to why we work so hard to improve processes, performance, and measures like overall hospital ratings. In the sea of scores, metrics, and meeting...

In 2009, The Joint Commission added Leadership standard LD.03.01.01, "Leaders create and maintain a culture of safety and quality throughout the hospital," to recognize that behavior that in...

In 2011, the 311-bed Lucile Packard Children's ­Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., was beginning to use its ­Packard Quality Management System as a methodology for improvement, empowering employe...

Conducting a timeout, including the use of a checklist, before beginning a surgery is a well-known requirement of The Joint Commission-it has been a standard of quality care for years now. Staff in op...

More than 2,500 general hospitals in the United States received Hospital Safety Scores, and although 32% received an “A,” patient safety experts say those numbers aren’t high enoug...