The End
The first post on this blog was added on November 12, 2004 – it’s hard to believe I’ve been writing online about various aspects of healthcare for almost ten years.
When I started this site, originally named MSSPNexus, (Medical Staff Service Professionals) the focus of my writing was current news and standards pertaining to hospital medical staff administration. Later, as my career took a different path, I added risk management and over the past few years patient blood management into the mix.
In 2004 being a healthcare blogger was a heady experience; there weren’t that many of us and we for...
Source: MSSPNexus Blog - August 30, 2014 Category: Health Managers Authors: rkschwab Tags: Blood Management Career General Patient Safety Professional Staff Admin Risk Management bloodless medicine credentialing healthcare medical staff services patient blood management Source Type: blogs
The Patient Safety Movement
ZERO Preventable Patient Deaths by 2020
The Patient Safety Movement is connecting People, Ideas and Technology to confront the large scale problem of over 200,000 preventable patient deaths in US hospitals each year by providing actionable ideas and innovations that can transform the process of care, dramatically improve patient safety and help eliminate patient preventable deaths. We are doing this one solution, one commitment, one hospital, one act of kindness and love, and one patient at a time. The movement is breaking down silos between hospitals, medical technology companies, patient advocates, patients, the governme...
Source: MSSPNexus Blog - April 27, 2014 Category: Health Managers Authors: rkschwab Tags: Patient Safety patient safety movement Source Type: blogs
Choosing Wisely – Critical Care Societies Collaborative
Healthcare professionals tend, like everyone else, to make some choices based on habit or training. The web site Choosing Wisely encourages physicians and patients to question some of those routine choices.
Choosing Wisely® aims to promote conversations between physicians and patients by helping patients choose care that is:
Supported by evidence
Not duplicative of other tests or procedures already received
Free from harm
Truly necessary
One of the lists on the site is from the Critical Care Societies Collaborative; five things physicians and patients should question:
1. Don’t order diagnostic tests at regular...
Source: MSSPNexus Blog - January 31, 2014 Category: Health Managers Authors: rkschwab Tags: Blood Management Patient Safety choosing wisely Source Type: blogs
Did You Know?
There are numerous benefits to applying blood conservation principles in patient care, most often referred to as Patient Blood Management. For example:
Allogeneic transfusion is emerging as a potent risk factor for many complications commonly seen in hospitalized patients. – Mt. Sinai Journal of Medicine http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/msj.21290/full
Donated blood doesn’t transfer oxygen from the blood to the body tissues as effectively as the patient’s own blood does. - Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/marijkevroomendurning/2013/08/14/blood-transfusions-after-surgery-multiple-units-...
Source: MSSPNexus Blog - December 26, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: rkschwab Tags: Blood Management Patient Safety patient blood management Source Type: blogs
Have We Lost the Art of Medicine?
Experienced Caregiver Shares 3 Tips for Injecting Humanity into an Often Cold & Arbitrary Heath-Care System
As a well-traveled, well-educated couple who spent most of their lives in New York City, Philip and Ruth Barash had witnessed and experienced much as they approached their golden years. A savvy New York couple, they’d learned to anticipate challenges.
Philip was a U.S. Army veteran who’d served in the Korean War and later became an attorney; Ruth’s education and experience includes philosophy, art, real estate, public relations and executive-level civic work. But one problem they didn’t foresee was navig...
Source: MSSPNexus Blog - November 26, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: rkschwab Tags: Patient Safety navigating healthcare Source Type: blogs
NAMSS and AHLA Approve Partnership
The NAMSS Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the AHLA, American Health Lawyers Association, have approved an exciting joint initiative allowing NAMSS members access to a network of 11,000 health lawyers.
NAMSS members can now join the AHLA organization and their Medical Staff, Credentialing and Peer Review Practice Group (MS/CPR) at the discounted rate of $110 for annual membership.
Established to help bridge the relationship gap between MSPs and the legal staff who represent their facilities, this partnership will provide a platform for NAMSS members to have open dialogue with legal staff and exchange in...
Source: MSSPNexus Blog - November 3, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: rkschwab Tags: Professional Staff Admin Risk Management AHLA NAMSS Source Type: blogs
New Patient Blood Management Certification Program Proposed by Joint Commission
The Joint Commission is developing a Patient Blood Management certification program for Joint Commission-accredited hospitals. Patient blood management incorporates a patient-centered approach into the blood utilization activities and blood conservation strategies that occur within the hospital. Blood conservation strategies minimize the need for blood transfusions.
Patient blood management applies to all patient populations from pediatrics to geriatrics. It also spans the entire continuum of patient medical care, including the management of anemia, minimization of blood loss, and optimization of coagulation, in addition t...
Source: MSSPNexus Blog - August 31, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: rkschwab Tags: Blood Management Patient Safety joint commission patient blood management Source Type: blogs
Living Forever Online May Not Be a Good Thing
Guest Post. In these days of social media and automatic bill pay, Hillel L. Presser, Esq. offers some worthwhile tips for all of us.
Asset Protection Lawyer Offers 3 Steps to Take Now
Now, you really can live forever, but that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Many of your online accounts – from automatic bill payments to eBay – may remain active after you pass away, unless you take steps to ensure they don’t, says attorney Hillel Presser, author of “Financial Self-Defense (Revised Edition), ”www.assetprotectionattorneys.com.
Automatic bill pay, for example, can theoretically keep tapping your bank account long...
Source: MSSPNexus Blog - August 13, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: rkschwab Tags: General Source Type: blogs
Questions to Ask About Blood Transfusion and Heart Surgery
Conventional wisdom may lead you to believe you’ll fare better (during surgery) if you get a transfusion, but that’s not always the case, said Colleen Koch, MD, vice chair for research and education in cardiothoracic anesthesiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. In fact, heart surgery patients who receive blood transfusions tend not to do as well as those who don’t receive them, Dr. Koch noted.
During a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, for example, a patient at one hospital might be given two units of blood, while doctors at another center may decide not to give a similar patient a blood transfusion....
Source: MSSPNexus Blog - July 10, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: rkschwab Tags: Blood Management Source Type: blogs
Physician Suicide – A Tragedy for Us All
“Physicians have the highest suicide rate of any profession. In the United States we lose over 400 physicians per year to suicide. That’s the equivalent of an entire medical school. Even that’s an underestimate because many physician suicides are incorrectly identified as accidents.”
So states Pamela Wible, M.D. in her article, What I’ve learned from saving physicians from suicide.
In the article she quotes a Canadian doctor who shares her frustration with the practice of medicine. ”My head is exploding from banging it against the system.”
If you suspect a physician you know is suffering, reach out...
Source: MSSPNexus Blog - June 23, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: rkschwab Tags: Professional Staff Admin Risk Management Source Type: blogs
CMS Provider Charge Comparison Data
Working your way through the large CMS Provider Charge Data file will take a bit of time and effort, but it’s certainly a gold-mine of comparitive costs. Charges for the top 100 DRGs with and without major complications / comorbid conditions, is searchable across locations and organizations. Downloadable as an Excel or comma delimited file.
http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/index.html (Source: MSSPNexus Blog)
Source: MSSPNexus Blog - May 11, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: rkschwab Tags: Transparency cms cost compare CMS hospital compare Source Type: blogs
Reporter Finally Gets to Wear Shirt & Tie Louwana Berry Gave Him
Since I worked nearby at the Cleveland Clinic during the time these young girls went missing, this is a story that touches my heart.
19 Action News Reporter Bill Safos has covered Amanda Berry’s disappearance since the beginning. He grew very close with the Berry family, and Amanda’s mother, Louwana. In fact, Bill’s shirt and tie were a gift from Louwana. Before she passed away, she bought the clothes for Bill and made him promise that he wear them on “the day Mandy comes home.”
It was a promise Bill was more than honored to keep today. (Source: MSSPNexus Blog)
Source: MSSPNexus Blog - May 8, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: rkschwab Tags: General Amanda Berry Bill Safos Source Type: blogs
Bloodless Medicine Lessons Learned: Benefiting All
Bloodless medicine programs have been formed in hundreds of leading hospitals around the globe in the last 20 years. Initially established to meet the needs of patients who decline transfused blood for religious or personal reasons, as healthcare consumers become more educated a growing number of patients are now requesting care without the use of donated blood whenever possible.
What lessons in blood management have we learned during the past two decades?
Transfusion triggers have been lowered.
In 1998 the “10/30 rule” (i.e., RBC transfusion indicated below a hemoglobin concentration of 10 g/dL or a...
Source: MSSPNexus Blog - April 28, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: rkschwab Tags: Blood Management Patient Safety bloodless medicine patient blood management Source Type: blogs
Hospital Inspections Site Launched
Healthcare transparency took a step forward this week. The Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have collaborated to bring HospitalInspections.org online.
The searchable database contains information about serious federal safety rule violations in U.S. hospitals since January, 2011. It does not contain hospital responses to deficiencies cited during inspections. Those can be obtained by filing a request with a hospital or the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Searching is free.
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Example: Greivance
One e...
Source: MSSPNexus Blog - March 24, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: rkschwab Tags: General Patient Safety Risk Management Transparency CMS Hospital Source Type: blogs
Angry Physicians Impact Care
Kaiser Health Plan reports on a long-festering problem that many hospitals have been reluctant to address: disruptive and often angry behavior by doctors. Experts estimate that 3 to 5 percent of physicians engage in such behavior, berating nurses who call them in the middle of the night about a patient, flinging scalpels at trainees who aren’t moving fast enough, demeaning co-workers they consider incompetent or cutting off patients who ask a lot of questions.
Experts say that doctors’ bad behavior is not merely unpleasant; it also has a corrosive effect on morale and poses a significant threat to patient safet...
Source: MSSPNexus Blog - March 14, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: rkschwab Tags: Career General Patient Safety Professional Staff Admin Risk Management disruptive behavior workplace bullying Source Type: blogs
