There’s around 1 million American physicians who’re allowed to write opioid prescriptions, or one out of 320 Americans. However, fewer than 32,000 physicians are allowed to prescribe buprenorphine, which is used to treat opioid addiction.
CMS has begun adopting the preventable quality indicators (PQI) rate into its incentive and penalty program as a way to measure the number of preventable hospital admissions. However, PQI rates only agree with physicians' assessments 10% of the time.
On March 1, the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Olympus Corp. with paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to hospitals and doctors to buy its products. The company, which owns 85% of the U.S. endoscope market, has agreed to pay $646 million to resolve the criminal charges and civil charges...
On February 24, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Robert Califf, MD, as the new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner. The Senate vote in Califf’s favor was 89-4, ending a yearlong debate over his suitability.
There were 1,089 patient suicides logged into the Joint Commission’s Sentinel Event Database between 2010 and 2014; overall, suicides were the 10th leading cause of death in America in 2013, resulting in 41,149 deaths.
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 26, Issue 3
ECRI Institute has revealed its top 10 list of health technology hazards for 2016, and for those of us working in patient safety and quality, few if any should come as a surprise.
For the last several years, there has been a startling mortality trend emerging in the United States: Each year, middle-aged white Americans are dying at a faster clip than any of their counterparts in different age groups, ethnicities, or countries.
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 26, Issue 3
In 2012, The Joint Commission's tobacco cessation performance measure set took effect, encouraging hospitals to improve their efforts to convince patients to stop smoking. Used in the accreditor's ORYX performance measurement program, the measures are part of an industrywide...
