By now, many in healthcare have learned from other industries that getting frontline staff input is essential to quality improvement. However, the task of obtaining that input has been a bit more challenging than many anticipated.

Patient satisfaction and quality of care matter to most frontline staff and other hospital employees, and they certainly matter in terms of reimbursement. The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey measures patient satisfaction in different ways...

An article by a nurse that appeared recently in The New York Times has brought about a surge of discussion, sometimes revealing, sometimes aggressive, about the relationships and professional interactions between caregivers in hospitals.

There has been a growing sense of urgency around CMS surveys among accreditation professionals in recent years. The anxiety once reserved for Joint Commission visits has drifted much more into anticipation of a visit from CMS surveyors instead. Industry experts have said that CMS itself has been...