Whereas, the dividing line between those HIPAA violations and the potentiality of privacy breaches, data or information security and intent are murky, this incidence necessitates action (Vivian, 2009). “ Rationale for Actions Snooping and Breaches This case is not so dissimilar from that of Kaiser Permanente’s Bellflower hospital. Rather, it reflects many of the same actions. (Vivian, 2009) After all, Bellflower Hospital failed to keep its employees from snooping in “the medical records of Nadya Suleman, the mother who set off a media frenzy after giving birth to octuplets in January 2009.” Yet, this security breach at this hospital, resultant of personnel snooping and/or record discovery, was only one of several cases at this hospital (2009). To this end, the HHS revealed it discovered five
These policies contain staffing, chain of command, procedural, delegation of duties, Code Blue and Rapid Response, triage and Biomedical facets. Brief overview of the said policies discovered that some of the issues that contributed to this unfortunate outcome were, in fact, not addressed. Do – Changes in policy will distributed hospital-wide since some staff may be called upon to “float” to the
Research has shown that this can result in a decrease in quality of care and patient safety and increase adverse patient events (Tevington, 2011). However, some criticize this research because it does not show a direct link between nurse staffing levels and individual patient outcomes (Needleman, Buerhaus, Pankratz, Leibson, & Stevens, 2011). This paper will investigate if inadequate nurse staffing levels have a negative impact on patient outcomes on adult inpatient acute care hospital units? Adequate Versus Inadequate Nurse Staffing The American Nurses Association (ANA) defines adequate nurse staffing as an appropriate match between the nurse’s skill level and the needs of the patient ( American Nurses Association, 2012). To achieve adequate nurse staffing, it is known that balance must be achieved by properly staffing the unit with the appropriate number and correct mix of nurses to adequately care for the unit’s patient population (Sanford, 2010).
Patients are extremely trusting and rely totally on their physicians. In the past, patients could not protect themselves from “failures in diagnostic, treatment, surgical procedures; selection or doses of medication; delays in diagnosis or treatment; and a host of other procedural lapse including communication or equipment failures”. They could not protect themselves from spiraling incurred cost, unnecessary hospitalization and deceitful practices and today patients are somewhat safeguarded. For years, the AMA have avoided the exposure of the physicians differences and or shortcomings posted or reveal to the public and have had the protective covering of the code of ethics of the American Medical Association (AMA) as their advocate. However, it appears as though the AMA seem more concern about the backlash of public scrutiny and competitive advertising office hours, fees and services rendered versus the importance of reducing and or preventing the mortality rate caused by medical staff errors.
EMTALA is an unfunded federal mandate. This mandate for universal access shifted the cost to the hospitals. Hospitals and physicians risk substantial legal and financial penalties for violations of the mandate, with consequences as extreme as revocation of a hospital’s Medicare provider agreement (Diaz-Vickery, Sauser, & Davis, 2013). According to the American College of Emergency Doctors (ACEP) under EMTALA the emergency department has the only mandate to provide healthcare. A 2009 ACEP survey on the financial crisis stated, 66 percent of emergency physicians polled have seen an increase of uninsured patients in their emergency departments during the current financial
(Moran & Shajahan, 2008, p.45). Magnitude: Although hospitals are usually concerned about augmenting safety, healthcare risks transpire quite often. Forbes magazine posted an article stating that between 40,000-100,000 people die because of careless mishaps, drug mix ups, preventable infections, and medical paperwork not completed correctly. (Herper, 2008, p.2). These few risk management categories mentioned above are to maintain awareness, reporting, general criteria, and adhering to appropriate medical administration in a hospital setting.
Best Care at Lower Cost The Path to Continuously Learning Health Care in America (A Few Nudges for the Choosing Wisely Campaign) Many medical tests and interventions are overused wasting money and in the process may harm patients say a report from multiple medical societies and a report released by the Institute of Medicine. Doctors frequently order tests and prescribe drugs or procedures when they really are not needed. In some cases it was found they would order them knowing they shouldn’t. According to a survey published in 2011 by researchers at Dartmouth College 40-50 percent of primary-care doctors say their own patient’s receive too much medical care. The Congressional Budget Office says that close to 30
Course Project Part III: Physician Practice Lynn Strain IS 566 Informatics and Applications in Healthcare Dr. Alexandro Veletsos June 13, 2011 Abstract The time has come to change the focus of healthcare to the person in need of care instead of on the failing business of healthcare. Perhaps one of the most devastating healthcare concerns is the controversy over the lack of consistency and standardization of physician practice that has negatively impacted patient outcomes. The reason for this variation is because different physicians treat patients with the same diagnosis in very different ways. Variation leads to unnecessary, inappropriate care that is costly and ineffective (Coady, 2002). In the midst of care concerns, despite cultural
In this paper, we are going to look at some of the major aspects of healthcare that need to be addressed to avoid such cases like those of Esmin Green. Patient Safety Patient safety has been an issue that many of the healthcare workers have had to deal with over the past couple of decades with emphasis being placed on how caregivers offer their services to the sick. This is because of the alarming number of deaths attributed to lack of care for patients annually. In the United States for example, it is estimated that close to 100,000 people die annually because of infections related to healthcare which, in most cases could be avoided. Also, close to 4,000 patients die due to wrong-side surgery annually (Pronovost & Wacther, 2009).
Prescription drugs were involved in 20,044 deaths and 14,800 of these deaths were prescribed opioids (Warner et al., 2011). Physicians are the first line of defense in decreasing prescription drug abuse. The prescribed milligram per person of opioids increased from 74 milligrams to 369 milligrams from 1997 to 2007, an increase of 402% (Whitehouse, 2011). The Whitehouse has created a prescription drug abuse prevention plan that has four major areas to reduce prescription drug abuse. One area discusses physician education and another deals with monitoring patients (Whitehouse, 2011).