August 27, 2015 |  0
It’s that time of year again, when hospitals around the country are being notified of their 30-day readmission penalties from CMS. Now in the fourth year of the program, many hospitals have come to dread the announcement of how much they are being penalized each year.1 This year the readmission reduction program will decrease Medicare […]
By Guest Post
August 26, 2015 |  0
by Frank Zadravecz, MPH Fortunately, my research world isn’t rife with inter-colleague conflict. Data, on the other hand continues to pick fights. As researchers, we have banded together to make sense of the patient measurements, physiologic alarms, and adverse outcomes we see in our hospital. Often where we are led by the data is perplexing. […]
August 25, 2015 |  3
“A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.” -Irish proverb “You can check out anytime you’d like, but you can never leave.” -Hotel California, the Eagles Welcome to the hotel that functions like a hospital. 1700 CHECK IN Hello, sir, thanks for checking in today to “UnComfort Inn”. […]
August 24, 2015 |  5
  Economists describe preferences in two ways: revealed and stated.  Say, for example, I asked you to implement a penalty program for your team with the goal of decreasing the number of occasions members did not clean their hands after a patient encounter.  Because you know bad hands equal bad outcomes, you’re apt to offer up […]
By Guest Post
August 20, 2015 |  0
by Mimi Zander The other week I had the pleasure of attending a cat circus. It was a stage show of 10-15 cats (plus a chicken, a groundhog, and 2 curious rats) walking on tight ropes, completing dangerous jumps, and a cat band complete with drums, guitar, and cow bell. In the beginning of the […]
August 19, 2015 |  2
Despite hospital medicine’s meteoric rise as the fastest-growing specialty in history and the fact that there are almost 50,000 hospitalists in the U.S. today, I’m a little worried about the future of the specialty. There are two conflicting messages I’m hearing increasingly in the work we do with hospitalist practices around the country. Hospital executives are […]