Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

INSIDE Letting Physicians Take the Lead: Q&A With Scripps Health CMO Dr. James LaBelle p. 12 How Much Can High Infection Rates Hurt Hospital Finances? A Breakdown p. 13 5 Strategies to Combat AntibioticResistant Bacteria p. 15 INDEX Table of Contents p. 6 Advertising Index p. 15 Letters to the Editor Send your letters to the editor, opinions and responses to: editorial@ beckershealthcare.com or Becker's Hospital Review 35 E. Wacker Dr. Suite 1782 Chicago, IL 60601 Clinical Quality & Infection Control September 2013 • Vol. 2013 No. 3 100 Patient Safety Benchmarks By Ellie Rizzo For hospitals, benchmarking data can be incredibly valuable. It allows individual institutions to identify areas of excellence and assess opportunities for improvement, ultimately resulting in more efficient operations and better care. Becker's Hospital Review has compiled a list of 100 patient safety benchmarks from various sources for hospital comparison. Readmissions, Mortality and Complications Entries 1 through 20 are based on data from Medicare.gov's Hospital Compare, last updated July 18, 2013. continued on page 7 9 Best Practices for Implementing EvidenceBased Guidelines By Ellie Rizzo Hospital leaders agree: Evidence-based care protocols to guide how care is delivered are becoming the new norm. Putting guidelines in place can improve patient safety, streamline methods of care, lower costs and increase efficiency. Guidelines are especially useful for refining methods of care for high-volume, high-cost or high-risk conditions. The process for guideline implementation, however, can seem daunting, especially when it requires a large number of physicians from various specialties to agree to a single set of guidelines. However, the payoff can be better care and reduced variation — two major goals for healthcare providers. Here are nine best practices for working with evidence-based guidelines at all stages of the process. SIGN UP TODAY! continued on page 10 4 Tips to Implement a Transparent Medical Error Disclosure Policy By Sabrina Rodak Ann Arbor-based University of Michigan Health System has been widely recognized for its innovative medical error disclosure policy called the Michigan Model. In the case of an error or complaint, a team of professionals analyzes the situation to determine the cause of an event. If the team determines there was a medical error or care was inappropriate, the providers apologize and work with the patient to reach a joint solution. If the team determines care was medically appropriate, UMHS explains the case to the patient and defends its providers. Since UMHS began this approach in 2001, the number of pre-suit claims and pending lawsuits dropped approximately 61.5 percent. In addition, UMHS decreased its average legal expense per case by more than 50 percent since 1997, including a savings of $2 million in the first year alone of the Michigan Model. continued on page 11 Clinical Quality & Infection Control Sign up for the FREE E-Weekly at www.beckersasc.com/clinicalquality or call (800) 417-2035

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