Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

The U.S. is facing an epidemic of chronic disease at the same time as it's facing tough decisions...

The inaugural report of the AHA Committee on Performance Improvement details “Hospitals and Care ...

Just three years ago, Mississippi Baptist Medical Center faced falling quality indicators, staff ...

This report summarizes the results of that survey, which indicated that overall influenza vaccina...

Efficient bed placement for patients can mean fewer discharge delays, decreased length of stay an...

Statistics fans, check out these numbers: Staff at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC) has...

This sponsored supplement explores the challenges of investing for lower-cost devices, services a...

A trip to the emergency department too often conjures up images of crowded waiting rooms and exte...

Duplicate medication order errors increased with CPOE and CDS implementation. Many work system fa...

Responding to an explosive growth in patient population, Yale-New Haven Hospital implemented a su...

As America's hospitals and health systems are transforming care, hospitals are facing challenges ...

Throughout the United States, allied hospital associations—state, regional and metropolitan—are w...

Electronic health records may create less paperwork, but documentation can still be time-consumin...

An integrated approach to project design drove breakthrough improvement in operating results at S...

Through HFMA's Value Project, health care finance leaders are joining their clinical partners to ...

Labor and delivery departments are busy places. At New York-Presbyterian, providing appropriate b...

The report defines the meaning of value in health care, provides an overview of the current state...

Rethinking a registration process kept its meds system in compliance. St. James Hospital and Heal...

"Navigating the rising tide of HACs" is what Baystate Medical Center (BMC) calls this project. A ...

This guide was created to share best practices and key lessons from innovative organizations on a...

Timely access to health care is important for everyone, particularly our nation's veterans. From ...

A focus on wellness to provide better health and better health care is part of the AHA's Health F...

 The purpose of this guide is to provide hospitals with a resource to help reduce inappropriate v...

The journey from good to great for Good Samaritan Hospital of Baltimore started with differentiat...

An NQF endorsement reflects rigorous scientific and evidence-based review, input from patients an...

This paper discusses how new technologies can be applied to improve the health of populations and...

At the 7th Biennial Joanna Briggs International Colloquium in Chicago this fall, Kathi Patterson,...

While many health care-acquired infections are transmitted by personal contact due to poor hand h...

Given economic and industry trends related to the worldwide financial markets, the nation's econo...

Rarely does an orthopedic physician discuss information workflow with an ER doc, but at Regions H...

This multi-case study describes how eight hospitals used Lean Six Sigma to examine and improve wo...

When an employee found directions in her hospital?s emergency department?with directions to other...

Quality improvement and transparency go hand in hand, David Ballard, M.D., senior vice president ...

After reading many success stories about hospitals streamlining and improving patient flow in the...

Joseph Betancourt, M.D., director of multicultural education for Massachusetts General Hospital i...

Alegent Health, a 10-hospital system based in Nebraska and Southwestern Iowa, wanted an electroni...

The article discusses how the Beacon community program has leveraged health information technolog...

The medical standard for timely angioplasty was 90 minutes door to balloon.  The average for Lehi...

Senior leaders at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland, knew the system's community-acq...

Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, wanted to transform its organization and in turn, transformed ...

Abington (Pa.) Memorial Hospital has used everything from screen saver reminders to notes from th...

Seamless, effective patient handoffs are a critical piece of any hospital?s patient safety framew...

This compendium of guides, reports, and toolkits provides a wealth of actionable resources to hel...

The federal health reform legislation includes several demonstration projects that will be held i...

A key ingredient for success under health care reform will be the ability to utilize health infor...

The Problem Administrative burdens and inefficient processes left nurses spending just one-third...

As hospitals and health systems adjust to a new health care environment, quality performance and ...

Moving from a paper world to an electronic one is an "evolution," says Marcy Stoots, RN, director...

Evergreen Hospital Medical Center, Kirkland, Wash., implemented best practices in patient flow bu...

This guide communicates the idea that workforce and human resource practices can positively impac...

For executive leaders at Catholic Healthcare Partners, Cincinnati, patient safety is an issue to ...

ED bottlenecks are common problems in hospitals causing excessive wait times, decreasing patient ...

Reducing preventable harm by half is a lofty goal for any hospital, let alone a large, integrated...

When the Infection Prevention and Control Department of Medical Center of McKinney in McKinney, T...

When the H1N1 flu virus emerged in the spring of 2009, U.S. hospitals were challenged by crowded ...

The 3,500 employees of Eastern (Bangor) Maine Medical Center are role models for other employees ...

An AHA research synthesis report presents an overview of bundled payment, including evidence of i...

Due to the size and breadth of their organizations, multi-hospital health system leaders have a s...

When change proves challenging, involving everyone in the process can be key. Advocate Good Sheph...

The Problem The average ED length of stay was 413 minutes (6 hours, 53 minutes). Fourteen percen...

The Problem ThedaCare selected its radiation oncology (rad-onc) department to kick off a systemw...

The Problem Inefficiencies in the fast track at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital have long b...

The Problem Vanderbilt's project didn't address a problem so much as it focused on a goal: to be...

The Problem Like many hospitals, Westmoreland struggled with significant ED crowding and patient...

The Problem More than one million serious medication errors occur each year in U.S. hospitals. T...

Ten years ago, the Institute of Medicine shocked the health care field and the general public wit...

At any one time, more than 100 patients are in this busy and complex ED. Historically, staff acti...

The Problem Advocate Christ Medical Center's space in the admittance bay area and resource usage...

The Problem A new 192-room patient bed tower was constructed and designed with a new decentraliz...

The Problem In a 2008 medical staff satisfaction survey, 93 percent of Advocate Good Shepherd ph...

The Problem Emergency departments across the nation are being stretched as more Americans rely o...

The Problem Wait times in the hospital's inpatient rehabilitation center were unacceptable; some ...

The ProblemMedication reconciliation—comparing a patient's medication orders to all medications t...

The Problem Incorrect patient identification through the registration process increases the pote...

The Problem When the performance improvement team began to take stock of the situation in Advoca...

The Problem Medication safety is a strategic imperative in the organization. Each aspect of the ...

The content of this best-practices guide, and the process by which it was assembled, are emblemat...

The ProblemAlthough Fairfield Medical Center had a fairly low rate of pressure ulcers, officials ...

The Problem In 2004, Faxton Hospital and St. Luke's-Memorial Hospital merged. The leaders of the...

The ProblemFlowers wanted to improve its performance on the 28 quality measures that are featured...

The Problem Good Samaritan's LWBS rate (2.1 percent) is close to the national average (2.0 perce...

The Problem Hazleton General Hospital officials were unhappy with their performance on a number ...

The Problem According to a study published online by Health Affairs on January 15, 2008, the med...

The Problem Medication errors are among the most common medical errors, harming at least 1.5 mil...

The Problem MRSA accounts for more than 18,000 deaths annually nationwide, according to the CDC....

The Problem Communication is listed as the leading factor in the root causes of sentinel events ...

The Problem St. Francis struggled getting non-emergent patients from the door to an ED bed in a ...

The Problem The results of blood tests are crucial to physician decision making. At St. Luke's, ...

The Problem The women and infants department's lean journey began in early 2006 when a local hos...

The Problem Several processes used in the care of patients of Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical ...

The Problem Advocate Lutheran General Hospital admits 32 percent of its emergency department pat...

The Problem Nurses have always stuggled with balancing time between their workloads. Employee sa...

The Problem According to the American Heart Association, heart failure affects about 5.7 million...

The Problem The emergency department corrective action team began May 2, 2007 with the mission s...

The Problem DMC wanted to chart a new path for fulfilling its mission of offering the best possi...

The Problem Like many urban safety net hospitals, Hahnemann University Hospital struggled with o...

The Problem Norwalk Hospital was an early developer and user of health information technology. I...

The Problem Carolina Medical Center-Mercy worked on patient throughput in its ED, while developi...

This article discusses the role of information technology to achieve population health goals.

The report recommends improved ways in which primary care practices should be paid for delivering...