Two of the most bandied-around concepts in healthcare are those of privacy and confidentiality. Even before HIPAA mandated measures to ensure that health information besafeguarded, medical professionals felt ethically bound not to disclose medical information to those who were not authorized or had a distinct ''need to know.'' The ...

There’s an old joke I like in which two hikers discover a bear in the woods. The bear spots them and starts running at them full tilt. One of the hikers immediately drops his backpack, pulls out a pair of sneakers, and starts removing his boots. “What are you doing?” asks the second hiker. “You’ll never outrun a bear!” The first hiker says, ...

June marked the 30th anniversary since the discovery of HIV. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon challenged the world for global action to end the AIDS disease by 2020. In the USA, President Obama called on countries to do more and try to stamp out the disease. He vowed to increase funding for the fight against AIDS and other infectious diseases such ...

The Joint Commission announced on June 17 the 2009 National Patient Safety Goals and related requirements for its accreditation programs and Disease-Specific Care Certification Program Of the Joint Commission's 16 total goals-three of which have been retired since the requirements were incorporated into the standards-the following four apply to ...

Under new Medicare regulations effective October 2007, hospitals will no longer receive higher payments for the additional costs associated with treating patients for certain hospital- acquired infections and medical errors. Previously, complications could be used to increase the weighting of a diagnosis related group (DRG) over and above ...

Several years ago, the Joint Commission instituted the National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG) which are revised on an annual basis. The Patient goals are designed to improve patient care and increase safety largely because of reports that almost 100,000 patients die each year due to medical errors. One huge reason for errors agreed on by ...