The CDC has a quality tool for “Predicting Casualty Severity & Hospital Capacity” that helps hospitals decide whether or not they are ready for an attack. It was interesting to learn that most attacks on American involve conventional weapons and that 1/3 of the acute casualties are critical and 2/3 are treated and released. This quality tool would be useful for any hospital to consider when developing their disaster plans. For example, it mentioned determining your hospital’s number of ORs and the capacity of the radiology department. These would be vital areas in the event of an attack. If you find your hospital does not have the capacity needed you should make arrangements with other facilities to transfer patients too.
Another interesting aspect, were the recommended changes made to EMTALA to improve mass casualty management in the event of an emergency. Some of the recommendations included, ““the use of community based EMS protocols is not a violation of EMTALA,” and “in the event of bioterrorism, or the threat of bioterrorism, EMTALA does not apply to those hospitals directly affect.” These seem logical because you do not want facilities worried about breaking laws when peoples’ lives are at stake.
In today’s society, it is important to be prepared for the unexpected. This tool can help provide some guidance on getting prepared.
http://www.cdc.gov/print.do?url=http://www.bt.cdc.gov/masscasualties/capacity.asp
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Quality Improvements for Medicare Patients and their Providers
I chose the article that discussed the current federal activity to develop quality improvements for Medicare patients and their providers. These quality improvements came out of President Bush’s “2008 Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act” that was made into law this past July. Congress vetoed Bush's proposal to cut provider reimbursements by 10%. Yes, this would have saved Medicare money, but Congress saw the opportunity to save money in a different way. Congress added the provision that supported quality initiatives.
Out of the three provisions established under quality and value, the financial incentives for physicians who adopt e-prescribing caught my eye. This act will give physicians who adopt e-prescribing by 2009 a 2% increase in their reimbursement; compared to the 2% decrease that physicians will get if they have not adopted e-prescribing by 2014. To me this shows that the government understands that e-prescribing will help reduce deadly prescription errors and time-consuming administrative costs. Also, Congress understood the importance of saving lives, rather than just saving money.
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=700662&#federal
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