Medical Care

Successful implementation of a unit-based quality nurse to reduce central line–associated bloodstream infections
This study describes the introduction of a unit-based quality nurse dedicated to preventing CLABSIs within a surgical intensive care unit (ICU) at an academic medical center. The quality nurse helped to educate staff about health care–associated infections and prevention strategies. The nurse also provided immediate, direct feedback to staff regarding their compliance with best practices. The average CLABSI rate decreased significantly, even after adjusting for multiple factors including reduction in CLABSI rates in other adult ICUs. A unit-based quality nurse may prove to be a powerful adjunct to the current available tools for reducing these costly infections. PSNet

Hospital patient safety grades may misrepresent hospital performance
According to this study, hospitals that opted out of Leapfrog's patient safety survey would have received a better grade if they were scored by the same methodology as participating hospitals. This finding reveals limitations in Leapfrog's approach for accurately reporting hospital performances. PSNet

ICD-10 Follies: Transition Could Cost Practices Big Bucks
Transitioning to the new ICD-10 coding system could cost some physician practices millions of dollars, a study released Wednesday found, and the American Medical Association (AMA) is taking to social media to try to delay the move.

The analysis -- commissioned by the AMA and conducted by Nachimson Advisors, a health information technology consulting firm in Baltimore -- found that the cost to transition to the new bill-coding set could cost up to a quarter million dollars for a small practice and up to $8 million for a large practice. MedPage Today

Can You Get Paid For Prescribing Exercise?
At this point they don't get any direct reimbursement. The IRS includes specific tax deductions for gym memberships and programs designed to encourage weight loss only in patients diagnosed with diseases, but that's about membership fees, rather than actual activity. Certain companies, like Cerner Corporation in Kansas City, have activity-specific programs for employees where the number of steps calculated on a digital pedometer correlates to reduced healthcare costs for employees, but this is the exception rather than the norm.

My thought is that once we help spread the word on the drug of exercise, which by all metrics is the most far-reaching and effective drug we have across the spectrum of human illness, the medical community will start leading the charge toward demanding that exercise. Preventive wellness becomes something that is taught in medical schools, encouraged for patients, and reimbursed by healthcare organizations. Healthy people cost less money; we need to incentivize our population to move.  MedPage Today