Showing posts with label healthcare quality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthcare quality. Show all posts

Friday, December 4, 2009

NDNQI for Nursing Quality Improvement

The National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators® (NDNQI®) is a proprietary repository of nursing statistics. The American Nurses Association collects and evaluates this unique, unit-specific, nurse-sensitive data from hospitals in the United States.
Participating facilities can then use this comparative data for quality improvement purposes.
Click here to read more from ANA about the database.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Educating Patients Before They Leave the Hospital Reduces Readmissions, Emergency Department Visits and Saves Money

"Patients who have a clear understanding of their after-hospital care instructions, including how to take their medicines and when to make follow-up appointments, are 30 percent less likely to be readmitted or visit the emergency department than patients who lack this information, according to a new study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)." Press Release Date: February 2, 2009
~ study published February 3, 2009 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

US Hospital Finder Website

"We have information on over 6000 hospitals. Find the nearest hospitals in your area by using the search box [full address, or city and state, or zip code]. We will find the hospitals and show them on a map. You can then click on a hospital to get its details (e.g. address, phone and services) and directions. You can also browse through our list of hospitals by our A-Z or State index."

"This is interesting not just for locating the hospitals, but for the statistics and information it also provides." Jordan Sandquist [IUON nursing student]

Thanks Jordan for your website recommendation!

Here are a few other key sites for information on/about hospitals:
~ 'Quality Check' from JCAHO.
~ the American Hospital Directory.
~ 'Hospital Compare' from US Health & Human Services Dept.
~ HealthGrades, a non-profit organization.

Friday, April 4, 2008

2007 State Snapshots: NHQR

"The State Snapshots provide State-specific health care quality information, including strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement.
The goal is to help State officials and their public- and private-sector partners better understand health care quality and disparities in their State."

Based on stats from the National Healthcare Quality Report,
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The Role of Nurses in Hospital Quality Improvement

Center for Studying Health System Change, Research Brief No.3, March 2008
by Debra A. Draper, Laurie E. Felland, Allison Liebhaber, Lori Melichar.


Here are a few interesting quotes for consideration:
"...hospitals confront challenges with regard to nursing involvement, including: scarcity of nursing resources; difficulty engaging nurses at all levels—from bedside to management; growing demands to participate in more, often duplicative, quality improvement activities; the burdensome nature of data collection and reporting; and shortcomings of traditional nursing education in preparing nurses for their evolving role in today’s contemporary hospital setting."

“Within the realm of nursing education, there is not the strength or emphasis on patient safety and understanding change as there should be.” ..Through academic experience, they should have the opportunity to hear about change models and understand some of the basics of the need for good information in making decisions. Data are all around nurses and they are using data for clinical decisions. We need them to understand how to use data to change practice.”
Click on the title to access the full paper.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Cultural Competence and Quality of Care


University of California TV; 55 minutes; aired 10/24/2007 ~
"This program explores the concepts of cultural and linguistic competency in delivery of healthcare services and in healthcare workforce development. Dr. Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, of the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities presents an outline for a culturally proficient healthcare system."

This is just one of an extensive list of excellent vodcasts, available through UCTV & the Med Ed Hour; aimed at physicians, nurses and other health care professionals who wish to expand their knowledge & keep current.
The Med Ed Hour airs on UCTV every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 4:00 to 5:00pm (local time, GMT-4).
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