P atients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) suffer the paradox of high risk for heart disease and yet reduced use of standard therapies for treatment and prevention of heart disease. The classic example in the literature is the reduced use of standard of care medications after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), now shown in a variety of settings even where the cost of prescription drugs should ...

WHY: Studies on pain in older adults (persons 65 years of age and older) have demonstrated that pain is a common problem. In one study, 50% of adults 65 years of age and older said they experienced pain in the previous 30 days (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2006). Up to 80% of nursing residents experience pain regularly. Yet, the undertreatment of pain is pervasive (Zanocchi et al., ...

O R G A N I Z AT I O N A L I N F O R M AT I O N The hospital discussed in this Fellow Project is a 392-bed, Joint Commission– accredited, faith-based organization located in the southeastern United States. It’s market base consists of a regional heart center, a regional cancer center, a Commission on Accreditation of Rehab Facility inpatient rehabilitation center, schoolbased health centers, a ...

BACKGROUND The increased international focus on improving patient outcomes, safety and quality of care has led stakeholders, policy makers and healthcare provider organizations to adopt standardized processes for evaluating healthcare organizations. Accreditation and certification have been proposed as interventions to support patient safety and high quality healthcare. Guidelines recommend acc...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate pharmaceutical and pharmacotherapeutic differences in oral opioid modified-release products used in the management of chronic pain. DATA SOURCES Searches of MEDLINE (1966-May 2006) and an extensive review of peer reviewed journals were conducted using the key search terms opioid, morphine, hydromorphone, and oxycodone. Supplemental information was gathered through the Am...

The relationship between healthcare organizational accreditation and their leaders’ professional certification in management is of specific interest to institutions higher education individuals the field. Since academic program one piece evidence high-quality education, since an attestation knowledge, skills, abilities those who are certified, we expect alumni graduated from accredited programs...

Many organizations include benchmarking as a component of their performance management system. Often, a performance index is used to quantify the ability of an organizational entity to operate successfully. Benchmarking a performance index is done inappropriately when statistical methods are employed that ignore sample size effects or use aggregate performance data over a period during which ch...

reapplied to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for deeming authority for accredited hospitals. In response to CMS’s winter 2014 and spring 2014 reviews of its application, The Joint Commission developed and revised several elements of performance (EPs) for hospitals and for rehabilitation and psychiatric distinct part units in critical access hospitals. The revisions, which are...