Engage!

The most recent data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimate that hospital-acquired conditions have declined 17 percent in the past four years.  The agency notes that “nearly 87,000 fewer patients died in the hospital as a result of the reduction in HACs and that approximately $19.8 billion in health care costs were saved from 2010 to 2014.” Why the decline? AHRQ points to numerous reasons:  financial incentives by CMS and other payers, more public transparency and reporting, and the availability of expanded resources supporting quality improvement initiatives.

Young patients at Santa Barbara’s Cottage Children’s Medical Center now have access to “pet therapy” of a different stripe, with the hospital’s addition last summer of the San Diego Zoo Kids channel on its Allen Interactive Patient Engagement Solutions televisions. Pediatric patients can view live animal cams, zookeeper interviews and kid-friendly, animal-focused videos.

Today’s automated world has created heightened expectations for service, convenience and connectivity. Hospitals are measured in their customer-service delivery models through HCAHPS. Improving the patient experience doesn’t have to be hard -- and measuring success is possible.

A recent report out of Kentucky pointed to challenges in nurse staffing levels and their potential impact on patient safety. The study, conducted by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, noted that nurses in that state often have more patients than they can effectively handle. But Kentucky hospitals are not alone.

Mixed in with the usual holiday cards and greetings arriving soon, hospital C-suites can anticipate one from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) when it issues its December 2016 Hospital Compare ratings.  How hospitals fare on CMS ratings reports impacts Medicare and Medicaid hospital payments, and increasingly, private payers also are taking note of hospital ratings when assessing reimbursement levels.

Halloween has passed, fall has arrived – and with it comes the perennial pain in our noses and chests: influenza.

When Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital opened in 1952, its founders envisioned a hospital equipped with the latest technology to deliver a high-quality healthcare experience to the region.  Given that mission, it should be no surprise that Salinas was one of the earliest adopters of adding televisions in patient rooms in the early 1970s, a revolutionary concept at the time and one that Allen Technologies pioneered.

Industry Changes Spur New Solutions to an Old Problem

Hospitals are inundated by noise. From the constant movement of patients and staff to the buzzing and ringing of medical alerts, intrusive background noise (AKA ambient noise) is an ever-present reality for patients. Patients have been complaining for years, but given the demanding, around-the-clock operations of hospitals, they have been challenged to find real solutions to ensure quieter and more restful environments.

U.S. Census data indicate that 21 percent of people living in the United States speak a language other than English at home, and in some areas the number is more than double that.