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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.

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.

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.

Ask any restaurant how important their waiters are to customer satisfaction and they will acknowledge: even with great product quality and a beautiful setting, service can make or break the customer experience. The same premise holds true for healthcare providers.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that healthcare facilities spend more than $7 billion annual on energy. That equates to about $2.35 per square foot. As hospitals approach upcoming budgeting cycles, many CFOs will be paying close attention to big-ticket expenses like energy, and how to reduce them – and with good reason. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Every $1 a non-profit healthcare organization saves on energy is equivalent to generating $20 in new revenues for hospitals or $10 for medical offices.”