Pentax Medical recently issued an urgent recall of one of its duodenoscope models. Pentax is informing customers of its voluntary recall of all ED-3490TK duodenoscopes. As part of the recall, Pentax aims to replace the forceps elevator mechanism, O-ring seal and distal end cap. There will also be an update issued to the Operation Manual […]
Pentax Issues Recall of Some of Its Duodenoscopes Read More »
Hang-time limits for flexible endoscopes have been a hot topic among GI, Infection Control and Sterile Processing professionals for the last several years. With no consensus emerging in hang-time limits (sometimes called an endoscope’s shelf life), hospitals are left to make this decision on their own. With different stakeholders within the hospital looking at different
How To Set And Track Hang-Time Limits For Flexible Endoscopes Read More »
Springfield, Massachusetts-based Baystate Medical Center is notifying nearly 50 patients that a recent colonoscope procedure may have exposed them to a life-threatening illness. The news was reported by Masslive.com, and continues the trend of endoscope-related safety issues across the US. Noble Hospital, which was acquired by Baystate Health in 2015, was found to have had
Massachusetts-Based Hospital The Latest To Reveal Endoscope-Related Infection Risk Read More »
The first trial accusing Olympus Corp. of wrongdoing associated with contaminated duodenoscopes in US hospitals will be re-tried due to the discovery of new evidence that may aid the plaintiff’s case. The case examines the death of Richard Bigler, a 57 year-old patient who underwent a scope procedure while battling pancreatic cancer in 2013. The
First Olympus Trial Gets A New Day In Court Read More »
Hospitals are just scratching the surface of the value that they can derive from the data in their Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Simultaneously, they are facing a growing threat to their EHR data – physicians and other clinicians are increasingly vocal about their frustration with the time they are spending documenting encounters in EHRs instead
The “Post-EHR” Era Will Require Hospitals To Get More Value Out Of Their EHR Data Read More »
Tissue and related specimens present a unique tracking challenge for hospitals and surgery centers – these often expensive and occasionally one-of-a-kind items are required to be closely monitored during the hospital’s handling of each unit. The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), state Departments of Health and hospital accreditation bodies, such as The Joint Commission
How To Create A Digital Audit Trail For Your Tissue Read More »
Flexible endoscopes present a unique challenge for hospitals to track and manage – these expensive medical instruments must be quickly re-processed after usage in order to provide the required instrumentation for the next procedure, yet they must undergo rigorous, time-consuming reprocessing after every use to ensure the highest levels of patient safety. Due to different
How To Create An All-Electronic Audit Trail For Your Scopes Read More »
As we head into 2018, there appears to be a lot of headwinds facing hospitals and healthcare systems: regulatory uncertainty around the Affordable Care Act, slowing patient admissions, accelerating costs and shrinking margins. Moody’s Investor Services predicts bad debt to grow 6-7% in 2018 and operating cash flow for non-profit hospitals to shrink 2-4%. In
3 Cost Containment Ideas For Hospitals Heading Into a Challenging Environment In 2018 Read More »
Many hospital financial executives view clinical documentation improvement (CDI) efforts to improve capture revenue as a purely financial gain for their hospital. This is a perfectly valid reason for pursuing CDI initiatives, as all major investments should have a financial return to the hospital. However, re-examining CDI efforts and changing from a proactive to reactive
The Benefits Of Proactive vs. Reactive Clinical Documentation Improvement Read More »
Hospitals and healthcare systems across the US have spent billions of dollars per year over the last decade implementing electronic medical record (EMR) systems across their operations. A lot of the promise of EMR systems for hospitals is the data that they can collect that can be used for a wide range of analyses: cost
Using Clean Data To Get More Out Of Your EMR Investment Read More »