Study: Unique Patient IDs Would Improve Quality, Efficiency
from AHA News Now
Creating a unique patient identifier for every U.S. resident could cost as much as $11 billion, but would likely return even more in benefits to the nation’s health care system, according to new RAND Corp. study. Such a system would help reduce medical errors, simplify the use of electronic medical records, increase overall efficiency and help protect patient privacy, the authors conclude. More

Hospitals See Growth in Green Practices
from Billings Gazette
The nation's health care system is the second-largest contributor to climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions in the country. Hospitals use more energy than any industry other than national defense, and 30 percent of the mercury in the environment comes from medical incinerators. More

Hospitals Improve Working Conditions to Battle Nursing Shortage
from Courant
Five years ago, hospitals waged intense bidding wars to fill nursing vacancies, luring nurses with huge signing bonuses and even sport-utility vehicles and vacations to the Bahamas. Those efforts often only served to exacerbate turnover, as nurses remained in jobs just long enough to claim their prizes before moving to other hospitals with better incentives. As it turns out, many nurses want better working conditions more than they do extra money. Hospitals are responding by introducing technology to reduce paperwork, offering more flexible hours, reducing caseloads, paying for advanced training and giving nurses more authority. More

How to Design an Effective In-House Training and Educational Program in Critical Cleaning & Contamination Control
from The Science Link
Attendance at conferences is valuable. However, to get everyone on the same page and to make sure that it’s the right page for your application, nothing beats an in-house training or educational program. An in-house program can be geared to your specific product and processes. In addition, it is easier to discuss company-specific problems and ideas if your competitors, high-level representatives of key regulatory agencies, and auditors from customers are not grinning at you from across the room. More

2008 National Survey on Patient Flow Challenges and Technologies sponsored by StatCom
from StatCom
StatCom’s 2008 National Survey on Patient Flow Challenges and Technologies was designed to capture the thoughts and opinions held by U.S. healthcare executives on issues facing their facilities regarding patient flow and technology. More than 200 U.S. healthcare executives completed the survey. More

Experts Address Glove-Related Latex Allergies
from Infection Control Today
Gloves are the workhorses of personal protective equipment (PPE), serving as a barrier to protect healthcare workers (HCWs) from a wide variety of hazardous substances, including viruses and bacteria found in blood and body fluids, as well as chemicals, detergents and sterilants encountered in the healthcare setting. But gloves are a double-edged sword, sometimes causing skin irritation and triggering allergies in HCWs as well as in patients. There are a number of adverse effects that can be caused by gloves, including latex allergies; the formation of granulomas and adhesions in surgical patients from the introduction of powder into the surgical site from gloves; the incidence of allergic reaction from glove powder that has become aerosolized; and the incidence of contact dermatitis, a condition in which the skin of hands cracks and these tiny fissures can allow bacteria to grow. More

C.Diff Pathogens Almost Wiped Out During Air Disinfectant trials in Sunderland, U.K.
from Hospital Development
New technology which aims to rid hospital wards of C. difficile pathogens has been hailed a success at Sunderland City Hospital, where it has been on trial since earlier this year. Preliminary data from the hospital shows Inov8 Science’s Air Disinfectant technology has led to a significant reduction in rates of the hospital-acquired infection. The technology uses self-generating hydroxyl radicals to clean the air on the wards of 99.999 percent of pathogens. These radicals occur naturally in the open air, but cannot usually penetrate enclosed spaces. More

U.S. Predicts Rapid Rise of Medicaid Spending
from The Wall Street Journal
Washington released a report that was another reminder of the daunting cost of the U.S. health-care system. It estimated that Medicaid benefits spending would grow at an average annual rate of 7.9 percent over the next 10 years, reaching $674 billion a year by 2017. More