Patient Safety

Some of the leading causes of hospital readmissions and poor health outcomes can be attributed to ineffective care practices and dated procedures. Not only do these inefficiencies hinder an organization’s ability to deliver quality care, it can impact the patient experience, its reputation, bottom line and much more.

Last week, medical services professionals (MSPs) gathered at The Broadmoor in scenic Colorado Springs to advance their careers during the 41st National Association Medical Staff Services (NAMSS) Educational Conference and Exhibition. The 2017 conference theme, “New Heights and New Horizons,” not only reflects the changing environment of the medical staff profession, but also the new era of the professional organization. At the closing of Monday morning’s keynote presentation, NAMSS President Susan DuBois revealed a rebranded logo along with the new tagline: “Education. Advocacy.

Patient safety is an ongoing issue across the continuum of care. This includes workplace safety, healthcare-acquired infections, and medical errors, just to name a few examples. In fact, a study finds that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the U.S., behind heart disease and cancer. Respondents say that the contributing factors that led to medical errors include:

Since the transition from fee-for-service (FFS) to value-based care, customer service in healthcare has been a hot topic among physicians and medical service professionals (MSPs). No longer are physicians to receive payments based on the quantity of care; reimbursements are now contingent on the quality of care—aiming to reduce readmission rates and improve patient outcomes.

Collaboration is vital in healthcare, but it doesn’t just happen. It takes planning and hard work to get people across the continuum of care working together. As a centralized department, healthcare HR is in the perfect position to help coordinate and collaborate across the continuum of care.

Long a sci-fi dream, artificial intelligence is beginning to fulfill its promise in the business world. Artificial intelligence, also known as AI, moves tech systems beyond automation into performing tasks that have previously required elusive human factors — judgments about speech patterns, decision-making and so on. As technology advances, the development of AI represents a big opportunity for healthcare HR to play a strategic role in any healthcare organization.

With the recent observance of National Nurses Week, the month of May is also a great time to review best practices for educating tomorrow’s nurses. As this year’s PreCheck nursing honoree Chris Draper mentioned in his interview, nurses play a key role in collaborating with physicians to deliver better patient care.

Through the constantly changing healthcare landscape, the role of the Medical Services Professional (MSP) has evolved over time to meet the demands of the industry. I recently had the opportunity to participate in the National Association Medical Staff Services (NAMSS) webinar, “The MSP Career Pathway: How Do You Advance?” The presenter, Donna Goestenkors, President at Team Med Global Healthcare Consulting, discussed the value that MSPs bring to the workplace and how they can thrive in the industry’s new environment.

When organizations grow, a strong culture becomes more important to their continued success. We are aware of this at PreCheck; that’s why our leadership team spent considerable time reevaluating what’s important for our organization and how we can continue to fulfill our mission: “Connecting people with information to advance the quality of healthcare.” At that time, we instated our core values of HEART: Honesty, Excellence, Accountability, Respect, and Teamwork.

At the start of a new year, I enjoy looking back at the previous year’s blog posts and learning what our readers considered the most noteworthy articles and topics from the PreCheck Blog.

At a glance, it’s clear our readers highly favored lists in 2016, with 60 percent of our top ten articles from last year comprising of lists. Healthcare HR trends, background check and I-9 compliance, and social media were among the most popular topics from the past year.