on August 30, 2010 |
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Topics: Outcomes, Quality, Performance Improvement, Cardiovascular, Service Lines
As covered in the Daily Briefing, most hospitals do not offer therapeutic hypothermia, but the procedure may help increase overall survival-to-discharge rates of cardiac arrest patients by up to one-third, Reuters reports.
Therapeutic hypothermia, used to preserve cardiac arrest patients' brain function, calls for the patient's body temperature to be reduced to nearly six degrees Fahrenheit with cold intravenous saline, cooling blankets or ice packs. After 24 hours, the patient's body temperature slowly is raised.
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Cooling Cardiac Arrest Patients May Improve Outcomes by One-Third
on August 27, 2010 |
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Topics: Cardiovascular, Service Lines, Medicaid, Reimbursement, Finance
A recent JAMA study highlights the increasing use of EDs in the United States between 1997 and 2007, as growing enrollment in Medicaid has lead to more patients relying on the emergency department to fill gaps in care. Over the study's time frame, visits rose 23%, an additional 21 million visits nationwide.
During the 10 years, visit rates rose from 352.8 to 390.5 per 1,000 people with the median wait time to see physicians increasing from 22 to 33 minutes. Visits by adult Medicaid patients was the source for most of the increase with the rate going from 693.9 to 947.2 visits per 1,000 enrollees between 1999 and 2007.
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Cooling Cardiac Arrest Patients May Improve Outcomes by One-Third
on August 26, 2010 |
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Topics: Cardiovascular, Service Lines, Quality, Performance Improvement
According to a recent analysis presented at The Society for Vascular Surgery Annual Meeting, there has been a marked reduction in peri-procedural stroke and death following carotid endarterectomy. Some experts believe these new complications rates should be used when evaluating the comparative effectiveness of different therapies for managing carotid stenosis.
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CREST Establishes New Benchmarks of Complications for CEA
