A new study of Vermont death certificates signed by someone other than a medical examiner finds that such certificates contain the wrong cause of death 51% of the time, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Florida, Texas, and Vermont.
- Florida: South Bay Hospital in Sun City Center has named Daniel Bender as its permanent CEO. Bender has served as the hospital's interim CEO for several months and previously served as the hospital's COO and ethics and compliance officer (Vaidya, Becker's Hospital Review, 10/18).
- Texas: Riverside General Hospital, which closed in 2015 after a financial scandal, plans to re-open after the state of Texas received a $30 million donation from the country of Qatar to be used toward relief from Hurricane Harvey. The state plans to allocate $2.5 million of the donated sum to re-open Riverside (Rege, Becker's Hospital CFO Report, 10/18).
- Vermont: A new study of Vermont death certificates signed by someone other than a medical examiner finds that such certificates contain the wrong cause of death 51% of the time, according to a study published in Public Health Reports. The study found that, out of 601 original death certificates examined, 53% had errors, 51% had significant errors, and 10% had minor errors. The researchers concluded the high error rate could have implications for national mortality statistics (Cook, Becker's Clinical Leadership & Infection Control, 10/18).
Next, get URMC's end-of-life conversation prompts
When it comes to end-of-life care, most organizations struggle to meet patients' needs. In a recent poll, 87% of Americans age 65 and older said that they believe their doctor should discuss end-of-life issues with their patients; however, only 27% of those polled had actually discussed these issues with their doctor.
Download URMC's conversation prompts to start improving end-of-life care for patients.