Despite leading the world in healthcare spending at more than $3.5 trillion of expenditures annually, the United States lags other high-income countries in many health outcomes such as maternal mortality. The National Quality Task Force was formed to address continuing challenges and emerging issues in the pursuit of improving health outcomes and reducing medical errors.

Safety, managing surgery backlogs, and telemedicine are key elements of reopening ambulatory surgery centers during the coronavirus pandemic, an ASC chief medical officer says.

Remember to keep checking for a new Survey Activity Guide (SAG) from The Joint Commission (TJC), which is promised for July and will include new information on surveys as they slowly resume in areas with a slowed rate in COVID-19 cases.

Stay on top of routine testing, maintenance, inspections, fire drills, and other life safety and environment of care requirements during the COVID-19 national emergency.

In the U.S., the population of older adults with complex healthcare needs is growing rapidly. While the total U.S. population rose 9.7% between 2000 and 2010, the population of adults 65 and older rose 15.1%

Last October, PG&E shut off power to more than 248 hospitals and millions of customers to prevent uncontrolled power outages during the region’s powerful Santa Ana winds. The winds have a tendency to exacerbate fire conditions, rushing in to coastal California from the Sierra Nevada mountains to the east.

The outages seem to be necessary to save lives, but the practice is also a money-saving move by utility companies like PG&E—which is still paying out billions as a result of damage from the deadly Camp Fire of 2018.