Our 2021-2022 flu season benchmarking study is complete and available for our clients. Take a look and see how your facility did. Do you know what the specialty averages are? Where do you rank relative to facilities in your specialty? How about overall? Did you meet or exceed the vaccination expectations?
U.S Antibiotic Awareness Week kicks off tomorrow (November 18th) and runs through November 24th.
New benchmarking studies and metrics are now available for our clients. If you manage an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) or other ambulatory healthcare facility, benchmarking is probably a concern for your organization. Benchmarking is not just a requirement of accrediting agencies such as the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) and The Joint Commission (TJC): it’s a critical component of quality assessment and improvement.
Be Antibiotic Aware and join the CDC’s educational effort to help improve antibiotic prescribing and use in the United States. The U.S Antibiotic Awareness Week kicks off today and runs through November 24th.
How to cut cost with benchmarking is not a question we normally hear. We know facilities need to obtain and monitor both internal and external benchmarking as a requirement of accrediting organizations such as the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC). We also know finding cost effective medications is a priority that can have a big impact on profitability. Is it possible to use benchmarking to save money? Yes! And here is how.
Fireworks can be great this time of year, but as a consultant pharmacist, I don’t like to hear fireworks when it comes to surveys. Some deficiencies are fairly common and avoiding them is not that difficult. Today we will discuss three of the most common deficiencies in ambulatory surgery centers and ways to avoid them.
As the weather finally warms up and the country begins to open from the COVID-19 pandemic, our thoughts shift to summertime and the beach. As a consultant pharmacist, I am always working to help my facilities improve patient safety and achieve survey success. Here are five easy things you can do while sitting at the beach!
Implementing, and adhering to, good infection control practices is critical to minimizing the impact of infectious diseases, including, but not limited to COVID-19. As a consultant pharmacist, I see additional opportunities for infection control practices that may not be as obvious as handwashing or PPE.
Consultant pharmacists are medication management specialists who work in a variety of settings like ambulatory surgery centers (ASC), senior care facilities (e.g., nursing homes, assisted living facilities) and also by helping individual patients. These pharmacists provide expert advice on pharmaceutical services, patient safety, and drug therapy management.
In a three-part series, we will discuss how a consultant pharmacist can benefit each client and how you can find the right consultant pharmacist for your needs. This month, we’ll focus on how ASCs can enhance patient safety by using an expert consultant pharmacist. In the coming months, this series will also discuss how consultant pharmacists can have a dramatic impact on long-term care facilities and on individual patients’ lives.
Antibiotic stewardship is a global issue and it’s something we all must address. At the facility level, it’s not only a regulatory concern, it’s a patient safety issue. With the ongoing global spread of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID- 19), the issue of antibiotic stewardship (already a significant focus by the certification and accreditation bodies), has been pushed even further out into the spotlight. Beyond just being a survey challenge, antibiotic stewardship can have a profound impact on patient outcomes — not only today’s patients, but also future patients.
