From the New York Times: The Phantom Menace of Sleep-Deprived Doctors

After decades of debate and over the opposition of nearly every major medical organization and 79 percent of residency-program directors, new rules went into effect that abolished 30-hour overnight shifts for first-year residents.

Read the rest of the article at the New York Times website.

Joint Commission Telemedicine Pre-Publication Standards

The Joint Commission has released its pre-publication standards regarding Telemedicine.

Read more about the requirements here: http://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/6/Pre_Pub_Telemedicine_HAP.pdf

From InformationWeek: How social media is being utilized to prepare for emergencies.

A recent article in InformationWeek's Healthcare section indicates that Twitter, Facebook, and online communities can help healthcare organizations, emergency personnel, and government agencies better prepare for and respond to emergencies, so it's a good idea to integrate these technologies into planning.

Read the full article here: http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/mobile-wireless/231002905?cid=InformationWeek-Twitter

From the AMA: Call for civility aims to stop disruptive behavior in the OR

In the following article, the AMA reports on continued concerns regarding disruptive behavior and medicine. The article reports that the chair of Surgery and Transplant Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles arranges social events so surgical teams can get to know each other as individuals, help to build relationships and improve patient safety. Share your strategies with other MSP’s by leaving a comment about what your medical staff has implemented to improve disruptive behavior.

Read more from the AMA: http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/08/01/prsb0801.htm

Announcement for TX - From the Texas Medical Association: DPS Extends Controlled Substance Certificate Renewals

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) says it will grant physicians 30 days to correct incomplete or inaccurate applications to renew controlled substance certificates.

Read more here: http://www.texmed.org/Template.aspx?id=22105

Joint Commission: New APRs on Focused Standards Assessment

The new Accreditation Participation Requirements on the Focused Standards Assessment (FSA), the new name of the improved Periodic Performance Review (PPR), are now available on The Joint Commission website. The requirements will become effective January 1, 2012 for the ambulatory care, behavioral health care, home care, hospital, laboratory services and long term care programs. The new name more appropriately reflects an emphasis on an organization’s assessment combined with The Joint Commission’s knowledge of high risk areas that are critical to patient safety and quality. The FSA is part of a broad initiative called the Intracycle Monitoring (IM) process which, when complete, will focus on activities to help identify risk points in health care organizations along with resources for addressing patient safety and quality problems. During 2012, pilot tests of the new IM process will occur; results of these pilot tests will be communicated in future issues of Joint Commission Online. Full implementation is planned for 2013

NCQA Updates

NCQA has just posted their updates to the HP and CVO standards. All corrections, clarifications and changes can be found here: http://www.ncqa.org/tabid/120/Default.aspx.