Punitive actions taken against hospitals with too many 30-day readmissions, CMS' hospital star ratings, and 10 healthcare rules patients and staff want to break captured the attention of Becker's readers in 2017.
Here are the 10 most popular stories published by Becker's Clinical Leadership & Infection Control in 2017.
1. CRNA average hourly wage & salary for all 50 states — Montana tops the list at $243k
On average, certified registered nurse anesthetists in the U.S. make $160,250 annually, but CRNAs in some states make much more than the mean annual wage, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
2. CMS to punish more than 2.5k hospitals for 30-day readmissions: 7 things to know
Amid the political tumult over the ACA in 2017, CMS enforced the health law's readmission rule by penalizing 2,573 hospitals for having too many Medicare patients readmitted within 30 days.
3. 10 top patient safety issues for 2017
The Becker's Clinical Leadership & Infection Control editorial team chose the following 10 patient safety issues for providers to prioritize in 2017.
4. Joint Commission: 10 most common sentinel events of 2016
The 10 most common sentinel events reviewed by the Joint Commission did not change much from 2015 to 2016 — only dialysis-related events and perinatal death/injury fell off the list completely, and medication errors and criminal events took their places.
5. 2 patient suicides in 8 days reported at Montefiore Medical Center
Two patients at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, N.Y., killed themselves in the span of eight days in March.
6. Where are CMS' new overall 5-star hospitals?
When CMS updated the formula used in its Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating program in December 2016, the number of hospitals that received the highest possible overall rating fell from 112 in October to 83 in December. (To see the latest class of five-star hospitals, as recognized by CMS in mid-December, click here.)
7. 10 healthcare rules patients, staff say should be broken
Healthcare organizations can take specific action to mitigate the burden of unnecessary regulations without sparking political battles or slogging through policy changes, according to a viewpoint article written by three leaders from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
8. Nursing's 'dirty little secret'? Workplace violence, says 73-year-old nurse
Violence against healthcare workers accounts for almost as many workplace injuries as all other industries combined, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
9. Swedish Health's Cherry Hill campus at risk of losing Medicare, Medicaid funding
CMS threatened to cut off Medicare and Medicaid funding to Seattle-based Swedish Health's Cherry Hill campus unless it resolved patient safety issues.
10. New Jersey pain clinic closes after 30 patients infected
The Osteo Relief Institute Jersey Shore in Wall Township, N.J., closed from March 8-22, 2017 after 30 patients contracted infections linked to the pain clinic.