Staff Shortages, Worker Mental Health Top Patient Safety Report
2022's ECRI Top Ten Patient Safety Concerns report highlights how the pandemic has impacted health system operations. Alzheimer's care is also at risk by staffing shortages. In OhioDirectTrust, Atrium Health, the end of the "SPAC frenzy," executive movements at Amazon, Providence are also in the health care business news.
Modern Healthcare:
ECRI's Top 10 Patient Safety List Highlights Staff Shortages
Staff shortages and workers' mental health are top patient safety concerns that health system executives must tackle, according to ECRI's annual Top Ten Patient Safety Concerns for 2022. The report usually focuses on clinical problems like diagnostic errors or cybersecurity attacks. While those issues still exist, the pandemic disrupted health system operations during the past two years. Hospitalizations are decreasing but many in healthcare expect COVID-19 will continue as a public health crisis. The not-for-profit patient safety organization reported that staff shortages actively threaten patient care by creating longer wait times for care. (Gillespie, 3/14)
Cincinnati Enquirer:
Report: Workforce Shortages A Concern As Alzheimer's Disease Projected To Grow In Ohio
The prevalence of Alzheimer's disease is projected to increase in Ohio by more than 13% from 2020 to 2025 even as workforce shortages leave a significant gap in specialist care, a report released Tuesday revealed. By the year 2025, 250,000 Ohioans age 65 and older will have Alzheimer's disease, the Alzheimer's Association projected in its annual report that includes statewide information about the disease's prevalence, mortality and quality of care. But major gaps in care, something widespread in the health care industry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlight the need to retain more specialists to treat the progressive disease that affects 1 in 9 people age 65 and older in the United States. (Sutherland, 3/15)
In other updates on the health care industry —
Modern Healthcare:
DirectTrust Launches Patient Information Exchange Standard-Setting Group
DirectTrust created an initiative to review and develop standards that could facilitate a voluntary patient credentialing and matching system. The initiative will form the Privacy-Enhancing Health Record Locator Service Ecosystem standard, which will define a model that either the private or public sector could deploy to ensure secure, identity-verified electronic exchanges of health information, the not-for-profit alliance said Monday. The group will identify and analyze existing standards while also forming new standards that improve record locators' privacy—and regulate interactions between identity providers, electronic health record systems and health information exchanges and networks. (Devereaux, 3/14)
Modern Healthcare:
Atrium Health, French Surgical Institute Partner On Innovation District
Atrium Health is working with IRCAD, a French-based surgical research and training institute, to form the organization's first North American headquarters and create a space where surgeons can practice performing safer procedures. The research building will be constructed in Charlotte, N.C.'s new innovation district, called "The Pearl," next to the Wake Forest University School of Medicine – Charlotte campus currently being built, Atrium said Monday.
"We envision IRCAD being a 'super magnet,' attracting businesses, physicians and surgeons to train and collaborate in the latest surgical techniques, including: robotics, medical virtual and augmented reality, surgical artificial intelligence and simulation training," said Eugene Woods, president and CEO of nonprofit Atrium Health, in a news release. (Devereaux, 3/14)
Modern Healthcare:
'SPAC Frenzy' Has Cooled In Healthcare
The wave of shell company-led healthcare acquisitions has ebbed as valuations have dropped and financing has dried up. Special purpose acquisition companies experienced a meteoric rise in 2020, when more healthcare companies turned to these "blank check" companies as an alternative to executing their own initial public offerings. SPACs, which raise money through IPOs and use it to acquire other companies and take them public, were involved in 119 deals across all sectors in the third quarter of 2020 valued at a cumulative $40 billion, according to consulting firm RSM's analysis of Bloomberg data. (Kacik, 3/14)
Modern Healthcare:
Providence’s Aaron Martin Confirms He’s Returning To Amazon
Providence chief digital officer Aaron Martin is returning to Amazon after spending nearly six years at the Catholic-based health system. Martin has led Providence Ventures, overseeing the health system’s $300 million health tech fund. Under Martin, Providence has spun out two digital health companies from its digital innovation group and invested in a number of other successful companies, including Omada Health and Lyra Health. (Perna, 3/14)
Montana Public Radio:
The State Hospital Has More Time To Try To Save Its Medicare Funding
The Montana State Hospital has received an extension to work out a possible deal with federal health officials to prevent the loss of Medicare funding. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) warned the Montana State Hospital that it could lose Medicare funding this month if it didn’t correct issues related to patient safety. Inspectors found that some patients repeatedly fell and that the hospital didn’t implement COVID-19 mitigation measures, leading to four patient deaths. (Bolton, 3/14)
