New results from the 22-hospital Tennessee Surgical Quality Collaborative (TSQC) indicate that in just three years, the 10 original hospitals that formed the collaborative were able to reduce surgical complications by 19.7 percent and 30-day mortality by 31.5 percent. The hospitals’ researchers say this equates to at least 533 lives saved and $75.2 million in reduced costs.

The National Quality Forum’s (NQF) Board of Directors has approved a robust trial to measure the potential impact and implications of creating a risk factor that would adjust relevant hospital payment quality measures to take into account the challenges presented in achieving the same outcomes for patients with low socioeconomic and/or minority status as for those who are more well off economically and not minorities.

The annual survey of hospital safety and quality by the non-profit Leapfrog Group and Castlight Health finds improvement and increased participation by hospitals, but also reflects a “surprisingly high variance” in high-risk procedure survival rates and hospital-acquired injury and infection rates.

One of the nation’s largest hospital engagement networks (HENs) is the more than 1,500-member HEN operated by the American Hospital Association (AHA) and its Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET). In its first 28 months of operation, it says it saved more than $1.3 billion by reducing the incidence of preventable harm, readmissions and infections, as well as the incidence of early elective deliveries.

The Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia, is this year’s American Hospital Association (AHA)-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize winner for its “impressive culture of safety and focus on effectiveness.”

The annual ranking of U.S. hospitals by the news magazine U.S. News & World Report has long stirred controversy, particularly by the heavy weight it gives to hospital reputation as measured by the votes of just a few hundred American Medical Association member physicians. However, its influence in hospital marketing is undeniable.

Low-risk procedures performed in a hospital outpatient setting are reimbursed at a higher level than the same procedures performed in an ambulatory surgery center (ASC), but is there value in the higer payments for procedures done in hospital outpatient surgical departments? In proposed quality measure changes, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) aims to make it easier to compare quality between the two types of surgical settings.

Being poor raises the risk of dying from cancer considerably for many reasons, not the least of which is the disparity in cancer screening rates between rich and poor. A new study appearing in JAMA Internal Medicine adds research support to the importance of targeted interventions in erasing such disparities.