Articles
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Mastering Informed Consent
Questions posed during ACHCU’s monthly Coffee Chat live webinar often serve to reveal opportunities to extend education and develop additional resources for ACHC-accredited hospitals. In March 2025, the topic was medical record documentation.
Advance Directives Require Important Considerations
Advance directives rank among the most important legal documents in the healthcare setting. They come into use when a patient is incapacitated and cannot provide informed consent for care or cannot actively participate in care planning. Among the various types of advance directives, the most common in the healthcare setting are the living will and the durable power of attorney for health care.
Assessing Competencies Helps Ensure Quality and Safety of Patient Care
Competencies are not just requirements in health care. They are crucial aspects. Competencies play pivotal roles in ensuring patient safety, quality and continuity of care, and operational efficiency. As a healthcare professional, your role in identifying and addressing competence-related issues is paramount.
Verifying Personnel Credentials Is a Crucial Task for Hospitals
Your latest hire might not be the healthcare professional you think you hired for your acute care hospital. Did you check? A multi-state scheme to sell fake nursing diplomas should serve as a crucial reminder about the importance of verifying credentials for all licensed personnel.
Have a Plan for When You Must Write a Plan of Correction
Nobody is perfectly perfect. Nearly all organizations surveyed for accreditation are cited for deficiencies. To get back on the right track, the organization must develop an effective Plan of Correction (POC) for each deficiency and promptly submit it for approval before a final accreditation status can be determined. It’s a process.
Unraveling the Mysteries of Informed Consent
Patients or their representatives have the right to participate in the development of the patients’ plans of care. This includes providing informed consent for medical and surgical interventions and other aspects of their care
Critical Access Hospitals: Coordinating Food Preparation and Storage
Checking a box or making a call sends a meal to a patient in a Critical Access Hospital. But long before delivery, intricate collaboration takes place between departments to ensure food, infant formula, breast milk,and supplements are stored and prepared safely to support all ages and nutritional needs.
Preparing for the End of the COVID-19 PHE
On January 30, 2023, the Biden administration announced that the COVID-19 national emergency and Public Health Emergency will end on May 11, 2023. What does this mean for health care provider and supplier organizations that have come under CMS blanket waivers and enforcement discretion?
Preparing for the End of the COVID-19 PHE
On July 15, Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, extended the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration for another 90 days. One month later, on August 18, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a blog titled, “Creating a Roadmap for the End of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency.”
COVID Vaccination Compliance Review
ACHC is surveying certain Medicare-certified organizations for compliance with the COVID-19 vaccination mandate issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).