Maintenance. The word itself can often times come with a negative connotation due to the term “High Maintenance.” But when it comes to medical equipment maintenance, the key here is PREVENTative. In this issue’s Auxo Medical newsletter, we’ll peel back why the importance of preventative maintenance cannot be overemphasized.
What are the benefits of using a single source vendor for purchasing medical equipment? This seems like an obvious answer for a common question, but the truth is, there is so much more to it than cost savings.
These days more than ever before, the Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) procurement team is under a lot of pressure to provide high quality equipment, within or under budget, while considering the needs (and opinions) of front line medical stakeholders.
Bet you’re like most everyone … as the Holiday Season approaches, we all tend to say, “Where did the year go?” More central to this article is “Where did the 2017 Tax Year Go?”
And that brings us to the topic at hand, your potential to save big-time on your 2017 tax bill. That prospect is the significant tax advantages of the Section 179 deduction … but only if you act by December 31, 2017.
Back in August, we reported in the Auxo Medical Examiner of the increasing victimization of health care facilities by hackers who disable access to key patient and status records until ransom demands are met. In addition to patients, employees often suffer as well because of a workplace breach of their confidential information.
In recent days, we’ve all seen the recent headlines of a data breach that literally may affect 50% of Americans.
Given the snowballing ransomware cyberattacks of ASCs and other health care facilities, coupled with escalating identity theft initiated by hackers for illicit use or sale to other thieves … this issue will deal with two specific data breach exposures:
How would you like to have employees who:
If your answer is “yes”, you have just accepted the profile of the single largest segment of the workforce – Millennials. What’s not to like?!
This generation has now surpassed the Boomers and projected to be fully half of the U.S. workforce by 2020. Also known as Gen Y, this generation born between 1980 and 2000 will escalate to 75% status by 2030.
You’ve seen it … you’ve heard it … you couldn’t miss it!
Health care facilities have been victimized by hackers who steal patient identities and increasingly disable access to key patient treatment and status records until ransom demands are met. Additionally, employees may suffer because of a workplace breach of their confidential information.
Traditional technology networks are generally vulnerable and lucrative to attack. ASCs as well as small to medium-size hospitals are marked as primary targets for breaches because their security infrastructure is often lacking. That underscores a July 2016 report that revealed that the healthcare industry is hit significantly harder by ransomware hackers than any other sector … to the tune of 88% of attacks targeted hospitals.
In this article, we’ll take a look at what are current threats as well as those to be anticipated based on advances in medical technology. Additionally, we’ll review technical safeguards under HIPAA regulations and employer responsibilities as viewed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
ASCs merger and acquisition activity continues its decade long growth trend. Industry experts anticipate the outlook for 2017 and beyond will likely maintain or exceed that momentum.
There are 5 major drivers that fuel this buying spree to consolidate and deliver patient care in non-hospital settings.
That said, it follows that healthcare providers, including ASCs, are likely to be the object of scrutiny by OSHA. As an operating entity in a high risk industry sector, it is quite possible that your ASC will be scheduled for an OSHA inspection (audit) to assure compliance with OSHA requirements.
But put that in context. OSHAs objective is not to be punitive. Rather it seeks to help employers and workers reduce on-the-job hazards to prevent injuries, illnesses and deaths.
Let’s take a look at what you may expect when the OSHA compliance safety and health officer (CO) shows up on your doorstep, typically without advance notice. Following that, we’ll look at how you may best position your ASC to not be a target for an OSHA inspection and the payoffs for being proactive.
Healthcare is the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. economy, employing over 18 million workers. Health care workers face a wide range of hazards on the job, including sharps injuries, harmful exposures to chemicals and hazardous drugs, back injuries, latex allergy, violence, and stress. Although it is possible to prevent or reduce healthcare worker exposure to these hazards, healthcare workers continue to experience injuries and illnesses in the workplace.
Annually, using established criteria, the CMS reviews the “inpatient only” (IPO) list to determine which, if any, procedures are to be removed. In a previous newsletter, we mentioned how Total Knee Arthroplasty may be removed from the Medicare Inpatient Only list. The winners for CY 2017 are five spine procedures along with two laryngoplasty procedures. Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) procedures did not make the final cut.
Illustration of a Total Knee Arthroplasty procedure
The CY 2017 OPPS/ASC final rule discussed comments it received regarding the removal of (TKA) from the IPO list. Despite the overwhelming support for its removal, the CMS did not propose making an immediate change, but “will consider all of these comments in future policy making.”