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The number of master's degree programs in healthcare quality and safety (HQS) has increased significantly over the past decade. Academic accreditation provides assurance that educational programs are of a high quality and meet the needs of students, employers, and the general public. Under the guidance of the Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Management Education, faculty from 9 universities collaborated in the development of criteria and related content domains to be used in the accreditation of graduate programs in HQS. Thirteen content domains were identified. Four of the content domains, safety and error science, improvement science and quality principles, evidence-based practice, and measurement and process improvement are thought to be foundational domains for graduate education in HQS. This article describes the development of the content domains and accompanying standards for accreditation of graduate programs in HQS.

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Gainsharing offers a hospital a way to control costs by using incentive payments to engage physicians in efforts to improve cost and quality performance. Author John Kotter's eight stages of change management can serve as a framework for understanding how the New Jersey Hospital Association and the Greater New York Hospital Association have guided the successful implementation of gainsharing. Successful gainsharing fosters a culture of improvement that capitalizes on the creativity, knowledge, and problem-solving ability of physicians to implement change and create added value.

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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) changed the way hospitals interact with patients when it implemented a pay-for-performance (P4P) system. Under this system, a financial reward or penalty is based in part on measures of patient experience. The program seeks to reward healthcare providers who expand their focus from solely delivering a highly technical set of services that improves the patient's health to creating an atmosphere that makes hospitalization more humane and respectful of patients' values and preferences. Refocusing priorities requires capital investment in more "patient-friendly" facilities or funding staff training programs. This study seeks to determine whether a relationship exists between inpatient costs and the score for "overall rating of hospital" (ORH) on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) hospital version survey. Second, if a relationship exists, the study examines how that relationship changed during the time of CMS' implementation of its P4P program. The study's findings suggest that higher-cost hospitals have higher levels of positive patient experiences, after controlling for other variables. Importantly, the research findings indicate that hospitals are becoming more efficient in delivering care associated with higher levels of patient experience, coinciding with implementation of the P4P program.

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OBJECTIVES: To examine the efficacy of alternative approaches for shifting consumers toward zero calorie beverages. We examined the effect of price discounts and novel presentations of calorie information on sales of beverages. METHODS: This prospective interrupted time-series quasi-experiment included three sites in Philadelphia, PA, Evanston, IL, and Detroit, MI. Each site received five interventions: (1) a 10% price discount on zero-calorie beverages; (2) the 10% discount plus discount messaging; (3) messaging comparing calorie information of sugared beverages with zero-calorie beverages; (4) messaging comparing exercise equivalent information; and (5) messaging comparing both calorie and exercise equivalent information. The main outcome was daily sales of bottled zero-calorie and sugared beverages. Data was collected from October 2009 until May 2010 and analyzed from May 2010 until May 2011. RESULTS: The overall analysis failed to demonstrate a consistent effect across all interventions. Two treatments had statistically significant effects: the discount plus discount messaging, with an increase in purchases of zero calorie beverages; and the calorie messaging intervention, with an increase in purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages. Individual site analysis results were similar. CONCLUSIONS: The effects of price discounts and calorie messaging in different forms on beverage purchases were inconsistent and frequently small.

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Benefits of increased collaboration between nursing and support services personnel--some of which have positive financial implications for hospitals--include: More effective use of nursing resources. Improved patient, nurse, physician, and staff satisfaction. Higher levels of nurse retention. Decreased hospital-acquired infections.

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