Building Healthy Habits

05/10/2013
From: Consumer Reports
From hip and knee replacements to high blood pressure, there are always things you can change in your day-to-day life that can help alleviate your ailments or even help them disappear altogether.

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CT Scans in the Emergency Room

08/19/2016
From: Consumer Reports
If you or someone you care for is in the emergency department, you want the medical staff to do everything they can to find out what's wrong and provide the right treatment. The doctors in the emergency room (ER) want the same thing. There are times when a CT scan (Computerized Tomography Scan, sometimes called a CAT scan) might be needed to help with the diagnosis. A CT scan uses X-rays to take pictures of your insides. 
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Deadly Infections

12/01/2011
From: Consumer Reports
Hospitals can lower the risk, but many fail to act.
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Diabetes: 5 Ways to be Active in Your Care

07/30/2014
From: The Joint Commission
Living with diabetes can make you good at managing the ups and downs of the disease. You can handle sick days, a trip to the store or a trip across the country. Going to the hospital, however, presents new challenges. 
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Dialysis: Five ways to be active in your care

07/30/2014
From: The Joint Commission
As a dialysis patient, you have a routine. You go to a dialysis center for dialysis or perform your own dialysis at home. You are actively involved in the daily care of your condition. This should not change when you go to the hospital.
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For Employees Main Page

05/10/2013
From: Consumer Reports
These tip sheets, brochures and videos, free for consumers' personal and family use, are provided in collaboration with the Choosing Wisely Employers' Toolkit. Information for employers can be found at the National Business Coalition on Health.
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Health Insurance Options, Marketplace and the New Health Care Laws

02/21/2013
From: HealthCare.gov
Articles about Prevention, Wellness, and Comparing Providers.

Under the health care law, many insurers are required to cover certain preventive services at no cost to you. You may be eligible for preventive care such as blood pressure and cholesterol tests, mammograms, colonoscopies, screenings for osteoporosis and more. These benefits include coverage for vaccines and new preventative benefits for women.

Tools to compare physicians, hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies and dialysis facilities.
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Health insurance plan rankings

11/01/2011
From: Consumer Reports
These rankings of private, Medicare, and Medicaid health-insurance plans (HMOs and PPOs) are based on data and calculations from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), an independent nonprofit group. A total of 830 plans are ranked in three categories: 390 private plans that people enroll in through work or on their own, 341 that serve Medicare beneficiaries in the Medicare Advantage program, and 99 that Medicaid beneficiaries enroll in.
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Hospital Safety Score

02/21/2013
From: Leapfrog Group
The Leapfrog Group is a voluntary program aimed at mobilizing employer purchasing power to alert America's health industry that big leaps in health care safety, quality and customer value will be recognized and rewarded. Among other initiatives, Leapfrog works with its employer members to encourage transparency and easy access to health care information as well as rewards for hospitals that have a proven record of high quality care.

The Leapfrog Hospital Survey is the gold standard for comparing hospitals' performance on the national standards of safety, quality, and efficiency that are most relevant to consumers and purchasers of care. Hospitals that participate in The Leapfrog Hospital Survey achieve hospital-wide improvements that translate into millions of lives and dollars saved.

Leapfrog's purchaser members use Survey results to inform their employees and purchasing strategies. In 2009, 1206 hospitals across the country completed The Leapfrog Hospital Survey.
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Hospital Survival Guide: Before Admission

02/08/2013
From: Consumer Reports
You do not always have time to plan for a hospital admission. But most often you do, even if it�s just a few days. Planning for that visit can lead to better care and faster care. So use that time to take these steps:
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Hospital Survival Guide: Checkin

02/08/2013
From: Consumer Reports
In addition to taking care of financial and insurance questions, make sure you take these five steps at your hospital check-in.
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Hospital Survival Guide: Checkout

02/08/2013
From: Consumer Reports
More than a third of hospital patients fail to get needed follow-up care once they get home. And many people have to be readmitted within 30 days of their discharge. To prevent that from happening to you, take these six steps.
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Hospital Survival Guide: Checkout Checklist

02/08/2013
From: Consumer Reports
Reduce your chance of a drug error and the possibility of being re-admitted to the hospital by following these steps when you check out..
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Hospital Survival Guide: During Your Stay

02/08/2013
From: Consumer Reports
Hospital staff members aren�t out to hurt you, but mistakes do happen, especially when things are busy or chaotic. So be polite-but alert. These eight steps can help improve hospital-patient safety.
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Why Not The BEST

02/21/2013
From: The Commonwealth Fund
WhyNotTheBest.org was created and is maintained by The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation working toward a high performance health system. It is a free resource for health care professionals interested in tracking performance on various measures of health care quality. It enables organizations to compare their performance against that of peer organizations, against a range of benchmarks, and over time. Case studies and improvement tools spotlight successful improvement strategies of the nation's top performers. A regional map shows performance at the county, HRR, state, and national levels.

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