Preventing and identifying hospital-acquired delirium.

Hospital-acquired delirium often goes unnoticed because the signs and symptoms resemble those of dementia and depression, making diagnosis difficult. This article explores the differences between delirium, dementia, and depression and discusses the role of nursing in patient assessment and education.

Building Connections With Patients and Families in the Intensive Care Unit: A Canadian Top-Performer Success Story.

Consumers are increasingly becoming the voice and impetus for hospital organizational change in the United States. This is in part due to their increased stake in cost sharing with hospitals, health systems, and the ambulatory setting and revisions to health plans with higher deductibles and copays. With customers wanting services better, faster, and more economical than in the past, organizations need to break the ceiling on improvement levels for exceeding expectations of patient experience.

Successes and Challenges in Patient Care Transition Programming: One Hospital's Journey.

The 2013 addition of the Care Transition Measures to the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey; enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010); and a greater focus on population health have brought a heightened awareness and need for action with patient transitions. Data are emerging from the additional Care Transition Measures and benchmarks have been developed. This article briefly describes the context of care transition.

Rethinking Care Coordination: Paradigm Shifting From Volume to Value.

Although care coordination is not a new concept, it has been fraught with a myriad of definitions. Among these, core themes can be gleaned to help the home healthcare clinician understand their role and responsibilities as part of a high-functioning team. For a shift from volume to value to occur, in a way that is meaningful to the patient, a holistic paradigm needs to be fully embraced by all members of the interdisciplinary team.

Delirium and Dementia in the Intensive Care Unit: Increasing Awareness for Decreasing Risk, Improving Outcomes, and Family Engagement.

: Longer stays in the intensive care unit (ICU) can be an opportunistic battlefield where not only is the length of stay longer, but also there is increased time that lapses with the potential for a patient fall, nosocomial infection, urinary tract infection, and other untoward events (http://oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-06-09-00090.

Closing the transition gaps the changing context of home healthcare coordination.

Legislative enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010 created an impetus for change within the healthcare industry. As a result, the entire healthcare continuum is under greater scrutiny and incentives for performance levels and subsequent outcomes. Home healthcare clinicians have a vital role in the emerging spotlight of care transitions from hospital to home.

Remodeling a broken system through hospital-payer partnerships.

One way to fix our broken system is to strengthen hospital-payer partnerships, which will help shift caregiver focus from volume to value.

Creating a new healthcare landscape.

Transitioning from fee-for-service to value-based care can be disruptive, but it's an imperativeevolution for healthcare systems to remain relevant in an ever-changing field.