News in brief - May 30, 2011

Patients see board certification as important

Most Americans believe it's important for their physicians to maintain board certification, and 45% would look for a new doctor if they learned a physician wasn't doing so, says a survey by the American Board of Medical Specialties.

Ninety-five percent of more than 1,000 adults who responded to the December 2010 survey said it is important for doctors to participate in a maintenance-of-certification program. If they learned that a doctor wasn't maintaining his or her certification, 41% of respondents said they would stop referring family and friends to that doctor, said the study (www.abms.org/news_and_events/media_newsroom/pdf/
abms_consumer_survey_fact_sheet_4-2011_final.pdf).

"Today's patients are savvy health care consumers," said ABMS President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin B. Weiss, MD, MPH. "Board certification and participation in an ABMS [maintenance-of-certification] program demonstrates to them that their doctor has met and continues to meet the qualifications to provide quality care in his or her medical specialty."

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N.J. surgery centers cited for safety problems

More than half of the 91 ambulatory surgical centers examined by the New Jersey Dept. of Health and Senior Services in 2009 and 2010 failed to meet safety and quality standards for participating in Medicare, said a recent report from the nonprofit New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute (www.njhcqi.org/NJHCQIASCSurgicalPracticeREPORT4-1-11.pdf).

More than 25% of the facilities were cited for "immediate jeopardy" violations that were likely to cause serious harm or death to patients. Examples of safety problems found included staff members walking through sterile areas in street clothes, reusing single-use items on more than one patient, and failing to properly sanitize beds, floors and surgical instruments.

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