Waits for inpatient beds are an important factor in ER overcrowding. UpperCut Images/Getty Images hide caption
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health care quality
Dr. Atul Gawande has been picked to lead the high-profile joint venture in health care formed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase. Mint/Hindustan Times via Getty Images hide caption
Atul Gawande: Medicine Has Become A Team Sport.
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The goal was to make sure hospitals didn't send patients home too soon, without a plan for following up or without enough support at home to recover completely. Science Photo Library / Getty Images hide caption
Hospital-acquired infections are a big risk in health care, especially for older or seriously ill patients. Dana Neely/Getty Images hide caption
Laura Rees (left) and her sister Nancy Fee sit with their father, Joseph Fee, while holding a photo of his late wife, Elizabeth. Robert Durell for KHN hide caption
Rule Change Could Push Hospitals To Tell Patients About Nursing Home Quality
Dr. Abraham Nussbaum argues for medicine to reconnect with its past: Caring for patients should be a calling, not a job, he says. PhotoAlto/Michele Constantini/Getty Images hide caption
Medical errors rank behind heart disease and cancer as the third leading cause of death in the U.S., Johns Hopkins researchers say. iStockphoto hide caption
Members of Congress complained to the administration that hospitals needed more time to check the accuracy of quality ratings. Win McNamee/Getty Images hide caption
Ratings on patient satisfaction and quality of care often don't match. Terry Vine/Blend Images/Getty Images hide caption
After knee surgery, David Larson, 66, of Huntington Beach, Calif., experienced pain in a calf muscle. His answer to an automated email from the doctor led to the diagnosis and treatment of a potentially dangerous blood clot. Heidi de Marco/Kaiser Health News hide caption
Behind-the-scenes work to reduce injuries and infections in hospitals has paid off. Further improvements may be more challenging. iStockphoto hide caption
Errors in diagnosis, such as inaccuracies or delays in making the information available, account for an estimated 10 percent of patient deaths, a blue-ribbon report says. iStockphoto hide caption
Nursing attendant Tracie Bell helps manage patients at the ophthalmology clinic at Los Angeles County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The clinic created a color-coded system to reduce wait times for patients. Anna Gorman/Kaiser Health News hide caption
PCORI Executive Director Joe Selby says grants to medical societies are needed to get through to busy professionals who "may not answer our phone calls." Stephen Elliot/Courtesy of PCORI hide caption
Is Obamacare's Research Institute Worth The Billions?
The Center for Public Integrity
Coordinating care for high-risk patients was expected to save money and improve quality of care. A Medicare experiment didn't pan out. Roy Scott/Getty Images/Ikon Images hide caption
Choosing a home health agency can be even more difficult than picking a nursing home. iStockphoto hide caption
The Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., is one of Medicare's 5-star rated hospitals. Mayo Clinic/Flickr hide caption
Patient perceptions have been tough to change at Rowan Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, N.C. Joanna Serah/Wikimedia hide caption
With Medicare Pay On The Line, Hospitals Push Harder To Please Patients
Dr. Chuck Denham gave the keynote speech at a patient safety conference held at the Cleveland Clinic in 2011. Safety Leaders/Flickr hide caption
Shopping for an MRI scan? Guroo.org, won't yet show you what your local hospital or radiologist charges, but it will reveal the average cost of the test in your area. iStockphoto hide caption
When Johns Hopkins Medicine opened gleaming new clinical buildings, it created a natural experiment to gauge patient satisfaction. Johns Hopkins Medicine hide caption
Happy patients can be a windfall for the hospitals that care for them. Laughing Stock/Corbis hide caption