If you go to the emergency room at Dominican Hospital, how long will it take before you are evaluated?
The federal government says 10 minutes on average.
That’s better than the wait of 15 minutes at Watsonville Community Hospital, according to a new database causing some hospital officials nationwide to cringe. It takes the ERs of Watsonville Community and Dominican an average of 142 and 153 minutes, respectively, from the time that a patient arrives in the ER to the time they are sent home. In that category, both local hospitals bested the average across California (173 minutes) and across the United States (140 minutes).
Key measures of ER efficiency have been posted from hospitals taking part across the country, according to a report by former San Diego Union-Tribune writer Cheryl Clark, now senior quality editor for HealthLeaders Media.
“With precious little fanfare, Uncle Sam last month rolled out a big, fat database with seven measures comparing a service that many people—healthcare providers and patients alike—consider the most critical any hospital can provide,” Clark wrote last week.
Data collected in 2011 and early 2012 also tracked how long it took for an ER patient to be seen by a healthcare professional and how long the wait was to get a bed if they needed admission. Other data showed how long patients spent in the ER before being sent home and whether they received a brain scan if they might have suffered a stroke.
Clark interviewed Dr. Jesse Pines, an emergency room doctor and researcher who directs the center for healthcare quality at George Washington University.
“The theory is that when hospitals report this information, it makes them focus on it, and improve throughout their [Emergency Department],” Pines was quoted as saying.
“But it’s very hard to do. Certain performance measures are easier to fix—simple process measures like giving patients an aspirin—than improving ED throughput, which involves development of interdisciplinary teams.”
Pines told Clark the public attention pushes hospital administrators to focus on the emergency rooms as well as other metrics.
Read more HERE!
To avoid unpleasant surprises, it is important to work with a professional in this area. Additional questions? Ask us, we’re here to help! For additional information about our insurance products, no-cost advice or for your free, no-obligation insurance quote, please contact the professionals at Scurich Insurance Services today at 800-320-3666 and we will be more than happy to assist you.
This story was taken form www.watsonville.patch.com and was written by Jennifer Squires. Scurich Insurance did not create this content–we just wanted to share it with you!
Read more
As most of you know, Scurich Insurance Services, has a fantastic program that is known as the Happy Customer Program. We use this program to see how our insurance agency ranks in your own personal standards.
All we request is that you fill out our simple customer satisfaction servery. once you complete this step we will send you a $5.00 gift card to Starbucks. That’s right your next cup of coffee or frappe is on Scurich Insurance Services. What else can make your day any better besides a fresh cup of coffee?
For more information about any of our Products and Services contact Scurich Insurance Services located in Watsonville, California.
Read more
The spread of social media has revolutionized not only the way we connect with friends and family, but also how we conduct business. However, this asset can quickly turn into a liability if misused – for example, in recruiting your company’s most valuable asset – its employees.
Many employers begin the hiring process by using social-media outlets to screen applicants. LinkedIn and Facebook can provide a wealth of information about applicants’ education, their friends, and their personal behavior. Some companies reject candidates based on the content of their social-media pages. This might include anything from inappropriate photos or comments, discriminatory or slanderous statements, and references to alcohol and substance abuse, to sharing confidential information about their previous employers(s), displaying poor communication skills, or exaggerating their qualifications.
Although all of these indicators raise red flags, you could be risking a costly and annoying discrimination lawsuit if you access social-media sites which contain protected class information that’s not privileged in the normal hiring process.
To minimize this risk, it makes sense to:
- When hiring, use outside third parties such as background-verification companies and/or recruiters who document content from social-media sites in selecting candidates.
- Develop and enforce a comprehensive social-media usage policy.
- Purchase an Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) policy
To avoid unpleasant surprises, it is important to work with a professional in this area. Additional questions? Ask us, we’re here to help!
For additional information about our
insurance products, no-cost advice or for your free, no-obligation insurance quote, please contact the professionals at
Scurich Insurance Services today at 800-320-3666 and we will be more than happy to assist you.
Read more
This article was taken from: PropertyCasualty360.com
“Everything is not “coming up roses” for a Fontana, Calif. man who is facing workers’ compensation fraud and perjury charges.
Fifty-four-year-old Jose Cortez formerly earned a living as a gardener until Oct. 2010, when a large tree branch fell and landed on him during his shift for L. Barrios & Associates Landscaping. Cortez was then transported to a local hospital and sent home with “minor work restrictions.”
Although Cortez claimed the injuries sustained that day prevented him from completing his customary work duties, at least one person was not convinced. The following year, a tip aroused enough suspicion to initiate video surveillance of Cortez. During the course of the probe, insurance investigators observed Cortez carrying on as if it were business as usual. In fact, investigators documented at least six separate occasions when they saw him performing his normal duties as a gardener without any obvious signs of discomfort.
In Sept. 2012, investigators from the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office Workers’ Compensation Insurance Fraud Unit conducted a thorough criminal investigation, collecting surveillance footage allegedly incriminating Cortez, who was still collecting insurance benefits at the time.
“Mr. Cortez had previously stated that he was unable to perform the full range of his duties,” said Deputy District Attorney Scott Byrd, who is assigned to the case. “However, our investigation revealed that he had misrepresented the extent of his injuries and received more compensation than [to which] he was entitled.”
On Jan. 21, the prosecution filed criminal charges against Cortez, resulting in a felony arrest warrant being issued. Cortez was taken into custody outside his residence without incident by District Attorney Investigators. He was then transported and booked at the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s West Valley Detention Center. On Jan. 22, Cortez entered a plea of “not guilty” in San Bernardino Superior Court.
If convicted as charged, Cortez could enter a system far different from workers’ compensation—namely prison, where he could serve as many as eight years.
“This type of fraud is harmful because it causes premiums that businesses have to pay to go higher,” Byrd says. “It drains business profits, which in turn costs honest workers money in raises or other benefits that they may have been eligible to receive.”
Read more HERE!
For more information about Workers Compensation or to obtain a new policy, simply contact Scurich Insurance Services located in Watsonville, California today at 800-320-3666 and we will be happy to help you.
Scurich Insurance Services did not originally write this content
Read more
We at Scurich Insurance Services located in Watsonville, California, know how troublesome it can be when you apply for an insurance quote. That is why we have launched a program that will make applying for an insurance quote 10 times easier.
Simply visit our Happy Customer Follow-Up page and select the products and services you currently have as well as the ones that you need. Once you press submit we will receive your information and the products and services that you need and one of our agents will contact you!
It’s as easy as that! If you would like to speak with someone directly you can always contact us today at 800-320-3666. Don’t forget to spread this information with your family and friends.
If the link above for the Happy Customer Follow-Up page does not load please copy and paste this link into your browser:
http://aom.imms.com/promotions/startpage.aspx?id=37
Read more
Agriculture Insurance is purchased by agricultural producers, including farmers, ranchers, and others to protect themselves against either the loss of their crops due to natural disasters, such as hail, drought, and floods, or the loss of revenue due to declines in the prices of agricultural commodities. The two general categories of crop insurance are called crop-yield insurance and crop-revenue insurance.
- Crop-hail insurance is generally available from private insurers (in countries with private sectors) because hail is a narrow peril that occurs in a limited place and its accumulated losses tend not to overwhelm the capital reserves of private insurers. The earliest crop-hail programs were begun by farmer’s cooperatives in France and Germany in the 1820s.
- Multi-peril crop insurance (MPCI) covers the broad perils of drought, flood, insects, disease, etc., which may affect many insureds at the same time and present the insurer with excessive losses. To make this class of insurance, the perils are often bundled together in a single policy, called a multi-peril crop insurance (MPCI) policy. MPCI coverage is usually offered by a government insurer and premiums are usually partially subsidized by the government. The earliest MPCI program was first implemented by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC), an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 1938. The FCIC program has been managed by the Risk Management Agency (RMA), also a U.S. Department of Agriculture agency, since 1996.
If you want to learn more about Scurich Insurance and what they have to offer, click the link to be directed to their website!
[formidable id=21 title=true]
Read more
