Four Technology Recommendations to Reduce Alarm Fatigue
This article is reprinted with the permission of Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare (PSQH). Improving patient safety is one of the most urgent issues facing healthcare today. PSQH is written for and by people who are involved directly in improving patient safety and the quality of care. According to ECRI Institute, an independent, nonprofit organization that researches … Continue reading
Patient Safety Checklist Helps Address Opioid Warnings from TJC: Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety checklist supports Sentinel Event Alert on opioid hazards
This article is a reprinted with the permission of Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare (PSQH). Improving patient safety is one of the most urgent issues facing healthcare today. PSQH is written for and by people who are involved directly in improving patient safety and the quality of care. By Sean Power and Michael Wong On August 8, … Continue reading
Monitoring Technology for PCA Pumps Can Prevent Adverse Events with Patient-Controlled Analgesia (PCA): So Why Are Hospitals Not Using It?
This article has also been published in SurgiStrategies, which can be read here.) According to its newly-updated, “How-to Guide: Prevent Harm from High-Alert Medication”, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) looked at high-alert medications, which are “more likely than other medications to be associated with harm”. One of the areas that the IHI singles out is narcotics. The … Continue reading
Improving Patient Safety in Hospitals: Can Hospitals Afford to Give Away Money? So Why Do Preventable Adverse Events Still Occur in Hospitals?
This is the question that I posed to lawyers, insurers, and healthcare professionals attending a major healthcare conference, the Crittenden Medical Conference. According to the Institute of Medicine, each preventable adverse event costs about $8,750 — and this excludes potential litigation costs. Can hospitals afford to give away money? So, why do preventable adverse events still occur … Continue reading
Do Hospitals Care About Improving Patient Outcomes?: Hospital Report Cards Fall Flat at Improving Patient Outcomes
In a recent study published in Health Affairs, researchers wanted to know whether Medicare’s public reporting initiative, Hospital Compare, which began reporting measures of hospital quality for almost all US acute care hospitals in 2005, had an impact on patient mortality. They concluded: Medicare’s public reporting initiative for hospitals has had a minimal impact on … Continue reading
Is patient safety inadequate?
In its much publicized and discussed 1999 report, “To Err is Human”, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) found that made 44,000 to 98,000 lives a year in the U.S. were lost due to medical errors and, consequently, made patient safety a priority. Since that time, has patient safety improved? In their study recently published in … Continue reading
Should all patients after surgery be monitored?
In a survey conducted by the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety, almost all healthcare providers (90%) say that “continuous electronic monitoring of oxygenation and ventilation should be available and considered for all patients”. This monitoring “would reduce the likelihood of unrecognized clinically significant opioid-induced depression of ventilation in the postoperative period.” Dr. Marc Popovich … Continue reading
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