Physician engagement: A Multistep Approach to Improving Well-Being and Purpose
Have you noticed anything different about Dr. Blott recently? It used to be that when he came to make rounds, he was friendly and willing to help out, but now he seems aloof and barely makes eye contact. When I call him about a patient, he acts like I am bothering him, and he’s very abrupt and insensitive.
Education: Training for Integrated Multidisciplinary Care
As a medical student rotating through outpatient clinics and hospitals in Ohio in 2008, I felt underwhelmed by the initial experience. In both settings, I witnessed employees working incredibly hard with little interdepartmental communication—even when taking care of the same patients.
Editor’s Notebook: Learning to Work Together
Two articles in this issue are part of an ongoing series about interprofessional and multidisciplinary education in healthcare. Most authors are members of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Open School community (www.ihi.org/openschool), which offers alternative learning opportunities, and online training in quality improvement and patient safety.
New York State Coalition Improves Communication for Care Transitions
The effective transfer of patient care information is essential to a patient’s continuity of care whether conveyed in written documents, verbally, or electronically. Ineffective communication and transfer of patient information has been associated with medical errors, patient harm, and patient dissatisfaction.
Smart Pumps, BCMA, and EMRs: Lessons Learned About Interoperability
It has been more than a decade since a major study at a 725-bed academic medical center found that 67% of 426 in-process intravenous (IV) infusions had one or more discrepancies, including potentially fatal errors such as heparin ordered for 1300 units/hour that was infusing at 200 units/hour, an amiodarone infusion ordered…
Special Advertising Section: Infection Control from Top to Bottom
Infection control comes in many different packages these days. Critical care facilities have long noted the importance of hand hygiene and so have the various health standards and safety organizations. Indeed, “hand hygiene continues to be identified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the single most important and basic intervention to reduce…
Education: Interdisciplinary Education – More than Just Buzzwords?
Three years ago, I traveled across the nation on a whirlwind tour that is the medical school interview process. Among all the facility walk-throughs, lunches with students, and the all-important interviews, one topic continued to show up like medical students at a free lunch: interdisciplinary education.
Editor’s Notebook: Culture, Safety, and Value
Workplace culture—employees’ attitudes toward each other and the work itself, as well as the mission and values of the organization—affects all aspects of performance, including safety for employees, customers, and the community.
America’s Strategy for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria
Since the initial discovery of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928, a large number of antimicrobial agents have been harnessed for clinical use. While antimicrobial agents eradicate pathogens and control infections, it was recognized early on that bacteria exposed to antibiotics can evolve to survive them, raising concerns for antibiotic resistance.
Health & IT Quality: Strategic Operational Plans
Standing up in a canoe is hard enough. Standing up in two canoes with one foot in each while traveling through Class 4 rapids is mind-boggling. Class 4 rapids are defined as “intense, powerful, but predictable rapids requiring precise boat handling in turbulent water.”