Innovation in Pursuit of High-Reliability Culture
Although patient safety advocates have made strides in the past two decades, getting an entire medical staff to embrace high-reliability culture—also known as becoming a high-reliability organization (HRO)—requires a drastic shift in thinking.
Why Are Medical Errors Still a Leading Cause of Death?
The conversation around tracking medical errors highlights a lack of safety cultures resulted in the question: why aren’t we doing more research into strategies that can reduce medical errors?
Repeal and Replace: It’s Complicated
This past February, the President announced that the delivery of healthcare to America’s 300 million residents embraced more complexity than he previously realized.
Nurses Drive Change in Patient Safety Improvements
Nurses have the greatest opportunity to keep patients safe. It’s here, through patient engagement, that nurses are leading change.
Sparking Healthy Competition Among Teams
What brings teamwork to life? A subtle but essential enabler is competition—the push to improve.
Using Information From External Errors to Signal a “Clear and Present Danger”
To best promote patient safety, it is crucial to seek out information about external errors, to hold on to your initial feelings of surprise and uncertainty when you read about these errors, and to resist the temptation to gloss over what happened or attribute the problem to an individual different than you.
Standardized Palliative Care Consults Cut Readmissions 18% Among Some Cancer Patients
Oncology patients with advanced disease benefit from palliative care consultations triggered by standardized criteria, research shows.
FDA Ban On Powdered Medical Gloves In Effect
The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) ban on powdered medical gloves went into effect on January 18. It’s now forbidden to use, advertise, and market powdered surgeon’s gloves, patient examination gloves, and absorbable powder for surgeon’s gloves at medical clinics and hospitals.
Patient Safety Stories: How One Hospital Leveraged Interdisciplinary Collaboration to Tackle a Flawed Medication Management System
While all organizations face their own set of challenges when it comes to ensuring operational excellence and patient safety, one particular issue rose to the top at this facility requiring immediate attention: Like many small, rural facilities, the hospital didn’t have a 24/7 pharmacy, and relied on automated dispensing cabinets (ADC) to provide most medications on the acute care floor. Unfortunately, these machines were often inadequately stocked, resulting in a host of issues for nursing staff.
State Opioid Database Links with EHR in Pilot Program
In an effort to encourage physicians to use the databases, a pilot program has linked the Colorado Prescription Drug Monitoring Program with the University of Colorado Hospital’s EHR/EMR.