Staffing: New Nurse Turnover and Patient Safety: What’s the Problem?

Staffing

New Nurse Turnover and Patient Safety: What’s the Problem?

 

Ineffective staffing programs are often the invisible factors that cause the best intentioned patient safety programs to collapse. Positive patient care outcomes depend on a “point of excellence” where the clinician and the patient interact synergistically every time. Variability between clinicians because of nurse turnover blocks the chances of achieving excellence, which is particularly harmful when it involves the new nurse.

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Infection Control: Basic and Advanced

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Infection Control: Basic and Advanced

An estimated 30,800 fewer invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections occurred in the United States in 2011 compared to 2005, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s the good news.

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News

News

Strategic Radiology Establishes PSO to Improve Quality and Safety

 

Early this year Strategic Radiology Patient Safety Organization LLC was announced as a component entity of Strategic Radiology LLC, an affiliation of 16 group practices representing more than 1,200 radiologists. The new patient safety organization (PSO) was listed by the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on June 19, 2013, signifying that its certifications have been accepted by the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ) and making it the first radiology-specific PSO in the country.

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Improving Reliability with Root Cause Analysis

Improving Reliability with Root Cause Analysis

 

Root cause analysis (RCA) has an image problem. Because various regulatory agencies require RCA to be used under specific circumstances, usually following an adverse event, the tool is primarily viewed as reactive. When these “sentinel events” occur, we pull out the microscope—RCA—and take a deeper look. Used in this way, RCA is often viewed as a “money-taker” because it appears only to consume people’s time and resources when they already feel overloaded. Rarely do we ask for a return on investment (ROI) associated with an RCA.

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Usability Testing of a U-500 Insulin Syringe: A Human Factors Approach

Usability Testing of a U-500 Insulin Syringe: A Human Factors Approach

Currently, 8.3% of the population, 25.8 million people, has diabetes in the United States. Not all of those 25.8 million have been diagnosed as diabetics. Among patients with diabetes, 90% to 95% are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which often requires treatment with insulin (CDC, 2010).

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Plan Ahead to Prevent Slips, Trips, and Falls

Plan Ahead to Prevent Slips, Trips, and Falls

 

Slips, trips, and falls on flat surfaces are the leading cause of workplace injury. And, in the healthcare industry, incident rates are 90% higher than in all other private industries combined, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ national census of nonfatal injuries.

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Nursing Home Tackles Readmissions with In-house Primary Care

Readmissions

Nursing Home Tackles Readmissions with In-house Primary Care

 

Across the country, healthcare providers are grappling with high rates of readmissions to hospitals within 30 days after discharge. Readmission to the hospital is stressful for patients and their families; costly; and, many times, avoidable.

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