Perioperative Technology Improves SCIP Measurements in a Community Hospital
Perioperative Technology Improves SCIP Measurements in a Community Hospital
One of the most highly regarded quality initiatives in the hospital operating room (OR) sphere is the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP), an ongoing program whose work was initiated in 2003 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and is coordinated through a steering committee of 10 national organizations committed to improving surgical care quality and patient safety.
Pulse
Pulse
IOM Calls for Better Oversight, Accountability of Health Information Technology to Improve Patient Safety
To protect Americans from potential medical errors associated with the use of information technology in patient care, a new report by the Institute of Medicine calls for greater oversight by the public and private sectors.
Fall Prevention Showcase
Fall Prevention Showcase
What Goes Down—Shouldn’t
Between 2 and 15% of hospital patients in the United States experience falls. Nearly a third result in injuries and sometimes even death. Preventing falls in the acute environment is a constant battle against gravity and human behavior.
Patient Safety in Africa: A Culture Shift?
Patient Safety in Africa: A Culture Shift?
Patient safety has received increased attention in African countries in the last decade, yet little is known about African patient safety challenges and quality improvement opportunities.
Telluride Interdisciplinary Patient Safety Roundtable
Telluride Interdisciplinary Patient Safety Roundtable:
Medical Students’ Daily Narrative Reflections
As each new report of medical harm is published, the need to redesign medical education to prepare young physicians capable of approaching patient care in ways that decrease the opportunity for harm reaches a new level of urgency.
The Stories Behind the Data
The Stories Behind the Data
Narratives in event reporting database reveal opportunities for fall prevention.
Patient falls continue to be one of the leading causes of adverse events and patient harm in hospitals (Dykes et al., 2010). Injuries from falls can increase the length of hospital stay and increase hospital costs (Dykes et al., 2010; Krauss et al., 2007). As a result, fall reduction and prevention has become the focus for many national and international organizations (Szumlas et al., 2004).
Gray Market, Black Heart
ISMP
Gray Market, Black Heart
Pharmaceutical gray market finds a disturbing niche during the drug shortage crisis.
Widespread accounts of frustration, outrage, and serious compromises to patient care came across loud and clear from purchasing agents and pharmacists at 549 hospitals who participated in ISMP’s July-August survey (2011) on gray market activities associated with drug shortages.
The Link Between Transparency and Patient Safety
Event Reporting
The Link Between Transparency and Patient Safety
Since early 2010, 13 private, acute care hospitals in Rhode Island have been collaborating in a major initiative to improve patient safety through better reporting of data on adverse and near-miss medical events. The hospitals now use the same medical event reporting technology and have standardized their reporting criteria.
Provider-Friendly Terminology Speaks the Language of Quality and Safety
Medical Terminology Management
Provider-Friendly Terminology Speaks the Language of Quality and Safety
As a practicing physician, my peers often ask me what I do in the technology arena. When I reply, “standardization or medical terminology management,” I’ve usually lost them. And at its core, the goal of standardization really is not to complicate matters for physicians and other clinicians. Provider-friendly terminology (PFT) is an example of the kind of standardization our industry needs.
Health IT & Quality
Health IT & Quality
It’s All About Jobs
What would Steve do? Steve Jobs, the 20th century’s greatest and most successful innovator, engrained that mantra into the heads of every Apple employee. Only those staff members who thought through problems the way Jobs did would offer solutions that were acceptable to their boss.