Patient Engagement in Patient Safety: Barriers and Facilitators
Patient Engagement in Patient Safety: Barriers and Facilitators
Patient safety has been at the forefront of recent domestic and international policy initiatives. The release of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) 2000 report To Err Is Human solidified the patient safety movement and the role that leadership and knowledge can play in preventing adverse events from occurring.
Florida Collaborative Tackles Hospital Readmissions
Florida Collaborative Tackles Hospital Readmissions
Whether you look at the national health reform debate taking place in Washington or the payment reform initiatives by commercial health plans, one common element and call to action is reducing hospital readmissions.
Disclosure and Apology: What’s Missing?
Disclosure and Apology: What’s Missing?
Ten years following Linda Kenney’s medically induced trauma, the organization she founded to “support healing and restore hope” for patients, families, and clinicians following adverse events co-sponsored an invitational forum about ways to offer emotional support to clinicians. Collaborating with the Massachusetts Medical Society, CRICO/RMF, and ProMutual Group, Kenney’s organization, Medically Induced Trauma Support Services, hosted the event at the MMS offices in Waltham, Mass., on March 13, 2009, during Patient Safety Awareness Week.
Distractions and Interruptions: Impact on Nursing
Distractions and Interruptions: Impact on Nursing
Working at the point of care, nurses play a key role in the delivery of safe, quality healthcare. Acute care nurses have to make timely and relevant clinical decisions, yet work within environmental conditions that are conducive to error. A recent study showed that nurses on average were interrupted 3 to 6 times every hour by people, pagers, telephone, etc (Potter et al., 2005). The potential impact of interruptions and distractions includes medical and medication errors, ineffective delivery of care, conflict and stress among health professionals, latent failures, and poor outcomes.
Workplace Safety: Hospital Security Impacts Patient Satisfaction
Workplace Safety
Hospital Security Impacts Patient Satisfaction
Security concerns for healthcare institutions are unlike those of any other market segment. Hospitals face increasing challenges to maintaining peace and security as emergency rooms are overcrowded, language barriers create tensions, and domestic violence is on the rise.
Trends: Sentara Supports Its Commitment to High Quality Care and Patient Safety with Biomedical Device Integration
Trends
Sentara Supports Its Commitment to High Quality Care and Patient Safety with Biomedical Device Integration
Sentara is a national leader in patient safety and quality care innovation, operating in over 100 care sites in Virginia and North Carolina. Sentara is one of the most progressive and integrated healthcare organizations in the nation with a culture of safety focused on error and injury reduction through simplified rules of behavior for everyone working in the environment of care.
Pulse: Diverse Opinion Leaders Say Nurses Should Have More Influence on Health Systems
Pulse
Diverse Opinion Leaders Say Nurses Should Have More Influence on Health Systems and Services
Opinion leaders trust nurses, but cite barriers to nursing leadership.
From reducing medical errors, to increasing the quality of care, to promoting wellness, to improving efficiency and reducing costs, a new survey finds that an overwhelming majority of opinion leaders say nurses should have more influence. But these opinion leaders—including insurance, corporate, health services, government and industry thought leaders as well as university faculty—see significant barriers that prevent nurses from fully participating as leaders in health and healthcare.
Pulse: Lucian Leape Institute Finds Medical Schools Fall Short in Teaching How to Provide Safe Care
Pulse
Lucian Leape Institute Finds Medical Schools Fall Short in Teaching How to Provide Safe Care
The Lucian Leape Institute at the National Patient Safety Foundation has released a report that finds that U.S. “medical schools are not doing an adequate job of facilitating student understanding of basic knowledge and the development of skills required for the provision of safe patient care.” The report comes approximately 10 years after the Institute of Medicine’s landmark 1999 report, To Err Is Human, which found that 98,000 Americans die unnecessarily from preventable medical errors.
Health IT & Quality: Health IT’s Glue
Health IT & Quality
Health IT’s Glue
With the march toward deployment of healthcare IT in full swing, concern mounts about obtaining the full value from the investment. Spending $19 billion on health IT tools does not guarantee patient safety, enhanced quality, improved access to care, or reduced cost. In fact, many studies over the past years have shown just the opposite.
Human Factors 101: Improve Reliability in Healthcare with Human Factors Engineering
Human Factors 101
Improve Reliability in Healthcare with Human Factors Engineering
Healthcare technology and training have advanced remarkably in the past 100 years, from the discovery of penicillin to the first heart transplant, but there is a downside to this progress. To quote Sir Cyril Chantler, former Dean of the Guy’s, King’s and St. Thomas’ Medical and Dental Schools in London, “Medicine used to be simple, ineffective, and relatively safe. Now it is complex, effective and potentially dangerous.”