Converting Routine Into Optimized Healthcare Procedures

The first order of change is to shift the performance standard in the right direction: toward each patient’s best interests. And to do that—to learn what best serves a particular patient—the person performing a mundane procedure must literally shift brain regions.

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Human Performance Limitations in Medicine: A Cognitive Focus

Most of the time, the last person in a chain of errors is assigned the blame for the final outcome of a procedure gone wrong. In the case of medicine, this is usually the physician, surgeon, anesthesiologist, or other caretaker who assumes primary responsibility for a patient’s safety.

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How Data Analytics Will Improve Patient Care

In this Q&A with Christopher Rafter, chief operating officer of Tampa-based Inzata Analytics, he speaks about the future of data analytics in healthcare and how they can improve the effectiveness of patient care.

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Patient Safety Trends for the Next Two Decades

Christopher Dore, senior product manager with Capsule Technologies, addresses questions about the patient safety trends that hospitals will need to deal with in the next 20 years, as well as takes a quick look at the last 20.

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Contact-Free Continuous Monitoring: How Arnot Ogden Medical Center Protects Patients From Clinical Deterioration

At Arnot Ogden Medical Center, a not-for-profit, 256-bed tertiary medical facility in Elmira, New York, we’ve long used traditional telemetry devices and methods in our four cardiology units to monitor patients’ vital signs. But we also wanted to give this added layer of protection to other hospital patients without incurring the costs of installing telemetry systems.

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Close the Loop on Test Results

Serious problems can occur when results are delayed. Patients can undergo the wrong operation, be prescribed the wrong medication, or be discharged when they actually require urgent care. A delay in test results can mean the difference between a treatable problem evolving into an inoperable one.

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Safety First: Five Steps to Better Life Safety and Emergency Preparedness

In a series of unannounced compliance audits, the Office of Inspector General found that among 20 surveyed nursing homes, all had severe deficiencies. These included 205 issues related to life safety and 219 issues related to emergency preparedness. In an August 2019 report, the department cited inadequate management and lack of standardized training as the main causes for noncompliance.

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Using AI for Early Diagnosis of Mesothelioma and Other Cancers

The internet of medical things does not supersede doctors’ diagnoses or treatment plans, but it can assist healthcare professionals in confronting stalls or difficulties. All patients can benefit from technology that will lead to more informed decisions; however, cancer patients may benefit the most due to the importance of early intervention and personalized treatment.

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Network Seeks to Reduce Drug Diversion, Increase Reporting Rate

So far, the network has tracked drug diversion at 90 hospitals, 28 nursing homes, and dozens of other types of healthcare facilities, including ambulatory surgical centers, assisted living centers, clinics, compounding pharmacies, medical laboratories, mental health facilities, pain clinics, rehabilitation homes, retail pharmacies, and schools.

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