Transforming Patient Care: 5 Nurse Leaders Offer Insight
The changing role of nursing may sound daunting, but nurse leaders don’t have to go it alone. They can rely on their peers to learn best practices in redesigning care delivery. Learning from peers is exactly what took place at the 2018 HealthLeaders CNO Exchange in Charleston, South Carolina, where 35 nursing and patient experience executives gathered in roundtable sessions that addressed transforming patient care and experience.
Remembering Winter Storm Jonas
To prepare for the storm, Taylor and his colleagues conducted a brainstorming session with the director of facilities planning to identify a list of potential spaces that could be converted into sleeping areas, ranking their convertibility from easy to difficult.
Nurses Create Escape Room to Increase Sepsis Awareness
The original idea for the escape room started in 2017 when Lauren McPeake, RN, BSN, created a simulation-based escape room to educate the nurses on her geriatric unit on the care of sepsis.
Tapping Patient Engagement to Reduce Diagnostic Errors
In this installment of PSQH Monthly Spotlight, we examine how patient engagement is used to cut down on diagnostic errors, which impact about 12 million adult outpatients each year.
Incoming EPA rule will change the game on hazardous waste pharmaceuticals
Under the changes first proposed in September 2015, EPA is creating a new subpart P under RCRA that manages hazardous waste pharmaceuticals across a wide array of industries, including hospitals, physician offices, ambulatory care, and other providers who “distribute, sell, or dispense pharmaceuticals, including over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, dietary supplements, homeopathic drugs, or prescription pharmaceuticals,” according to the EPA.
Suicides and Drugs Cut U.S. Life Expectancy
In 2017, American life expectancy dropped for the third year in a row, with the main culprits of the decline being drug overdoses and suicides. There was a grand total of 2.8 million deaths that year—69,000 more than in 2016 and breaking the U.S. record for most deaths in one year.
How Diagnostic Stewardship Can Fight Hospital-Acquired Infections
Diagnostic stewardship confronts one of the biggest unspoken issues in healthcare: overutilization of services. Laboratory testing is one area where overutilization is quite common.
How Hospitals are Using Smartphones to Raise HCAHPS Scores
One survey of nurse managers and IT decision-makers found that, within the next four years, 97% of nurses will use mobile devices at the bedside. Most people recognize the importance of fast, efficient communication in improving patient care and safety.
Wildfire and Smoke: Sharp HealthCare’s Fire Plans
In 2007, San Diego County had a huge wildfire that forced several hospitals, nursing homes, and behavioral health hospitals to evacuate. Sharp HealthCare was one of the hospital systems to take in some of those patients. And the area suffered from a devastating wildfire in 2003, known as the Cedar Fire.
Controlling Risk Through Medication Communication Best Practices
To minimize the potential for dangerous complications or the need for readmission, medical facilities must take steps to ensure clear communication practices.