How Healthcare Artwork Can Strengthen Connections Between Patients, Providers, and Community
As art becomes more central to the healing experience, it’s important to get designers and artists involved early in renovations and new construction projects to create works that meet facilities’ varied needs.
Why the 2018 FGI Guidelines Account for ‘Patients of Size’ and How Your Facility Can, Too
The Guidelines now focus on safe handling for “patients of size,” a switch in terminology away from bariatrics that’s meant to account for not only a patient’s weight, but also height and distribution of weight throughout the body.
Harris Health System vs. Hurricane Harvey
More than 400 employees from Harris Health had homes significantly damaged or destroyed in the flood. With so many workers impacted by the floodwaters, response and recovery after the storm meant helping staff members as well.
Q&A: Photos and Wristbands for Patient Identification
Austin F. Mount-Campbell, PhD, is a patient safety fellow at the Center for Medical Product End-user Testing in the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. He’s done previous studies on the efficacy of patient ID wristbands and patient handoffs.
How ‘Smarter’ Smartphones Help Hospitals Safeguard Patients
Both patient safety and quality care depend on providing accurate, meaningful information to the right person at the right time. Today, smartphone platforms and apps not only facilitate timely handoffs—a cornerstone of patient safety—but also integrate with hospital system software to provide clinicians with data from EHRs, biomedical devices, and hospital pharmacies and laboratories.
The Importance of Bringing a Nursing and Clinical Perspective to Facility Design
After adverse event investigation sessions, actions and processes are developed and put into place to help prevent recurrence. That’s why those who were involved in the event—generally frontline caregivers—should always play a role in the original design process as well as the resolution process. Doing so could prevent events not just from recurring, but from ever occurring at all.
Construction Miscommunication
Administrators can encourage this storytelling approach to ensure that designers, contractors, and maintenance staff better understand how their decisions may impact all of a building’s occupants.
Opioid Prescriptions Take a Dive
According to data from the Danbury, Connecticut–based IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, opioid prescriptions in general declined by 10.2% in 2017. Prescriptions for the highest doses fell by 16.1% in 2017 as well, and dropped more than 33% since January 2016. The report also found that prescription opioid volume has decreased every year over the past five years in all 50 states.
Cleanliness Sensors: Using Technology to Improve Hand Hygiene Compliance
Lutheran is among the healthcare organizations nationwide that in recent years decided to try hand hygiene monitoring technology in the hopes it could improve hand hygiene compliance—and in the process reduce the number of infections and avoid citations from accrediting organizations like The Joint Commission, which in January put stricter enforcement in place.
The Case for Making Simple Changes
Healthcare providers are struggling to implement improvements and rarely have time for meaningful engagements with patients that could translate to even the smallest advances in patient care.