New Study Finds Use of PIV Maintenance Bundles Helps Prevent Bloodborne Infections
The study, “A Bundled Approach to Decrease the Rate of Primary Bloodstream Infections Related to Peripheral Intravenous Catheters,” was published in the March 2018 issue of The Journal of the Association for Vascular Access and found that implementing a PIV maintenance bundle using disinfecting caps and tips successfully decreased primary BSIs from 0.57 to 0.11 per 1,000 patient days.
Q&A: Joint Commission on Workplace Violence
The Joint Commission has released Sentinel Event Alert 59, which addresses violence—physical and verbal—against healthcare workers. Patient Safety Monitor Journal spoke with Victoria Fennel, of Compass Clinical Consulting, about the alert and healthcare’s culture of violence.
Quick Look: Immediate Jeopardy
It works like this: CMS catches wind of a severe safety violation at your facility and places it under IJ. You are then given a deadline to fix the problem and come up with a plan to ensure it never happens again—and if you don’t, CMS will revoke your facility’s Medicare and Medicaid funding.
Strategies That Support Effective and Cohesive Wayfinding
With the increased importance placed on patient satisfaction, effective wayfinding has become even more central to supporting care. While signage is an essential part of wayfinding—that spatial art and science of guiding healthcare visitors to their destination—it’s but one of many tactics that form a part of an effective wayfinding strategy.
Planning for Active Shooters in Your Hospital
When people think of workplace violence in healthcare, they tend to think of loud verbal threats or fighting between patients and providers. However, no discussion on this topic is complete without taking into account gun violence.
Case study: Cutting Overridden Medication Safety Alerts at DeKalb Medical
Last October, the hospital was placed under immediate jeopardy following the death of a patient with dementia. DeKalb Medical officers self-reported the incident to CMS and released a statement saying they “want to make sure it never happens again.” The case has spurred a series of patient safety reforms, many of which seek to reduce overreliance on technology.
Raise the Bar on Pain Management and Opioids
Hospitals can make their own policies, too. Institute a policy on opioid prescribing to relieve your providers of some decision-making pressure in an age of addiction awareness—and, if you do it right, your providers should still be able to give patients the pain relief they need.
Annual Industry Survey: Second Victim Support
Respondents to the 2018 Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare Industry Outlook Survey indicated that second victim support is an emerging issue, albeit one that many facilities have still not tackled.
Study: Seasonal Spikes in Antibiotic Misuse
The study authors say their findings suggest that “current initiatives to improve the use of antibiotics in outpatient settings may not be enough to change clinicians’ prescribing practices.” And they feel clinicians must be better equipped “with the tools and knowledge to know when antibiotics are needed.”
Annual Industry Survey: Quality Improvement Initiatives
Once a quality improvement initiative has been launched, it can be difficult to keep it on track. Survey respondents were asked about the biggest challenges in maintaining quality initiatives in their organizations. The most cited challenge was the complexity of collecting and communicating a mass of rapidly shifting information with 50%.