The Case for Creating A Culture of Caregiver Support
Organizations are developing “second victim” programs to provide care for the caregivers—programs specifically focused on helping healthcare workers recover from trauma.
The Secret to Lowering C-Section Rates? Patience.
The perinatal director at SSM St. Mary’s Hospital shares how the organization achieves C-section rates well below the national average.
Mixing Medicine
The Joint Commission unveiled a Medication Compounding Certification (MCC) program that’s open to all compounding pharmacies, not just those accredited by The Joint Commission. The accreditor also called upon healthcare providers to work toward the elimination of medication compounding-related infections (MCRI) like the meningitis outbreak.
Solving the Physician Shortage with International Med Students
No matter how you slice the data, there’s a physician shortage coming—and some states are preparing to be harder hit than others.
The latest report from the Association of American Medical Colleges on the topic, released in April 2016, revealed that over the next decade the United States will face a labor shortage of between 61,700 and 94,700 physicians, with a significant shortage among many surgical specialties. By 2025, the study estimates a shortfall of between 14,900 and 35,600 primary care physicians. Non–primary care specialties are expected to experience a shortfall of between 37,400 and 60,300 physicians.
Be Prepared For Summer Patient Safety Hazards
Hospital EDs are extremely busy during the summer months because of accidents and injuries. While there’s no word yet on whether 2017 will break a heat record (though we hope not), you can expect it to bring a familiar brand of dangerous situations. But are you prepared for them?
Improving Transgender Patient Care
The single most important thing a physician can do in caring for transgender patients, is to advise them where to find counselors who can provide appropriate gender dysphoria therapy. Why? The transgender population is at nine times the risk for attempted suicide as the general population.
Two Effective Initiatives for C-Suite Leaders to Improve Medication Safety and the Reliability of Outcomes
To achieve extraordinary results, senior leaders must put in a lot of heavy lifting, tackling one type of undesired safety outcome at a time
Fundamentally Human: Learning By Design
Simulations are carried out in the actual clinical areas of care, and with strong objectives, pre-briefs, and debriefs, can also achieve significant outcomes without substantial investment.
Clinical Care, HIT, and Mike Trout
Clinical decisions made by physicians mimic, in many ways, the processes batters use to hit a baseball. Everyday clinical care requires a high level of pattern recognition. Physicians use a patient’s history, physical exam, and current diagnosis, combined with laboratory values and other tests, to determine the final diagnoses that paint a patient’s condition.
Structured Patient Handoffs: The Movement Toward Adverse Event Reduction in the Perioperative Unit
The use of a standardized handoff checklist tool improves time efficiency, reduces medication discrepancies, and there is a reduction of deficits or missed communications in the handoff process.