Home use of medical devices includes both prescription and over-the-counter products. Among prescription devices, some may be intended by the manufacturer to be used at home, and others may not have that intent but are provided nonetheless to patients by or through prescribers. All home use devices raise basic questions.

atients visiting a clinic for an injection to relieve their pain or for chemotherapy don’t expect to leave with a new condition such as hepatitis, but unfortunately thousands of patients have been adversely affected in this way when they received an injection at their doctor’s office or in the hospital. 

Nearly 40 million anesthetics are administered annually in the United States. To raise awareness of the risks of anesthesia or sedation and precautions that should be taken, The Joint Commission released a new Speak Up™ infographic for patients and consumers titled “Speak Up: About Anesthesia and Sedation.”

There is a growing trend across the U.S. for hospitals to seek ISO: 9001-2008 certification as a key component in their continuing commitment to be a highly reliable organization.

In 2005, the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System received a report of a near miss that brought up a new issue in the nursing field. It involved a nurse who worked in two hospital facilities; one facility used yellow wristbands for limb restrictions (do not use this limb) and the other facility used them to indicate DNR (do not resuscitate). This nurse had a patient with arm restrictions. So, well-intentioned, she placed a yellow wristband on the patient’s arm.

First Databank (FDB), the leading provider of clinical drug knowledge that improves medication-related decisions and patient outcomes, has announced that FDB AlertSpace, a web-based solution for drug knowledge alert management in CPOE systems, will be made available to Siemens Soarian Clinicals customers and Siemens Pharmacy in-house computing option (ICO) users.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a proposed rule to require manufacturers of antibacterial hand soaps and body washes to demonstrate that their products are safe for long-term daily use and more effective than plain soap and water in preventing illness and the spread of certain infections. Under the proposal, if companies do not demonstrate such safety and effectiveness, these products would need to be reformulated or relabeled to remain on the market.

To shed light on the availability of information for consumers on the quality of their doctors, a new scorecard finds the vast majority of states get a failing grade – D or F. Developed by the non-profit Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute (HCI³), the State Report Card on Transparency of Physician Quality Information found that only two states received an A – Minnesota and Washington – and one state, California, got a C.