Opioids: What Do Healthcare Professionals Want and Need to Know?
The availability of, and access to effective and safe treatments for pain remain serious problems in the United States (Institute of Medicine, 2011). Opioid medications are important for addressing short-term and chronic pain management. Given the benefits that they provide, usage of opioids has become widespread over the past decade. However, opioid medications also carry substantial risk, and their increased usage has introduced a host of unintended consequences across the care continuum. Given this, opioids have significant implications for patient safety. The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) conducted a convenience flash poll survey to obtain a snapshot of opioid-related patient safety concerns, learning needs, and familiarity with existing seminal publications among healthcare professionals.
The Safety Culture Issue
The following is a guest article by Dan Scungio, MT (ASCP), SLS, a Laboratory Safety Officer for Sentara Healthcare, a multi-hospital system in the Tidewater region of Virginia. Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared on HCPro’s OSHA Healthcare Advisor. On which side of the aisle do you stand on the subject of change? Things change … Continued
New York Moves to Electronic-Only Prescriptions
Next week, New York will become the first state to require all prescriptions be written electronically. Physicians who fail to comply will be penalized with fines and/or imprisonment. This is the second part of a 2012 state law, I-Stop, which was designed to help fight prescription opioid abuse. The first part of I-Stop went into … Continued
Hospitals are beginning to rethink opioid prescribing practices
For the last several years, there has been a startling mortality trend emerging in the United States: Each year, middle-aged white Americans are dying at a faster clip than any of their counterparts in different age groups, ethnicities, or countries. It’s a trend that was startling, in part, because researchers couldn’t explain why it was … Continued
Prescriber Training in Medication Management Improves Outcomes, Enhances CMS Quality Metrics
By Gregory A. Hood, MD, MACP; and Lori Dickerson, PharmD, FCCP
Medication management learning-based training helped Quality Independent Physicians (QIP), an accountable care organization (ACO) composed of primary care practices throughout Kentucky and Indiana, decrease hospitalizations across all disease states by 26%. QIP saw a similar drop in admissions for high-risk disease states and a significant reduction in hospital readmissions. The organization’s medication management learning program proved effective in boosting these and other important Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) quality scores, while helping successfully manage key, at-risk patient populations.
With today’s emphasis on healthcare quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, we’re always looking for ways to improve. We needed a focused effort to leverage medications to their maximal benefits, while avoiding difficult and potentially devastating mistakes. Well-researched and timely medication recommendations, a commitment to creating and communicating standardized clinical practice guidelines, and an inclusive atmosphere that encouraged organization-wide clinician buy-in were essential to the program’s results.
From Medicine to the Cloud: Technology in Healthcare
“Technology in healthcare” is a wide-ranging topic. It incorporates tiny bar-coded labels on medication and room-filling MRI machines and robotic surgery suites. Whether your facility is 10 years or 100 years old, its suites and treatment centers have been subjected to a variety of technical changes on a yearly basis. In older hospitals, keeping the … Continued
Study Finds Higher Rates of Perioperative Medication Errors than Previous Research
A study published in the October 2015 issue of Anesthesiology reports on the frequency of medication errors and adverse events in the perioperative setting. The rates of errors and events were significantly higher than documented by previous studies. The recent study found: A drug error or adverse drug event occurred in approximately 1 in 20 … Continued
Medication Management Training Improves CMS Quality Metrics, New Study Finds
Scores improve in hospitalization, readmission and high-risk disease states A new study shows that medication management educational tools can improve key Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) quality measures. Following a seven-month program developed by Prescriber’s Letter drug advisory service, Quality Independent Physicians (QIP) successfully decreased patient hospitalization across all disease states by 26%. … Continued
Medfusion Launches Mobile App to Simplify Healthcare Records
To provide patients with a single destination for all of their medical records, Medfusion—a patient engagement platform dedicated to facilitating the relationship between doctors and patients—has developed a consumer mobile application called Medfusion Plus. For decades, if patients wanted access to their medical records, they had to request and pay for a paper copy, which … Continued
Comment Through Oct 16 on ISMP’s Guidelines for Communication of Medication Information in Electronic Systems
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) invites healthcare practitioners to comment on its Draft Guidelines for the Safe Electronic Communication of Medication Information. To view and comment on the guidelines, visit www.ismp.org/tools/guidelines/SCEMI. Suggestions also can be submitted via email to ismpinfo@ismp.org. ISMP observes, “Health information technology vendors and users currently do not have a … Continued