Time Out Day for Patient Safety
June 14 is National Time Out Day , a Joint Commission and Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) campaign to promote patient safety before, during, and after surgery. The organizations are also reminding healthcare facilities to commit to conducting a safe, effective time outs for each and every surgery.
Handshake-Free Zone: Keep Those Hands – and Germs – to Yourself in the Hospital
Testing a new method for limiting the spread of germs and reducing the transmission of disease in the hospital: a handshake-free zone.
Putting A Lid on Waste: Needless Medical Tests Not Only Cost $200B – They Can Do Harm
Some experts estimate that at least $200 billion is wasted annually on excessive testing and treatment. This overly aggressive care also can harm patients, generating mistakes and injuries believed to cause 30,000 deaths each year.
You’ve Got Harm
For 11 months, two AHS hospitals tried out an automated system called the Automated All-Cause Harm Trigger System (ACHTS). The system’s software uses 41 algorithms to monitor electronic medical records (EMR) for signs that harm has befallen a patient, with flagged charts sent to a reviewer to examine. By the end of the study, the ACHTS caught 2,696 cases of patient harm, compared to the 132 harms caught using the old sampling method.
Right Dose, Right Drug: WHO Challenges Hospitals To Cut Med Errors In Half
Worldwide, medication errors cause at least one death per day and cost an estimated $43 billion annually (1% of global health expenditures). In the U.S. alone, 1.3 million people are injured annually due to medication errors. All these errors are potentially avoidable, says the WHO, so long as the right systems and procedures are put into action.
NPSF and DAISY Foundation Announce 2017 Honorees
The National Patient Safety Foundation along with The Daisy Foundation have announced the winners of the 2017 National Patient Safety Foundation DAISY Awards for Extraordinary Nurses. The award, a derivative of The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses, places special emphasis on patient and workforce safety.
Study: ED Intervention Reduces Suicide Attempts by 30%
Intervention efforts included additional suicide screening, suicide prevention info, and a personalized safety plan for dealing with future suicide ideation, and periodic telephone follow-ups. Those who received these interventions made 30% fewer total suicide attempt than others.
Rural Doctors’ Training May Be In Jeopardy
Under the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program, which is part of the Affordable Care Act, the federal government dispenses grants to community health centers to train medical residents. The goal of the program is to address the shortage of primary care physicians in rural and poor urban areas. Under current law, the federal government will stop funding the program, at the end of September
Five Ways Effective Use of Alerts Helps Improve Patient Safety
According to The Joint Commission, 69% of accidental deaths and injuries in hospitals are caused by communication breakdowns. We have more data than ever, but it resides in disparate systems. Caregivers don’t have time to sift through all the information to determine what’s actionable. This article looks at five clinical scenarios where sending proactive alerts and alarms directly to clinicians on their mobile devices.
3 Factors That Improve Patient Outcomes
Informal caregivers, postacute care connections, and direct care worker compensation can all influence patient outcomes positively.
