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.
Structured Patient Handoffs: The Movement Toward Adverse Event Reduction in the Perioperative Unit
Clinician handoffs spiked in 2011 after the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education implemented rules to limit the number of hours residents worked.
Scope Maker Olympus Hit With $6.6 Million Verdict in Superbug Cases
More than 25 patients and families, from Pennsylvania to California, have sued Olympus alleging wrongful death, negligence or fraud. Federal prosecutors also are investigating Olympus and two smaller manufacturers over their potential roles in patient infections.
Undergrad Who Posed As A Med Student Will Not Face Charges
The student conducted rounds and placed sutures in a patient’s arm – under a physician’s supervision.
Double-Booked: When Surgeons Operate On Two Patients At Once
Critics of the practice, who include some surgeons and patient-safety advocates, say that double-booking adds unnecessary risk, erodes trust and primarily enriches specialists. They say surgery is not piecework and cannot be scheduled like trains: Unexpected complications are not uncommon.
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.