3 Ways a CNS Can Influence Quality of Care
This article first appeared on HealthLeaders Media, June 21, 2016. Physicians may balk at full-practice authority for APRNs, but medical doctors have more in common with Clinical Nurse Specialists than they realize. By: Jennifer Thew, RN When it comes to advanced practice nurses, what’s old is news again. In May, the Department of Veterans Affairs … Continued
Get Ready to MOON Your Patients!
The requirements of the NOTICE Act take effect on August 6.
By Timothy Kelly, MS, MBA
“They’ve ordered observation for Mr. Smith. Would you please MOON him?”
While that exchange may strike us as a joke today, it will likely become part of our accepted vernacular in just a couple of months. A MOON – Medicare Outpatient Observation Notice – is both a written document to be executed and also a conversation to be had with a patient. This new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) form is designed to meet the requirements set forth in the Notice of Observation Treatment and Implication for Care Eligibility Act (the NOTICE Act).
Taking a Patient Safety Cue from Denmark
Denmark’s patient compensation program has helped transform the approach to patient safety in the country, allowing patients a full picture of a potential medical error and prompting physicians to openly confront mistakes, according to an article by ProPublica. Denmark’s approach to medical errors is drastically different from that of the United States. Instead of relying … Continued
Viewpoint: The Surgical Learning Curve
By William A. Hyman, ScD It should come as no surprise that the ability to do a particular surgery is likely to improve over some number of early attempts. A surgeon’s skill could be evaluated in part by measuring his or her complication rate for a given procedure and watching it decrease to a … Continued
Weighing the Pros and Cons of Patient Safety Technology
Although some emerging technology promises a patient safety cure-all, hospitals need to evaluate clinician workflow before implementing new gadgets In the 21st century, technology offers a solution to just about any everyday problem. Don’t know that actor that just came onto your screen? Log onto the IMDB app. Need directions? Just type the address into … Continued
Beyond Empowerment: Patients, Paradigms, and Social Movements
A conversation with “e-Patient Dave” deBronkart
By Susan Carr
Dave deBronkart, known on the Internet as e-Patient Dave, is one of the world’s best-known evangelists for the patient engagement movement. A 2007 survivor of stage IV kidney cancer, he discovered the movement in 2008 and started blogging about it as a hobby. In 2009, he moved his electronic hospital data to a personal health record, which triggered a series of events that landed him on the front page of The Boston Globe (Wangsness, 2009). Invitations to attend policy meetings in Washington and give speeches followed. An accomplished speaker in his professional life, he has now participated in 450 healthcare events in 15 countries. His 2011 TED Talk has been seen by almost a half million viewers online.
deBronkart is a child of the Sixties, which leads him to see the e-patient movement as a social revolution, parallel to civil rights and feminism. And as an MIT graduate, he also sees it as the natural evolution of a scientific field. The following is based on a conversation he had recently with Susan Carr, editor of Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare.
Immersion Program for Emerging Leaders in Patient Safety
The Academy for Emerging Leaders in Patient Safety (AELPS) (aka Telluride Patient Safety Summer Camp) now offers a three-day immersion program in patient safety and quality education for risk managers, healthcare administrators, and health education faculty. This comprehensive workshop will be held July 27–30 in Napa Valley, California. For 11 years, the AELPS faculty has … Continued
Simulation Techniques for Teaching Time-Outs: A Controlled Trial
Incorrect surgery and invasive procedures sometimes occur on the wrong patient, wrong side, or wrong site; are performed at the wrong level; use the wrong implant; or in some way represent a wrong procedure on the correct patient. Although rare, with a reported incidence of 1 in 112,994 cases, incorrect invasive procedures have potentially disastrous consequences for patients, staff, and healthcare organizations (Dillon, 2008). Patients suffer preventable harm, staff may be censured and emotionally traumatized, and healthcare organizations experience a loss of public reputation and trust.
Minnesota State Coalition Works to Prevent Violence Against Healthcare Workers
By Rachel Jokela, RRT, RCP; Diane Rydrych, MA; Tania Daniels, PT, MBA; and Rahul Koranne, MD, MBA, FACP.
Injury data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that doctors, nurses, and mental health workers are more likely than other workers to be assaulted on the job. Nationally in 2013, one in five healthcare and social assistance workers reported nonfatal occupational injuries, the highest number of such injuries reported for any industry (Gomaa et al., 2015). While similar data is not available by state, in Minnesota in 2013, 16.7 per 10,000 healthcare employees missed work due to injuries caused intentionally by others (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013), nearly six times the overall U.S. rate for all industries. Despite these numbers, many incidents that do not cause missed work may go unreported in healthcare. Healthcare providers may choose not to report incidents out of compassion for residents or patients, or they may mistakenly believe that tolerating threats or physical violence from those they care for is just “part of the job.”
Opioids: What Do Healthcare Professionals Want and Need to Know?
By Patricia McGaffigan, RN, MS; Caitlin Y. Lorincz, MS, MA; and Tejal K. Gandhi, MD, MPH, CPPS
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.