America’s health care system has become too complex and costly to continue business as usual, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. Inefficiencies, an overwhelming amount of data, and other economic and quality barriers hinder progress in improving health and threaten the nation’s economic stability and global competitiveness, the report says.

The Tennessee Center for Patient Safety (TCPS) of the Tennessee Hospital Association (THA) and the Tennessee Chapter of the American College of Surgeons (TnACS) has received a $3,984,700 grant from the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Health Foundation to extend the Tennessee Surgical Quality Collaborative (TSQC) through 2014.

By Susan Carr

Outcome Engenuity and the South Carolina Hospital Association (SCHA) are offering information and a free toolkit for an intervention designed to reduce the rate of mislabeled blood specimens in hospitals. The process, The Final Check, is designed to be simple enough to be done reliably every time a specimen is collected.

Four U.S. hospitals were recognized recently for their leadership and innovation in quality improvement and safety.

On July 18, the American Hospital Association (AHA) announced that the Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA) and the South Carolina Hospital Association (SCHA) will receive the Dick Davidson Quality Milestone Award for Allied Association Leadership for their work to improve health care quality.

The Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS), an advocacy group devoted to improving patient health and safety, has announced the release of a concise checklist that reminds caregivers of the essential steps needed to be taken to initiate Patient-Controlled Analgesia (PCA) with a patient and to continue to assess that patient’s use of PCA.

Clarity PSO, a Division of Clarity Group, Inc., has released a white paper that describes best practices in radiology peer review, introduces philosophies of a “just culture,” and demonstrates how such an approach can lead to improved physician performance and quality care.

An estimated 80 percent of serious medical errors involve miscommunication between caregivers when patients are transferred or handed-off. In addition to patient harm, defective hand-offs can lead to delays in treatment, inappropriate treatment, and increased length of stay in the hospital.