How to Create a Safety Protocol for Emergency Department Psychiatric Patients
Patients with psychiatric illness can spend lengthy periods of time in emergency departments waiting for psychiatric evaluation or transfer to an inpatient psychiatric facility. Earlier research found that the mean length of stay (LOS) for psychiatric patients in emergency departments awaiting an inpatient bed was 16.5 hours and LOS for psychiatric patients in EDs awaiting transfer to another facility was 21.5 hours.
PSQH: The Podcast Episode 20 – Using Data to Improve COVID-19 Patient Outcomes
On episode 20 of PSQH: The Podcast, Dr. Lissy Hu, founder and CEO of CarePort, talks about how aggregating COVID-19 data has helped improve patient care.
Flu Season? Only 925 Cases of Seasonal Influenza Reported So Far
In a typical year, the seasonal influenza runs through May and can cause about 45 million illnesses, hospitalize more than 810,000 people, and claim more than 60,000 lives, according to the CDC.
Adopt a Crisis Command Culture During the Coronavirus Pandemic
Across the country, health systems and hospitals have established incident command centers to manage the challenges of the pandemic. At Northwell Health last spring, incident command leadership was a key element in the health system’s response to the hottest hot spot in the first coronavirus patient surge.
COVID-wary Patients May Avoid Care
The survey, released Tuesday by Orlando Health Heart & Vascular Institute, also found that 49% of respondents will not reschedule missed in-person medical appointments until COVID-19 concerns are reduced in their area. The same number (49%) fret that their health will suffer because of the appointments.
How Healthcare Telemarketers Can Effectively Communicate and Maintain Compliance During a Pandemic
Often, a healthcare telemarketer’s biggest challenge is ensuring effective communication in an environment where spam calls are prevalent. Robocallers are thriving on the large number of people working from home. Many impersonate the IRS and health insurance companies in an attempt to collect funds. This leaves patients feeling wary of healthcare telemarketers, and many often refrain from answering the phone entirely, especially when calls reflect no caller identification.
Achieving Zero Preventable Deaths: One Hospital’s Journey
At CHOC’s Quality Committee meeting in 2015, CHOC deliberately shifted its established goal from “reducing hospital-acquired conditions” to “achieving zero preventable deaths.” This goal became one of three quality domain factors that would determine annual leadership bonuses, thus further encouraging physicians to aggressively pursue it.
How Patient Safety Will Evolve in a Post-COVID-19 World
While this pandemic was unprecedented in our modern history of care, we must face the truth that we will confront other epidemics or health crises in our lifetimes, so we cannot ignore the lessons of the past year. In the future, having local stockpiles of PPE, monitors, and other medical supplies on demand will be essential to avoid repeating the struggle we faced during this pandemic. There is also a need for quickly scalable critical care solutions, as sourcing and configuring pieces of high-demand medical equipment when a surge hits is not efficient.
Advancing Safety and Care With Electronic Hand Hygiene Solutions
Unlike COVID-19, this issue has a relatively simple solution: Automated hand hygiene monitoring devices hardwire best practices in staff, increase compliance with hospital policies, and mitigate the risks associated with healthcare-associated infections.
TJC Seeks Input on New Requirements for Workplace Violence Prevention, Resuscitative Services
Long-discussed and first announced last fall, the new and revised requirements on workplace violence prevention are in the Environment of Care, Human Resources, and Leadership standard chapters.