Becoming a High-Reliability Organization Through Shared Learning of Safety Events
Successful focus on and prevention of relapse requires leaders at all levels to constantly employ mindfulness through a concern over failure as a core strategy in maintaining reliability. Organizations commit to resilience through embracing human-factor failures and rapidly learning from them when they occur.
Is Your Health System Ready for an Integrated Applications Platform?
While some specialty software solutions may offer more features and functionality than those of a single vendor, it often comes at a substantial internal cost. Purchasing and licensing expenses for multiple systems can easily stack up, not to mention staff time for managing vendor relationships and coordinating system implementation, training, and servicing.
Should You Conduct Allergy Testing for Asthma Patients in Primary Care?
Up to 60% of adults and 90% of children with asthma may have allergic triggers. That connection is part of why the Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma recommend specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) testing to look for allergic sensitizations that may be contributing to inflammation.
Anesthesiologists Play Critical Role in Identifying Undiagnosed Sleep Apnea
While sleep apnea affects 9%–24% of the general population—or 29.4 million American men and women, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM)—more than 90% of cases remain undiagnosed.
The Use of Mobile Devices in Healthcare
Between 2015 and 2018, the number of mHealth apps available for download doubled. Industry experts anticipate that this impressive growth rate will continue for many years and that the market will reach a whopping global value of $60 billion by 2020.
Touching Eyes: Disinfecting Ophthalmology Devices
Despite the infection dangers, The Joint Commission’s advisory says that healthcare workers are often unaware of disinfection requirements or misinterpret manufacturer instructions for cleaning. Many people use the wrong type of cleaners on ophthalmology devices.
Asymptomatic Carriers of C. Diff May Be Significant Source of Infection at Hospitals
Hospitals have focused on reducing transmission of C. diff from symptomatic patients. However, the new study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology found asymptomatic carriers of C. diff spores are at significant risk of progression to symptomatic C. diff infection.
Berwick Outlines 7-Step Campaign for the Quality Movement
Berwick urged healthcare providers to embrace his unabashedly progressive agenda that looks beyond their own immediate needs and margin pressures, and actively confronts the root causes of the vast social and moral issues that ultimately affect the health of humanity, such as a lack of access to food, shelter, healthcare, and hope.
IHI Looks to Expand ‘Age-Friendly’ Health Systems
The initiative, Age-Friendly Health Systems, uses evidence-based framework called the 4Ms: what matters to older adults; medication that is age friendly; attending to mentation, including delirium, depression, and dementia; and mobility, so seniors can maintain function.
Medical Malpractice Rate Dropped Over 10-Year Period
When looking at the number of defendants per 100 physicians, the steepest decline was in OB-GYN claims with a 44% drop over 10 years. The drop is possibly attributable to focused safety efforts in labor & delivery over the last 15 years, but more research is needed.