Indiana Hospital: Sterilization Issue Put 1,200 Patients at Risk of Infection
The hospital sent a letter to affected patients, announcing that one of the hospital’s seven surgical instrument sterilization technicians failed to complete one of the steps required in the sterilization process with certain instruments.
Machine Learning and NLP Improve Medication Reconciliation, Patient Safety
In late 2018, KDMC sought to improve patient safety and streamline the medication reconciliation process by automating EHR transcription of critical medication data. The solution KDMC came up with has contributed to increased patient safety and better health outcomes, as well as higher nurse productivity.
Four Initiatives of Patient Experience Success at UnityPoint Health
This year, West Des Moines, Iowa–based UnityPoint Health’s UnityPoint Clinic division achieved a top 10% ranking from Press Ganey Associates, a national leader in patient satisfaction surveys.
Use Data Transparency With IC Outcomes to Engage Staff
A non-intensive care nurse takes care of five or six patients at a time. Add a few discharges and admissions, and that nurse will touch more than 20 patients in a workweek. Infection prevention and quality department surveillance and data abstractions are usually deferred by some weeks.
Stop Emergency Department Violence Against Nurses, Physicians
The campaign’s goal is to support, empower, and protect ED workers by raising awareness of the serious dangers emergency health providers face every day. The program also aims to spur action among stakeholders and policymakers to ensure a violence-free workplace for emergency nurses and physicians.
The High Cost of Overlooking Workplace Safety
Although implementing workplace violence prevention programs can be expensive, recognizing that these changes can be profitable—and maybe even less costly—can help overcome existing mindsets to find a plan that works.
Risk Management and the Transgender Hospital Admission
These issues challenge healthcare providers and risk managers because not addressing them can result in a distrust of the medical team, a reluctance to disclose critical healthcare concerns out of fear of retaliation or embarrassment, and a greater risk of patient dissatisfaction and litigation.
Promising Data on Opioids Detracts From Ongoing Problem: Postsurgical Dependence
U.S. overdose deaths—67.8% of which involve opioids—decreased last year for the first time in nearly three decades and are projected to decline another 3.4% this year. Other data show opioids are prescribed less often, and at lower dosages, than in the past.
How Telehealth and eConsults Are Reducing Patient Wait Times
The shortage of specialist physicians in the United States continues to receive a great deal of attention. However, a lesser-known compounding factor is the increase in referral rates to specialists.
ECRI Institute, ISMP to Combine Efforts
The transaction, which is expected to close on January 2, will see ISMP become a subsidiary of ECRI Institute. Both are nonprofit organizations that promote patient safety by highlighting adverse effects, near misses, and unsafe conditions in various healthcare settings.