CDC Says Heparin Syringes May Have Caused Bloodstream Infection Outbreak
The infections occurred in seriously ill children who received intravenous medications through a catheter or central line in Tennessee, Colorado, Minnesota, and Ohio. No deaths have been associated with the infections and the number of cases is dwindling, the CDC said.
Annual Industry Survey: The Challenges of Data Analytics
Judging by the responses to the 2018 Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare Industry Outlook Survey, organizations are still working on mastering the use of data. Asked how they would rate their use of data analytics to improve patient safety and change behavior, only 23% of respondents said they were highly effective.
New Ebola Outbreak in the Congo: Is Your Organization Pandemic-Ready?
At the moment, the only confirmed current cases of Ebola were reported in a remote location in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; as of Monday, the World Health Organization reported 39 suspected, probable, and confirmed cases, including 19 deaths.
Infusion Pump Performance: Flow Accuracy and Continuity Often Don’t Add Up
Pumps undergo extensive pre-market testing, and vendor manuals provide detailed documentation of the results. However, pump performance in the real world often differs significantly from lab results, with a potentially significant impact on patient safety.
National Guidelines, Quality Measures Clearinghouses Shutting Down
Both online clearinghouses will go dark after July 16 as federal funding runs out. Neither site is accepting new guidelines or quality measure sets in anticipation of shutting the databases down.
Case Study: Harborview Medical Center’s Automated Sepsis Alert System
After a patient is admitted to Harborview, his or her vitals are plugged into the EHR several times each day. The system searches for patterns, trends, and symptoms that might indicate sepsis. If found, a red box appears around the patient’s name and the nurse is assigned a task in the EHR to screen the patient for infection.
Joint Commission Appoints New Director of Infection Prevention and Control
According to a Joint Commission release, she has worked for more than 30 years in infection prevention and control in hospitals and long-term care facilities, along with eight years of clinical microbiology experience. Recently, Garcia-Houchins was director of infection control at the University of Chicago Medicine and was a consultant for Joint Commission Resources.
Report: Insect Infestation Problem Forces VA Hospital to Delay Surgeries
The television station conducted a hidden-camera investigation and discovered that the hospital installed at least 200 fly traps to deal with an infestation of phorid flies in operating rooms, dating back to 2016.
Study Finds Overworked Nurses Can Lead to 40% Increase in Patient Death Risk
When the workload was above the optimal level, the study found the risk of a patient safety incident grew by 8% to 32%, while the risk of patient mortality increased by 43%.
Memorial Healthcare Rolls Out New Protocol to Eliminate Wrong-Site Nerve Blocks
A 2015 article in Current Opinion in Anesthesiology puts its best guess of the frequency of wrong-site blocks as 7.5 per 10,000 procedures. A 2018 review of publications reporting on at least 10,000 blocks found a rate of 0.52 to 5.07 wrong-site nerve blocks per 10,000 blocks, unilateral blocks, or “at-risk” procedures.