New Research Refines Approach to Hand Hygiene
A new CDC campaign, the ‘yuck factor,’ and new research on automated surveillance. Patient safety and infection control experts commonly refer to hand hygiene as the simplest, most effective way to prevent disease transmission. The only problem is healthcare providers still aren’t very good at it. According to the CDC, healthcare professionals wash their hands … Continued
Hospital Readmissions are Not the Enemy
The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services has all but declared war on readmissions. But one researcher suggests that the relationship between readmission rates and quality is flawed.
Vendor Error Leads to Breach
Medicare Compliance Watch CHI Franciscan Health Highline Medical Center (Highline) in Burien, Washington, is notifying more than 18,000 patients of a data breach affecting protected health information (PHI) stored with a vendor, Highline said in a statement. On July 22, R-C Healthcare Management, a vendor that performed services for Highline prior to 2014, informed the … Continued
Noted Patient Advocate Joins National Patient Safety Foundation Think Tank
The National Patient Safety Foundation’s Lucian Leape Institute welcomed Sue Sheridan, MBA, MIM, DHL, as a member at the beginning of September. Ms. Sheridan, director of patient engagement for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), is widely known in the patient safety field as an advocate and leading voice for patient engagement in health … Continued
Drug Diversion is Difficult to Identify, Impact on Patient Safety is Devastating
In October 2015, McKay-Dee Hospital in Utah revealed that as many as 4,800 people had been potentially exposed to hepatitis C (HCV) after a state investigation linked the same hepatitis genotype from a patient treated at the hospital to a nurse who was caught diverting drugs in 2014.
CMS Finalizes New Emergency Preparedness Rule
CMS announced last week that it had finalized new emergency response requirements for healthcare providers participating in the Medicare or Medicaid system. The new rule comes as a response to a string of disasters, natural and mad-made, including the recent flooding in Louisiana.
Surgeons Take Sides on Transplant Proposal
Proponents claim a new donor liver allocation plan would be more equitable for patients; foes say it could raise costs and close programs.
Take Our Patient Safety Survey Today!
We are considering holding a patient safety conference in 2017. We would like to ask you to provide valuable feedback on what patient safety topics most interest you and what you are looking for when you attend a patient safety conference. We’re asking you to take about 5 to 10 minutes to complete the survey. … Continued
Patient Identification Deficiencies Plague Quality of Care
Before receiving care at a medical facility – before even seeing a doctor or a nurse – every patient has to go through the simple registration process.
But that seemingly simple process is rife with complications that can linger throughout every step of a patient’s stay, creating the potential for inefficient care, unnecessary tests, and serious medical errors.
Study: Readmissions Sometimes Improve Patient Health
Are readmissions always bad? A new study by John Hopkins Medicine published in The Journal of Hospital Medicine says the answer is not as clear cut as once believed. Researchers looked at three years and 4,500 acute-care facilities worth of readmission and mortality data, finding that hospitals with high readmission rates tended to have lower mortality rates as well.