Six Professional Schools Provide Team-Based Learning
By Nazanin Kuseh Kalani Yazd
The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus approaches interprofessional education in a manner that mimics the reality of working on an interprofessional team. To prepare students to work in a field that requires coordination across many different disciplines, the University of Colorado takes advantage of the diversity at its health sciences campus by bringing together students from six professional schools in one interprofessional course. In the Interprofessional Education and Development (IPED) course, students in the medical, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, and physician assistant programs collaborate to solve team-based exercises in 16 two-hour sessions over the course of two years.
Dispelling a Few Myths
By the Institute for Safe Medication Practices
Now that 2016 is underway, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) would like to extend its sincere thanks to the many healthcare providers, consumers, advocacy groups, organizations, agencies, and companies that have allowed us to be part of their journey to reduce patient harm from medication errors. It has been both a distinct privilege and a profound responsibility to touch the lives of so many during the past year. Since becoming a charitable organization more than two decades ago, ISMP has pursued a singular mission to advance patient safety worldwide by empowering the healthcare community, including consumers, to prevent medication errors.
Policies for the Use of Personal Mobile Devices in Surgical Suites
By Anne V. Irving, MA, FACHE, CPHRM, DFASHRM
Human factors studies indicate that distractions and multitasking increase the likelihood of error (Feil, 2013; Wiegmann, ElBardissi, Dearani, Daly, & Sundt, 2007). Allowing personnel to bring their cell phones, smartphones, or other mobile devices into a surgical suite introduces a new distraction into an already complex, noisy, high-stakes environment.
Get FHIRed Up
By Barry P. Chaiken, MD, MPH
Although I’m a physician, not a technology expert, I’m jazzed about the FHIR® (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) specification. Organizations struggle to share patient information with each other due to data structure and definition incompatibilities. This lack of interoperability forces physicians to treat patients without the benefit of a complete patient record, which leads to duplicate testing, unnecessary procedures, misdiagnoses, and medical errors.
Using Big Data Meaningfully to Improve Quality and Safety
By Hardeep Singh,MD, MPH; and Dean F. Sittig, PhD
It’s rare to attend a conference on quality, safety, or informatics without feeling the excitement of “big data,” a loose term referring to large volumes of interconnected (and often unverified) data that may be updated and processed rapidly.
New Tool Simplifies the Process of Patient Safety Improvement
A new tool offers a straightforward approach to improvement A new tool endorsed by the National Patient Safety Foundation aims to streamline patient safety and quality improvement efforts using a simple, evidence-based model. “The Healthcare Adventures Graphic Gameplan for Patient Safety,” released in October 2015, offers a standardized approach both leaders and clinicians can use … Continued
Study: Poor Communication Leads to Malpractice, Death
Poor communication in healthcare has tangible, measurable effects. A new study released by CRICO Strategies found that communications failures were a factor in 30% of malpractice cases between 2009 to 2013, including 1,744 deaths. The reports estimate that both the deaths and $1.7 billion in malpractice costs could have been avoided with better communication between patients and physicians.
Prescriber Training in Medication Management Improves Outcomes, Enhances CMS Quality Metrics
By Gregory A. Hood, MD, MACP; and Lori Dickerson, PharmD, FCCP
Medication management learning-based training helped Quality Independent Physicians (QIP), an accountable care organization (ACO) composed of primary care practices throughout Kentucky and Indiana, decrease hospitalizations across all disease states by 26%. QIP saw a similar drop in admissions for high-risk disease states and a significant reduction in hospital readmissions. The organization’s medication management learning program proved effective in boosting these and other important Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) quality scores, while helping successfully manage key, at-risk patient populations.
With today’s emphasis on healthcare quality, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, we’re always looking for ways to improve. We needed a focused effort to leverage medications to their maximal benefits, while avoiding difficult and potentially devastating mistakes. Well-researched and timely medication recommendations, a commitment to creating and communicating standardized clinical practice guidelines, and an inclusive atmosphere that encouraged organization-wide clinician buy-in were essential to the program’s results.
From Medicine to the Cloud: Technology in Healthcare
“Technology in healthcare” is a wide-ranging topic. It incorporates tiny bar-coded labels on medication and room-filling MRI machines and robotic surgery suites. Whether your facility is 10 years or 100 years old, its suites and treatment centers have been subjected to a variety of technical changes on a yearly basis. In older hospitals, keeping the … Continued
CDC’s Core Elements of Hospital Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs
Just over a year after President Barack Obama issued an executive order calling for federal agencies to combat antibiotic resistance, The Joint Commission has released proposed standards that would require a broad range of healthcare providers to implement a structured, evidence-based antimicrobial stewardship program.