PSO Leaders Partner to Improve Patient Care
The Midwest Alliance for Patient Safety (MAPS) and ECRI Institute, two patient safety organization (PSO) leaders, are combining their synergies to help guide the transformation of patient care in Illinois and beyond.
Studies Show Physician Empathy Increases Patient Satisfaction and Outcomes
Is empathy a core component of “evidence-based medicine”? One prominent researcher and author in the area of empathy in patient care argues that the answer is unequivocally “yes” and says that it can and should be evaluated, taught, and sustained, as studies show a high correlation between patient satisfaction and outcomes with empathy scores.
Colorado Health Plans Collaborate to Create Data-sharing Solution for Care Providers
Seven health plans in Colorado are collaborating on a multi-payer data-sharing online tool that aims to enhance and improve the delivery of care for Colorado residents.
New Coalition Focuses on Continuous Patient Monitoring
Matt Whitman, a retired Michigan state trooper, strode to the lectern at the front of the room in downtown Chicago and made a startling announcement: “On April 17, 2003, I died.”
Incident Reporting
Recent features, columns and news articles on incident reporting from Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare:
Annual List of Top 10 Health Technology Hazards Released
What could possibly go wrong in hospitals? Many things, according to ECRI Institute, an independent nonprofit that researches the best approaches to improving patient care.
Using Simulation to Coordinate Care for Cardiac Surgery
A six-month-old girl is undergoing repair of a hole in her heart, and while on cardiopulmonary bypass (the machine that pumps the blood through the body while the heart is stopped), there is massive bleeding from the heart…
Alarm Management: First Things First
When Hedy Cohen, RN, BSN, MS, a critical care nurse and former vice president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), was admitted to a major medical center with severe abdominal pain, she and her husband, Michael Cohen, RPh, MS, ScD (hon.), DPS (hon.), president of ISMP, were dismayed by the number of medical device alerts and alarms she had to endure…
A New Approach to Fall Prevention in Inpatient Care
Like most hospitals, our organization—St. David’s North Austin Medical Center in Texas—is focused on preventing patient falls. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimates that 700,000 to 1 million patients fall in U.S. hospitals each year.
Making It Easy for Nurses to Reduce the Risk of CLABSI
Increased compliance with the 2002 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Guidelines for Prevention of Intravascular Catheter-Related Infections (O’Grady, Alexander & Dellinger, et al. 2002) resulted in a significant decrease in early stage (less than 4 days) central-line associated bloodstream infections…