New HHS Data Show Quality Improvements

The Department of Health and Human Services announced that new preliminary data show an overall nine percent decrease in hospital acquired conditions nationally during 2011 and 2012. National reductions in adverse drug events, falls, infections, and other forms of hospital-induced harm are estimated to have prevented nearly 15,000 deaths in hospitals, avoided 560,000 patient injuries, and approximately $4 billion in health spending over the same period.

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Medical Devices: Who Needs to Read Device Instructions?

Essentially all medical devices used in hospitals come with a user instruction manual, commonly called Instructions for Use (IFU) or Directions for Use. Typically an IFU includes basic operational “how to” information as well as pages of warnings, cautions, and other general or device-specific information beyond simply how to operate the device.

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Standardization of Color-Coded Alerts: Time for a National Effort

In 2005, the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System received a report of a near miss that brought up a new issue in the nursing field. It involved a nurse who worked in two hospital facilities; one facility used yellow wristbands for limb restrictions (do not use this limb) and the other facility used them to indicate DNR (do not resuscitate). This nurse had a patient with arm restrictions. So, well-intentioned, she placed a yellow wristband on the patient’s arm.

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Curing the Ills of Hospital Design

Improving healthcare can start by curing hospitals themselves: The construction of the new Mercy Hospital Joplin comes amid a revolution in thinking about how buildings themselves can improve medicine.

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ABQAURP News

  January/February 2014 Quality Conundrums Lynn Helmer, MD, MBA, CHCQM • ABQAURP Diplomate since 1998 • http://www.drdnj.com Healthcare.gov — A Quality Conundrum? Regardless of your politics, we can all agree that leveraging technology in some way to enhance the quality and decrease the cost of health care is a logical approach. Although disagreement remains, recent … Continued

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Fall Prevention: You Need More than a Monitor

Falls are one of biggest safety concerns in critical care facilities. The varied population of a hospital unit at any time complicates the problem. Do you have the same protocols for adults, children, the elderly? Is the technical support that has been implemented adequate to handle all the differences?

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Editor’s Note: Regulation and Health IT

Although the federal government has recently devoted tremendous resources to promoting health information technology (health IT), debate about certification, standards, and best practices for safe use continues. In early April, three federal agencies contributed a new report to the growing literature about how to ensure the safety of health IT and more questions to an already lively discussion.

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