What’s the Legal Risk?

Smart Pump Workarounds: What’s the Legal Risk?

By Tim Vanderveen, PharmD, MS

In the past few years the need to improve intravenous (IV) medication safety has been heightened by several highly publicized reports of medication errors. At Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, heparin administration errors led to the deaths of three premature infants. The actor Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins almost died of heparin overdoses. In Wisconsin, a teenage mother in labor died because bupivacaine was administered intravenously instead of epidurally.

AHRQ

Evidence-Based Methods and Tools Help Reduce Risk of Falls in Hospitals

By Carolyn M. Clancy, MD

Wider acceptance of practices, methods, and tools to prevent the risk of patient falls holds promise in preventing a serious, and often catastrophic, event for older Americans. Evidence-based practices that can lower the incidence of falls are especially important in light of the aging of the U.S. population and the federal government’s inclusion of injuries from falls that occur during a hospital stay as a “never event” whose additional costs are not reimbursed (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2008).

Health IT & Quality

Sensory Overload?

By Barry P. Chaiken, MD, FHIMSS

Although the tourist slogan for Las Vegas claims “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” some of the most exciting consumer technology announcements come out of Las Vegas each year. The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held each January introduces to the world the latest gadgets that manufacturers hope will be hit items for the coming year.

Meaningful Use

The Next Stage for BCMA

By Jamie Kelly

On February 23, 2012, CMS took the next step toward meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) by proposing Stage 2 criteria. In 2 years, CMS has provoked dramatic change in the EHR landscape, stimulating nearly 2,000 hospitals and more than 41,000 doctors to invest in IT with $3.1 billion in Stage 1 payments.

Human Factors

Design Principles for Manual Safety Systems

By William A. Hyman, ScD

Safety systems can be added to a wide variety of medical devices ranging from relatively simple sharps protection for scalpels and syringes to the most complex systems such as multi-parameter monitors and ventilators. In general, added safety takes one of two forms.

Applying Lessons Learned to Accelerated Adoption of BCMA

By Robert Bayly, MD, FCCM, FCCP, and Susan Imhoff, RN, MSN

When JFK Medical Center in central New Jersey went live with barcoded medication administration (BCMA) in 2009, it took 12 months to reach and maintain a 97% scanning rate. The organization did not intend to stop after just three patient care units, but priorities changed, and the rollout was suspended.

Q & A with Diane Pinakiewicz
‘Patient Safety Is Everyone’s Work’

By Susan Carr

Diane Pinakiewicz has been president of the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) since 2005, having been a founding member of its board in 1997. With prior experience in executive positions across a variety of healthcare sectors, Diane’s commitment to patient care has been the common thread that has taken her from her first job in hospital administration to now running the country’s premier patient safety organization.

Editor’s Notebook

A New Look, Nickname, and Expanded Content

By Susan Carr

With this issue, Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare has a new look, a fresh approach to news items, and better integration with related offerings at www.psqh.com. The most obvious change is the prominence of PSQH on the masthead. We who work on the publication have always used the acronym as a nickname, and with the new design, acknowledge that P-S-Q-H rolls off the tongue more easily than the full name.