Reality Check: The Beryl Institute Revisits the State of the Patient Experience
The Beryl Institute has published a major study of work being done in U.S. hospitals to improve the patient experience. Beryl performed a similar study in 2011, and compares the results from the earlier study to this year’s survey in The State of Patient Experience in American Hospitals 2013: Positive Trends and Opportunities for the Future.
unSUMMIT Discontinues Conferences to Focus on eLearning for BCMA Education
Jamie Kelly and Mark Neuenschwander have announced the discontinuation of the unSUMMIT for Bedside Barcoding. In a letter to interested colleagues, they explain that after eight years of holding annual conferences, they will now focus on providing “affordable, year-around online education with the same high-quality exchange of peer-to-peer experience for which our unSUMMIT meetings have been known.”
HHS Seeks Feedback for Draft of National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Event Prevention
Adverse drug events are the largest contributor to hospital-related complications and account for more than 3.5 million physician office visits each year. As a result of increased attention to reduce and prevent the dangers associated with adverse drug events, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has developed the National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Event Prevention.
Trinitas Regional Medical Center Enhances Staff Safety with Visibility Staff Assist
Trinitas Regional Medical Center, a full-service healthcare facility serving Central New Jersey, is taking a novel approach to protecting its staff from combative patients, utilizing a Real-time Locating System (RTLS) from Versus Technology, Inc.
Atlantic General Hospital Boosts Patient Safety with Expanded Use of Capnography
Atlantic General Hospital recently strengthened patient safety measures by expanding its use of capnography to monitor patients using patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) to regulate their pain after surgery.
Accountability of Care is the Center of Healthy Reform
Healthcare reform is taking center stage as the industry opens its eyes to a myriad of factors that are re-defining the healthcare landscape. There is an increased focus on patient-centric services and satisfaction that translate beyond the delivery of quality care to also enable the provision of affordable and timely care to achieve better health outcomes. The entire industry is undergoing a transformation triggered by the need to establish accountable care practices to help overcome specific issues that impede the industry’s improvement.
Medical Centers Adopt Qstream® Mobile Platform to Keep Current on Healthcare Practices
Qstream, provider of an acclaimed mobile platform widely used for professional healthcare education, has announced that several major medical centers and healthcare leaders have purchased Qstream’s solution for use in the ongoing education of physicians and clinicians on a range of topics, including patient safety, infection control, emergency medicine, palliative care, and advanced life support.
Resident Duty Hours, Unintended Consequences, and the 10,000-Hour Rule
The medical community has debated the value of sleep versus continuity of care since 2003, when the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education limited the number of consecutive hours medical residents may be on duty. (Organizations are required to comply with the duty hour standard to retain ACGME accreditation.) Research, however, has shown that making sure resident physicians get enough rest doesn’t insure safer care for patients, which was the main driver of the standard.
New Research from Johns Hopkins – The Case of the Missing Consent Form
The operating room is one place in a hospital where things are expected to run like clockwork – it is imperative that surgical procedures start on time. When delays occur, the impact can be significant: staff and equipment are underutilized, surgeons become frustrated, patients grow (more) anxious and optimum outcomes may be placed at risk, particularly if the prior administration of medications or antibiotics had been timed to the projected start of a procedure. It is thus alarming that a recent study in JAMA Surgery found that 10 percent of surgical procedures were delayed due to a missing piece of paper – the consent form.
Missouri Health Connection Rolls-Out Statewide Health Information Network
Missouri Health Connection (MHC) has announced the grand opening of its health information network, paving the way for a new era of collaboration among healthcare providers to improve care quality, boost patient satisfaction, and reduce healthcare costs for all Missourians. The state’s physicians and patients now have one connection for a healthier Missouri, instead of having to navigate a complex maze of information sources to improve the health of patients.