High Reliability Healthcare: Applying CRM to High-Performing Teams, Part 5
Element #4 – Assertiveness
In the 1960s and 1970s, Dutch psychologist Geert Hofstede conducted extensive research on how humans interact in a culture or organization. One of the measures he used to define this interaction is known as the power distance index, or PDI. This index measures power distance among cultures and indicates attitudes toward hierarchy – in particular, how a culture values and respects authority. The higher the power distance in a culture, the less likely those in subordinate roles will question the actions or directions of individuals in authority.
Plenty of Time to Qualify for and Collect 2011 PQRS Incentives
By John Haughton, MD, MS
Physicians following quality best practices are doing themselves a disservice if they are not participating in the 2011Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), the voluntary pay-for-performance federal program — formerly known as the Physicians Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI).
High Reliability Healthcare: Applying CRM to High-Performing Teams, Part 4
The Joint Commission believes the majority of all events of harm in healthcare are due to breakdowns in communication. This is a fairly broad statement that fails to answer the “whys” of the communication failures.
Patient Safety on the Move in Hospital Pharmacies
Notes from the American Society of Health System Pharmacists’ (ASHP) 2011 meeting.
By Mitch Work, MPA, FHIMSS
Billed as the largest conference for hospital pharmacists in the world, the 46th Annual ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting and Exhibition was held Dec. 4-8 in New Orleans.
High Reliability Healthcare: Applying CRM to High-Performing Teams, Part 3
By Steve Kreiser, CDR, USN Ret., MBA, MSM
In December 1972, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was on its final approach to the Miami International Airport late at night when the crew noticed a green “landing gear down” indicator light was not illuminated. The captain made the decision to abort the landing attempt and circle the airport to troubleshoot the problem over the vast darkness of the Florida Everglades
High Reliability Healthcare: Applying CRM to High-Performing Teams, Part 2
By Steve Kreiser, CDR, USN Ret., MBA, MSM
The success of any team – whether in sports, business, or healthcare – starts and ends with its leader. Some leaders are collaborative by nature and some are not. Those leaders with a dictatorial style that inhibits the flow of information will have a difficult time making crew resource management (CRM) work in their team settings.
High Reliability Healthcare: Applying CRM to High-Performing Teams
By Steve Kreiser, CDR, USN Ret., MBA, MSM
In 2006, Lauren Wargo, a 19-year-old from Shaker Heights, Ohio, went to an outpatient surgical center where a plastic surgeon was going to remove a mole from her eyebrow. The oxygen used during her surgery and an electrical device used to seal blood vessels combined to create a flash flame that left her face, neck, and ear badly burned. Four years later, the 23-year-old still has to wear make-up to cover the scars on her face and is unable to completely close one eyelid.
Johns Hopkins Collaborates with Lockheed Martin to Build Next-Generation ICU
The Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality of Johns Hopkins Medicine is collaborating with the Lockheed Martin Corporation to create a safer and more efficient hospital intensive care unit (ICU) model. The two organizations will work to streamline complex and fragmented clinical systems and processes to reduce medical errors and improve the quality of care for critically ill patients.
Three Receive ‘Safe Transitions’ Innovation Challenge Awards
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), in conjunction with the Partnership for Patients – an initiative of the Department of Health & Human Services – and with the support of Health 2.0, have announced the winners of the “Ensuring Safe Transitions from Hospital to Home” innovation challenge. Three teams were named winners: Axial Exchange,iBlueButton, and VoIDSPAN.
Joint Commission Issues Alert on Healthcare Worker Fatigue
The Joint Commission (TJC) has released Sentinel Event Alert 48, “Health Care Worker Fatigue and Patient Safety.” Acknowledging that “many factors contribute to fatigue, including but not limited to insufficient staffing and excessive workloads,” TJC states that “the purpose of this Sentinel Event Alert is to address the effects and risks of an extended work day and of cumulative days of extended work hours.”