Over the past several years, clinicians and healthcare organizations have come to understand the critical role that medication errors — inadvertent and usually preventable — play in jeopardizing patient safety.

In many ways, it seems like only yesterday that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published its watershed report, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System (2000). One of its key messages, that an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 Americans die each year from preventable medical errors, is as sobering now as it was 6 years ago.

Early investment by businesses in information technology delivered very disappointing results through the early 1990s. Executives, expecting computer systems to provide increased efficiencies and worker productivity, realized few if any benefits from investing in these systems.

Central venous catheters (CVC) are appropriate and life-saving interventions for critically ill patients to ensure venous access to provide fluids, medications, and nutrition, as well as hemodynamic monitoring.

In today’s fast-paced healthcare environment, a provider’s quick diagnosis and suggested treatment makes the difference in whether a patient has a positive or negative outcome.

If big numbers impress you, consider that, according to Bradley Sokol, CEO of Fast Track Technologies (FTT), the application of radio frequency identification (RFID) and related technologies in the hospital marketplace will increase to $8.8 billion in just 4 years, in 2010.

The Institute of Medicine’s report To Err Is Human focused national attention on the need to improve medication safety to prevent harm (IOM, 2000). Medication errors with the greatest potential to cause significant patient harm are those involving high-risk drugs.

Most hospital processes focus on trying to prevent costly medical errors after a patient begins treatment. However, there is a process that starts before patient treatment that can have an even bigger impact on patient safety and quality of care.

From the halls of Congress to federal government meetings and briefings, state legislatures, city halls, and workplaces across America, serious discussions are centered on healthcare.

Preventing patient falls and related injuries in acute care settings has been an elusive goal for many hospitals. Falls are a high-risk and high-cost problem (human and fiscal) for all healthcare facilities.