Editor’s Notebook: New Advisors Broaden Board’s Focus
In Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare (PSQH), we intend to reflect as many aspects of the patient safety movement as possible. Four industry experts recently appointed to the Editorial Advisory Board do exactly that, bringing a wide range of training and experience to PSQH.
Viewpoint: Electronic Records, Patient Confidentiality, and the Impact of HIPAA
Healthcare providers need quick access to patient medical information whenever and wherever patients present for care.
Consumers as Partners – Consumers and the Patient Safety Movement: Past and Future, Here and There
November 30, 2004, marks the fifth anniversary of the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) landmark report, To Err Is Human, prompting policymakers, media, and other stakeholders to assess progress and revisit goals…
Patient Safety: Ethical Considerations in Policy Development
The Hastings Center has convened several major interdisciplinary research projects on patient safety and quality improvement (QI), including Promoting Patient Safety: An Ethical Basis for Policy Deliberation (2000-03),…
Technology & Quality – Continuity of Care Record: Foundation for Quality
Effective clinical decision-making relies upon easy access to accurate, up-to-date clinical information on patients. Although hospitals and other providers currently emphasize new information technologies such as computerized physician order entry and physician portals…
Public Policy – View from the Hill: Patient Safety and the 108th Congress
I remember one of my first boyhood visits to Washington, D.C., in the 1960s, with my grandfather, the late state Representative Lawrence H. Roberts (R-CT). On one such visit, Grandpa Roberts told me that when French architect Pierre L’Enfant…
Computerized Physician Order Entry: CPOE at a Community Hospital Online Charting Goes Live
Huntington Hospital, a 525-bed not-for-profit tertiary care community hospital, was established in Pasadena, California, in 1892; its mission is simply to excel at the delivery of healthcare to its community.
Technology & Quality: Playing Tag to Enhance Patient Safety
A recent television commercial for a computer company shows a scruffy-looking character in a trench coat walking through the aisles of a supermarket. As he travels down each row, he picks up one item and the next and sticks them in the pockets of his coat.
Q & A – Federal Health Architecture: An Interview with Kathleen Heuer
Kathleen Heuer is the deputy assistant secretary, Budget, Technology and Finance, at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She discussed the Federal Health Architecture at the Digital Healthcare Conference sponsored by the Wisconsin Technology Network in June 2004.
Six Sigma: Reducing Surgical Site Infections Through Six Sigma & Change Management
Hospital-acquired infections represent a significant patient safety concern, causing increased injury, mortality, and healthcare costs. In 2002, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched a national quality improvement project aimed at reducing the occurrence of postoperative surgical site infections (SSIs).