Viewpoint: Telehealth Programs — Introducing the Basics
In just one year, 81-year-old Dorothy was hospitalized 13 times for problems related to congestive heart failure (CHF). After participating in a telehealth program for 34 months, Dorothy’s health status improved significantly, and she had no CHF-related hospitalizations.
Technology & Quality: Usable Evidence-Based Guidelines… for Real
For more than two decades, clinicians struggled to use evidence-based guidelines. Ever since Wennberg’s work back in the 1970s demonstrating the huge practice variation seen even in relatively small geographic areas,…
Six Sigma – One Piece of the Patient Safety Puzzle: Advantages of the Six Sigma Approach
Faced with serious cost and quality issues, healthcare providers have increasingly looked at methods like Six Sigma to take their improvement efforts to a higher level.
Simulation – Patient Safety Simulations: Driver of Cross-functional Collaboration
Blame and punishment, missed hand-offs, complex regulations, and empowerment struggles are key issues that hamper the healthcare system’s ability to provide high-quality patient-centered care.
Right to Know – Patient Safety in American Hospitals: The Consumer Has the Right to Know
Most Americans believe that good quality healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Increasingly, American consumers are demanding the information about quality that is necessary to ensure that they receive high-quality care.
Partnering with Suppliers to Improve Patient Safety
Patient safety officers have a terrific opportunity to improve patient safety by helping their hospitals develop new and improved relationships with product, service, and technology suppliers.
PACS and Patient Safety: How PACS Addresses Patient Safety Across the Hospital Enterprise
The Institute of Medicine’s report on medical errors, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System (IOM 2000), sent a tremor through the healthcare industry as it reported that in the United States as many as 98,000 people die each year from medical errors.
View From the Hill: Hope Springs Eternal
Happy New Year, everybody! 2005 sure has started off with a bang. President Bush has been inaugurated for a second term, we have a new secretary of Health and Human Services, and the new 109th Congress has been seated with at least 46 new members.
Editor’s Notebook: Many Facets of Patient Safety
As we planned the first issues of Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare, we envisioned a periodical with a broad reach, reflecting the diversity of activities and interests in the field.
Culture of Safety: All Systems Go? Why So Little Progress?
Computerized physician order entry: Check. Bar coding technology: Check. Electronic prescribing: Check. Web-based error reporting system: Check. Enhanced policies on disclosure: Check.