ECRI Institute Advises Culturing of Duodenoscopes to Help Reduce Risk of Deadly Infections
News of patient deaths caused by outbreaks of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections is fueling media attention and putting the healthcare community on high alert regarding appropriate disinfection practices for duodenoscopes.
ECRI Institute Takes Steps in Improving Health IT Safety
The Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety, an innovative and collaborative multi-stakeholder effort, took important steps in improving health IT safety at its first in-person meeting held in September at ECRI Institute’s U.S. headquarters outside Philadelphia.
Vocera Addresses Population Health with Enhanced Care Coordination Solution
Vocera Communications, Inc., a provider of intelligent, real-time communication and collaboration solutions for mission-critical mobile environments, will provide a cloud-based secure text messaging solution as a benefit to all of its U.S. healthcare customers, at no additional cost, for use by any of their affiliated healthcare providers.
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Reduces Alarm Fatigue, Increases Caregiver Compliance
The sound of monitor alarms in hospitals can save patients’ lives, but the frequency with which the monitors go off can also lead to “alarm fatigue,” in which caregivers become desensitized to the ubiquitous beeping.
The Joint Commission Presents 2014 Enterprise Champion for Quality Award
For the second consecutive year, The Joint Commission has presented BrightStar Care® with the Enterprise Champion for Quality award. The award recognizes BrightStar Care for its efforts to promote the delivery of high-quality home healthcare to its franchisees through Joint Commission accreditation.
Joint Commission Educates Hospital Leaders on Integrated Patient-centered Systems
The Joint Commission announces publication of the new “Patient Safety Systems” chapter in the 2015 Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals. The purpose of the chapter is to inform and educate hospital leaders about the importance and structure of an integrated patient-centered system that aims to improve quality of care and patient safety.
EMR Interoperability Delayed by Lack of Inter-Vendor Cooperation
Less than half of healthcare providers say their electronic medical records (EMR) vendor cooperates well with other vendors.
NPSF Patient Safety Congress Call for Abstracts Due Oct. 17
The 17th Annual NPSF Patient Safety Congress takes place April 29 – May 1, in Austin, Texas.
IMPACT Legislation Improves PAC Quality
The National Quality Forum (NQF) commends the Congress for passing the “Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014,” or IMPACT Act.
AACR Issues Policy Statement Underscoring Importance of Safe, Accurate, Effective Diagnostic Tests
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) recently issued a policy statement that underscores the importance of safe, accurate, and effective diagnostic tests by recommending that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) begin to actively exert its authority to regulate high-risk laboratory developed tests (LDTs) that are being utilized by physicians to make treatment decisions, including the tailoring of an individual’s cancer treatment regimen.