CRICO, the patient safety and medical professional liability company serving the Harvard medical community, has produced a video that puts forth a future vision of how Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) might be embedded into the physician workflow in a manner that would improve health care delivery.

Through February 26, The Joint Commission is seeking comments about a proposed National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) on management of alarms.

By Michael Wong

This is the question that I have been asking myself ever since Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced proposed quality measures it is considering for adoption through rulemaking for the Medicare program. One of the measures under consideration by CMS (proposed quality measure #3040) calls for “appropriate monitoring of patients receiving PCA [patient-controlled analgesia].”

The Joint Commission recently released a free monograph, “Improving Patient and Worker Safety: Opportunities for Synergy, Collaboration and Innovation,” to draw attention to the need to create a culture that focuses on both the safety of patients and the health care workers who care for them.

Insulin has consistently been declared a high-alert medication due to the risks associated with its prescribing and dosing. When a nutrition order for a patient is modified, the patient’s insulin regimen may inadvertently remain unreviewed or unchanged.

ECRI Institute®, an independent nonprofit that researches the best approaches to improving patient care, is pleased to announce The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, as the winner of its 7th Annual Health Devices Achievement Award.

New comprehensive guidelines for the pre-operative care of the nation’s elderly patients have been issued by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and the American Geriatrics Society (AGS). The joint guidelines—published in the October issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons—apply to every patient who is 65 years and older as defined by Medicare regulations.

“Improving America’s Hospitals: The Joint Commission Annual Report on Quality and Safety 2012,” includes 620 hospitals that are leading the way nationally in using evidence-based care processes closely linked to positive patient outcomes. The hospitals identified as attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability performance in 2011 represent approximately 18 percent of Joint Commission-accredited hospitals reporting core measure performance data.

Covidien, a leading global provider of healthcare products and recognized innovator in patient monitoring and respiratory care solutions, has been granted 510(k) clearance to market the Covidien Nellcor Bedside SpO₂Patient Monitoring System by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Although hospital patients may need the strong pain relief that only opioids can provide, a Sentinel Event Alert issued on August 8 by The Joint Commission urges hospitals to take specific steps to prevent serious complications or even deaths from opioid use.