Infusion Pump Performance: Flow Accuracy and Continuity Often Don’t Add Up
Pumps undergo extensive pre-market testing, and vendor manuals provide detailed documentation of the results. However, pump performance in the real world often differs significantly from lab results, with a potentially significant impact on patient safety.
Colorado Nurses Face Jail Time After Pleading Guilty to Drug Thefts
Lisa Marie Jones, 43, was sentenced last Friday to 14 months in prison after pleading guilty to thefts of fentanyl, morphine, and hydromorphone from Denver’s Veterans Affairs Medical Center and UCHealth in Aurora in 2016 and 2017. Marlene Gilmore, 28, was given a four-month prison term after pleading guilty on April 20 to stealing the same drugs in 2016 from North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley.
Washington State Hospital Warns Patients of Possible Hep C Exposure
According to the Tacoma News Tribune, MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, Wash., is notifying patients treated in its emergency room from August 4, 2017 to March 23, 2018 of the potential exposure and advising them to get tested.
How DeKalb Medical Fixed Drug Safety Problems After Fatal Error
Pharmacists may mistakenly override a medication safety alert because they are inundated with false alarms, DeKalb’s pharmacy director told inspectors after the fatal incident, according to an inspection report CMS released to HealthLeaders Media in response to a public records request.
Jury’s In: Opioids Are Not Better Than Other Medicines For Chronic Pain
Even though millions of people take the drugs for long periods of time, there is little evidence to support that use.
Drug Shortages Continue to Compromise Patient Care
An exhaustive account of frustrations, difficulties, misspent resources, and safety concerns came across loud and clear from respondents who participated in ISMP’s August through October 2017 national survey on drug shortages.
CMS Proposes Opioid Prescribing Limits For Medicare Enrollees
Pharmacies would have new limits on filling opioid prescriptions for Medicare beneficiaries under regulations proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
EMR ‘Nudging’ Could Curtail Opioid Prescribing
Emergency Departments prescribe fewer opioid pills to their patients when the EMR default setting was set to 10 tablets.
An Opioid Remedy That Works: Treat Pain And Addiction At The Same Time
In 2016, a record 912 people died from an overdose in Colorado, according to data recently released by the state health department. Of those, 300 people died from an opioid overdose. Opioid use often leads to an addiction to heroin, which claimed another 228 lives last year in the state. Those two causes together now rival the number of deaths from car accidents in the state.
Stopping Opioid Addiction At One Key Source: The Hospital
It’s a simple enough idea: Surgeons should give patients fewer pills after surgery — the time when many people are first introduced to what can be highly addictive painkillers.