Patient Safety Stories: How One Hospital Leveraged Interdisciplinary Collaboration to Tackle a Flawed Medication Management System
While all organizations face their own set of challenges when it comes to ensuring operational excellence and patient safety, one particular issue rose to the top at this facility requiring immediate attention: Like many small, rural facilities, the hospital didn’t have a 24/7 pharmacy, and relied on automated dispensing cabinets (ADC) to provide most medications on the acute care floor. Unfortunately, these machines were often inadequately stocked, resulting in a host of issues for nursing staff.
GOP Bill’s Unheralded Changes In Rules Could Undermine Health of Neediest
An under-the-radar provision in the Republican proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act would require the millions of Medicaid enrollees who signed up under the Obamacare expansion to renew their coverage every six months — twice as often as under current law.
How Palomar Health Reduced Nuisance IV Alarms
People can grow used to anything, even alarms. Such is the danger of alarm fatigue; when excessive and nuisance alerts cause healthcare staff to become desensitized.
IHI, NPSF to Merge, ‘Re-energize’ Patient Safety Agenda
IHI CEO Derek Feeley will lead the combined organizations, which together are calling for a “coordinated system-wide effort geared at providing safe care delivery across all aspects of care.”
Joint Commission: Leaders Are Safety Culture Linchpin
Solid leadership is central to promoting and sustaining a culture of safety in any healthcare organization, The Joint Commission said in a Sentinel Event Alert published at the end of February, reminding leaders that it’s their job to identify and mitigate potential pitfalls on an organizational level.
ISMP’s Targeted Medication Safety Best Practices for 2017
The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) released its 2016–2017 Targeted Medication Safety Best Practices for Hospitals guide in December 2015. This year there were five new best practices and two revised out of 11 total.
Study: Postoperative Complications Are A Major Concern For Hospitals
In November 2016, a study published in the British Journal of Anesthesia (BJA) found that each year there are 50 million postoperative complications worldwide.
Letter To The Editor: CRICO’s Patient Safety Leadership: A Missing Piece
To the editor: Thank you for giving visibility to the story of CRICO’s story of leadership in patient safety. It is worthy of praise and emulation. Yet, I think there are critical pieces of the story that perhaps space didn’t permit telling, although I think they are among the most important. Then again, I have … Continued
Family-Centered ICUs Improve Outcomes
To improve medical outcomes in intensive care units, some hospitals are attempting to make units more accessible for patients’ family and caregivers.
The Cooperative High Reliability Organization: Approaching a Zero-Defect Culture
How the U.S. Air Force’s new reliability model focusing on task saturation improved antibiotic stewardship and overall value-based care quickly and cost-effectively.