2014 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award Recipients Announced
The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum (NQF) have announced the 2014 recipients of the annual John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards.
Strengthen Your Resolve: No Unlabeled Containers Anywhere, Ever!
Just when you think you’ve made significant headway with a persistent unsafe practice, an error creeps up, and disappointment sets in. The error serves to remind you just how vulnerable patients are to human error, and to expose the fact that strategies you may have thought were in place to prevent the error are either ineffective or not implemented in all areas of the organization.
National Patient Safety Foundation To Provide Oversight of Research Study on Pneumonia in Hospitalized Patients
The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF), a central voice for patient safety since 1997, will provide oversight for a research study that is seeking a better understanding of non-ventilator-associated hospital-acquired pneumonia (NV-HAP).
New Patient Safety Center at VA Pittsburgh Evaluates Medical Products for National Use
The Department of Veterans Affairs has established the new Center for Medical Product End-user Testing at VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. This center, based at the healthcare system’s University Drive campus, is responsible for evaluating medical products before they are purchased and used to treat Veterans at VA medical facilities across the country.
Update Clinical Communication Strategy, Not Just the BYOD Policy
Step into most healthcare facilities and you will notice that while community physicians are openly using their smartphones, employed clinicians are carrying voice-only phones, multiple pagers, or wearable voice-activated two-way communication devices provided by their employers. Hospitals report that 67% of nurses use their personal smartphones for clinical communications, while 89% of hospitals say they do not allow nurses to use them during their work shift (Spyglass Consulting Group, 2014).
Call to Action on Transparency in Healthcare to Improve Patient Safety
Open communication and a free flow of information represent the “magic pill” needed to improve many of the issues in healthcare related to safety, according to a new report released today by the National Patient Safety Foundation’s Lucian Leape Institute.
ABMRS to Offer Professional Credential in Magnetic Resonance Safety
Experts in magnetic resonance safety have formed a new organization, the American Board of Magnetic Resonance Safety (ABMRS), to provide testing and certification for professionals working with magnetic resonance.
Is Incivility an Underlying Threat to Safety in Obstetrics?
Disruptive behavior? Perhaps these examples do not meet everyone’s threshold. However, few would deny that incivility characterizes these real anecdotal interactions, which occurred in labor and delivery. In 2007, a study of disruptive behavior in labor and delivery units on the West Coast of the United States found that 61% of nurse managers felt that disruptive behavior was currently occurring on their unit (Veltman, 2007).
Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety Relaunches to Improve Patient Safety
Named for a Boston Globe reporter who died after a chemotherapy dosing error 20 years ago, Massachusetts’s Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error Reduction has once again opened its doors with a revitalized mission to reduce medical errors and increase patient safety.
New Coalition Focuses on Continuous Patient Monitoring
Matt Whitman, a retired Michigan state trooper, strode to the lectern at the front of the room in downtown Chicago and made a startling announcement: “On April 17, 2003, I died.”