ACS Lays Out Attire Guidelines for Surgeons
By Alexandra Wilson Pecci In addition to reflecting patients’ preferences for a professional manner of dress, the attire guidelines for surgeons also incorporate concerns over quality of care and patient safety. Wearing soiled scrubs in front of family members, letting surgical masks dangle, and leaving large sideburns uncontained during surgery are all no-nos for … Continued
Advancing the Role of Nursing, Optimizing Quality Clinical Care
By Dan O’Connor, RN As health information technology (IT) continues to evolve, leveraging more clinical information and adapting to changes in quality reporting, informatics is assuming a larger role in nursing practice. A new and exciting role outside traditional nursing, nursing informatics integrates data, information, and knowledge to support patient and provider decision-making through information … Continued
MACRA Targets Meaningful in Meaningful Use
By Barry P. Chaiken, MD, MPH The 2015 Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) opened the way for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to streamline the quality improvement and healthcare information technology programs it built over the past several years. Since the passage of the 2009 HITECH Act, the quality … Continued
To Do No Harm, Rethink How to Measure Hand Hygiene
By Paul Alper, BA Primum non nocere is a Latin phrase that means, “First, do no harm.” It is a precept taught to healthcare students around the world and paraphrased in the Hippocratic Oath. Unfortunately, a vast amount of avoidable harm still takes place in healthcare settings worldwide. The good news is that a new … Continued
Community Circles: Transforming Care in Downeast Maine
By Holly Gartmayer-DeYoung, BSN, MBA Each morning, Eastport, Maine, is the first city in the United States to see the sunrise. Among the contiguous United States, Eastport has the deepest natural harbor (Fallows, 2014), one that buzzed with industry and prosperity during the 19th century and well into the 20th. The city’s fortunes have largely … Continued
Health IT & Quality: Why Things Matter
By Barry P. Chaiken, MD, MPH Compared to automobiles made just a few years ago, new ones provide an amazing driving experience. Expanding beyond the CD changer and iPod® dongle, automobiles now integrate our smartphones and use voice recognition technology, allowing drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel. In addition to this … Continued
Using Automated Surveillance to Improve Diagnosis
By Tom Scaletta, MD, CPPS Every day, healthcare becomes more complex, and with that complexity comes a growing need to focus on reducing diagnostic errors. A recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Improving Diagnosis in Healthcare (Balogh, Miller, & Ball, 2015), estimates that 5% of adults seeking outpatient care experience a diagnostic error, while one … Continued
Weighing the Pros and Cons of Patient Safety Technology
Although some emerging technology promises a patient safety cure-all, hospitals need to evaluate clinician workflow before implementing new gadgets In the 21st century, technology offers a solution to just about any everyday problem. Don’t know that actor that just came onto your screen? Log onto the IMDB app. Need directions? Just type the address into … Continued
Move to Refine Quality Measures Gaining Momentum
By Tinker Ready, HealthLeaders Complaints about quality measures are as abundant as the measures themselves. But some doctors are doing something about it. They’re working to identify metrics that are “realistic and actually will have an impact on patient care.” Call it pushback, validation, or measurement science. The revolt against the volume and usefulness of outcomes … Continued
Improvement Interventions and the IOM Aims for Quality: STEEP-7
By Shea Polancich, PhD, RN; Terri Poe, DNP, RN; and Rebecca Miltner, PhD, RN
Healthcare organizations should be continuously looking for ways to improve the quality and safety of the care they provide. The current healthcare environment, however, is complex and constantly changing, making the quest for continuous improvement a challenge. In 2001, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report Crossing the Quality Chasm highlighted the gap that existed between the current and ideal state of the healthcare industry regarding the quality of patient care. This seminal work illuminated the need to provide care to patients with defined aims—namely, that patient care should be all of the following: safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient centered. A call to action ensued for providers in the industry to develop strategies for closing the quality chasm in care delivery in accordance with the IOM aims. Now, 15 years later, there are still opportunities to improve the quality and safety of the healthcare delivery system.