Workplace culture—employees’ attitudes toward each other and the work itself, as well as the mission and values of the organization—affects all aspects of performance, including safety for employees, customers, and the community.

Three years ago, I traveled across the nation on a whirlwind tour that is the medical school interview process. Among all the facility walk-throughs, lunches with students, and the all-important interviews, one topic continued to show up like medical students at a free lunch: interdisciplinary education.

Infection control comes in many different packages these days. Critical care facilities have long noted the importance of hand hygiene and so have the various health standards and safety organizations. Indeed, “hand hygiene continues to be identified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the single most important and basic intervention to reduce…

It has been more than a decade since a major study at a 725-bed academic medical center found that 67% of 426 in-process intravenous (IV) infusions had one or more discrepancies, including potentially fatal errors such as heparin ordered for 1300 units/hour that was infusing at 200 units/hour, an amiodarone infusion ordered…

The effective transfer of patient care information is essential to a patient’s continuity of care whether conveyed in written documents, verbally, or electronically. Ineffective communication and transfer of patient information has been associated with medical errors, patient harm, and patient dissatisfaction.

Standing up in a canoe is hard enough. Standing up in two canoes with one foot in each while traveling through Class 4 rapids is mind-boggling. Class 4 rapids are defined as “intense, powerful, but predictable rapids requiring precise boat handling in turbulent water.”

Since the initial discovery of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming in 1928, a large number of antimicrobial agents have been harnessed for clinical use. While antimicrobial agents eradicate pathogens and control infections, it was recognized early on that bacteria exposed to antibiotics can evolve to survive them, raising concerns for antibiotic resistance.

North Shore Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System cut their medication errors related to patient identification by 86% through an innovative project designed to empower patients and standardize the way they are identified throughout the system.

Hospital construction affects everyone in the community. While a new facility may improve the care and services offered and enhance the workplace, construction projects on hospital campuses potentially add risk to an already complex, hazardous environment.