Pulse

Pulse

IOM Calls for Better Oversight, Accountability of Health Information  Technology to Improve Patient Safety

To protect Americans from potential medical errors associated with the use of information technology in patient care, a new report by the Institute of Medicine calls for greater oversight by the public and private sectors.

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Fall Prevention Showcase

Fall Prevention Showcase

What Goes Down—Shouldn’t

Between 2 and 15% of hospital patients in the United States experience falls. Nearly a third result in injuries and sometimes even death. Preventing falls in the acute environment is a constant battle against gravity and human behavior.

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Patient Safety in Africa: A Culture Shift?

Patient Safety in Africa: A Culture Shift?

Patient safety has received increased attention in African countries in the last decade, yet little is known about African patient safety challenges and quality improvement opportunities.

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Telluride Interdisciplinary Patient Safety Roundtable

Telluride Interdisciplinary Patient Safety Roundtable:
Medical Students’ Daily Narrative Reflections

As each new report of medical harm is published, the need to redesign medical education to prepare young physicians capable of approaching patient care in ways that decrease the opportunity for harm reaches a new level of urgency.

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The Stories Behind the Data

The Stories Behind the Data

Narratives in event reporting database reveal opportunities for fall prevention.

Patient falls continue to be one of the leading causes of adverse events and patient harm in hospitals (Dykes et al., 2010). Injuries from falls can increase the length of hospital stay and increase hospital costs (Dykes et al., 2010; Krauss et al., 2007). As a result, fall reduction and prevention has become the focus for many national and international organizations (Szumlas et al., 2004).

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Gray Market, Black Heart

ISMP

Gray Market, Black Heart

Pharmaceutical gray market finds a disturbing niche during the drug shortage crisis.

Widespread accounts of frustration, outrage, and serious compromises to patient care came across loud and clear from purchasing agents and pharmacists at 549 hospitals who participated in ISMP’s July-August survey (2011) on gray market activities associated with drug shortages.

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The Link Between Transparency and Patient Safety

Event Reporting

The Link Between Transparency and Patient Safety

Since early 2010, 13 private, acute care hospitals in Rhode Island have been collaborating in a major initiative to improve patient safety through better reporting of data on adverse and near-miss medical events. The hospitals now use the same medical event reporting technology and have standardized their reporting criteria.

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Provider-Friendly Terminology Speaks the Language of Quality and Safety

Medical Terminology Management

Provider-Friendly Terminology Speaks the Language of Quality and Safety

As a practicing physician, my peers often ask me what I do in the technology arena. When I reply, “standardization or medical terminology management,” I’ve usually lost them. And at its core, the goal of standardization really is not to complicate matters for physicians and other clinicians. Provider-friendly terminology (PFT) is an example of the kind of standardization our industry needs.

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Health IT & Quality

Health IT & Quality

It’s All About Jobs

What would Steve do? Steve Jobs, the 20th century’s greatest and most successful innovator, engrained that mantra into the heads of every Apple employee. Only those staff members who thought through problems the way Jobs did would offer solutions that were acceptable to their boss.

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