Physician-led Initiative to Improve Healthcare Quality Marks 10-Year Anniversary
Celebrating its 10 year anniversary at its meeting in the nation’s
capital, the AMA-convened Physician Consortium for Performance
Improvement (PCPI) highlighted its achievements to date and took a
proactive look at future efforts to measure and improve the quality of
patient care.
Joint Commission Approves Revised Medical Staff Bylaws Standard MS.01.01.01
The Joint Commission announced the approval of revisions to Medical
Staff Standard MS.01.01.01, formerly known as MS.1.20, that is designed
to contribute to patient safety and quality of care through the support
of a well-functioning, positive relationship between a hospital’s
Medical Staff and Governing Body.
AHRQ: Preventing Healthcare-Associated Infections
AHRQ
Initiating Promising Solutions and Expanding Proven Ones
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are on everyone’s hit list, as they should be, because no patient should get sicker from a preventable infection they pick up in a hospital or other healthcare facility.
Documentation: The Clinical Integration Specialist
Documentation
The Clinical Integration Specialist: Improving Patient Care in the Energency Department
In an article posted to the Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare blog (Weygandt, 2009), we addressed a critical function for patient safety and quality: accurately communicating clinical information in real time by incorporating the clinical documentation specialist (CDS) as a key member of the clinical team.
Editor’s Notebook: Scale
Editor’s Notebook
Scale
My email and Twitter accounts are full of news about Patient Safety Awareness Week (PSAW; March 7–13), which has been sponsored by the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) since 2002. In an interview with Heather Comak of HealthLeaders Media, NPSF President Diane Pinakiewicz explains that the purpose of PSAW is “…to provide a week not just for heightened awareness about patient safety, but very specifically a focus on the role of the patient and consumer in the work.”
EMR Implementation: Building a Team of Informaticists
EMR Implementation
Building a Team of Informaticists
In “Clinical Informatics and the CMIO” (PSQH 2010, Jan./Feb.), I discussed the importance of clinical informatics in institutions achieving their EMR implementation goals. I talked about why you can’t “just take the paper order set and make it appear on the screen” and how you should brace yourself for organizational change when you start doing electronic order entry.
Human Factors 101: Improve Reliability in Healthcare with Human Factors Engineering
Human Factors 101
Improve Reliability in Healthcare with Human Factors Engineering
Healthcare technology and training have advanced remarkably in the past 100 years, from the discovery of penicillin to the first heart transplant, but there is a downside to this progress. To quote Sir Cyril Chantler, former Dean of the Guy’s, King’s and St. Thomas’ Medical and Dental Schools in London, “Medicine used to be simple, ineffective, and relatively safe. Now it is complex, effective and potentially dangerous.”
Health IT & Quality: Health IT’s Glue
Health IT & Quality
Health IT’s Glue
With the march toward deployment of healthcare IT in full swing, concern mounts about obtaining the full value from the investment. Spending $19 billion on health IT tools does not guarantee patient safety, enhanced quality, improved access to care, or reduced cost. In fact, many studies over the past years have shown just the opposite.
Pulse: Lucian Leape Institute Finds Medical Schools Fall Short in Teaching How to Provide Safe Care
Pulse
Lucian Leape Institute Finds Medical Schools Fall Short in Teaching How to Provide Safe Care
The Lucian Leape Institute at the National Patient Safety Foundation has released a report that finds that U.S. “medical schools are not doing an adequate job of facilitating student understanding of basic knowledge and the development of skills required for the provision of safe patient care.” The report comes approximately 10 years after the Institute of Medicine’s landmark 1999 report, To Err Is Human, which found that 98,000 Americans die unnecessarily from preventable medical errors.
Pulse: Diverse Opinion Leaders Say Nurses Should Have More Influence on Health Systems
Pulse
Diverse Opinion Leaders Say Nurses Should Have More Influence on Health Systems and Services
Opinion leaders trust nurses, but cite barriers to nursing leadership.
From reducing medical errors, to increasing the quality of care, to promoting wellness, to improving efficiency and reducing costs, a new survey finds that an overwhelming majority of opinion leaders say nurses should have more influence. But these opinion leaders—including insurance, corporate, health services, government and industry thought leaders as well as university faculty—see significant barriers that prevent nurses from fully participating as leaders in health and healthcare.