Data Trends: Epidemiology and Impact of Patient Falls in Healthcare Facilities
In the National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG), The Joint Commission (TJC) has emphasized the need to reduce the risk of patient injuries from falls due to their high prevalence and associated adverse outcomes in at-risk patient populations.
AHRQ: IOM Recommends Residents Get More Sleep, Supervision to Improve Patient Safety
Evidence linking sleep deprivation to a higher risk of medical errors prompted limits in 2003 on the hours per week that medical residents could work at U.S. hospitals.
Health IT & Quality: Social Networking: A New Tool to Engage the Clinical Community
Editor’s Notebook: Stimulating Discussion
It will be some time before we know if President Obama’s Stimulus Plan revives the economy, but there’s no doubt it has stimulated debate about health IT in general and electronic health records in particular.March / April 2009.
Semantic Interoperability Transforms Quality and Safety Efforts
If you ask any healthcare provider about the most effective ways to improve patient safety, it’s highly unlikely that you would hear him or her say, “I’d like to know less about my patients before I treat them.”
The Impact of Wireless Technologies on Patient Safety
Although physicians pledge to “first do no harm,” in practice, adverse events in hospitals are common and frequently preventable. In fact, Bartlett et al. (2008) found that up to 50% of adverse events in hospitals are preventable.
Medication Reconciliation: One Hospital’s Journey to a Physician-Friendly Process
Clinicians and healthcare organizations recognize that the safety and quality of care is improved by recording and updating a complete list of medications and supplements for every patient at admission, during transfers while in the hospital, and at discharge.
UCSF Team Focuses on Patient Safety in Ambulatory Care System
Health care experts at the University of
California, San Francisco highlight in a new report the hidden risks
and complexities that compromise patient safety for ambulatory patients
with chronic disease.
Engaging as Partners in Patient Safety: The Experience of Librarians
In today’s healthcare environment, a broad team of professionals should engage in the quest to improve patient safety through identifying and discussing the successes and failures that lead to organizational learning.
Barcoding: Implementation Challenges
Barcode technology has long been hailed as an effective tool in the struggle to improve patient safety. The risks and advantages offered by barcodes have been well known for a decade or more (Leape et al., 1995; Brennan et al., 1991; Low & Belcher, 2002). The concept of barcodes goes back to 1948, and the first scanner was installed in a Cincinnati Kroger grocery store in 1972 (Reynolds, n.d.).