Patient Safety Organization

Thank you nurses!

Heather Comak — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:15:02 +0000

It’s National Nurses Week from May 6 through May 12. We here at the Patient Safety Solutions Blog wanted to take a posting to say thanks for all of the hard work, long hours, and dedication that you put in to making sure your patients receive safe, reliable care. Formally recognized sine 1991, this week [...]

AHRQ reports show quality improvement for hospitals, but existing disparities in minority care

Heather Comak — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:10:27 +0000

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality yesterday released two reports that summarize many of the issues with which healthcare professionals and specifically those in quality improvement struggle. The National Healthcare Quality Report for 2008 highlights strategic areas to measure whether the quality of care in the U.S. is getting better–or not. Although quality within hospitals [...]

WHO announces new hand hygiene campaign

Heather Comak — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:06:48 +0000

Piggy backing off its “Clean Care is Safer” campaign launched in 2005, The World Health Organization (WHO) announced its latest initiative on May 5th. Titled “Save Lives: Clean Your Hands,” the initiative attempts to illustrate how deadly failing to use proper hand hygiene practices can be. Several events took place around the world on May [...]

Survey: Patients happy with physicians, want specific recommendations

Heather Comak — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:03:14 +0000

A new survey out from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions shows that most patients still want their doctor’s honest opinion and recommendations for care. However, more and more patients want their physicians to offer more treatment options and also offer the ability to shop around for care. A recent article in American Medical News [...]

Adverse events may become public in New Jersey

Heather Comak — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:55:33 +0000

A New Jersey bill currently going through legislature would make some information of “never” events available to the public online, according to an AARP Bulletin. Currently, New Jersey’s 73 acute care hospitals reports these never events under a confidential system. The public would be able to view data concerning 14 serious medical errors, including wrong-site [...]

Urgent care centers prove their worth in wake of long ER lines

Heather Comak — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:58:02 +0000

Lengthy wait times at emergency rooms (ER) around the country have given way to “urgent care centers,” alternatives to the ER for less severe ailments, reports the Los Angeles Times. In 2006, patients waited an average of 3.3 hours to be seen at the ER, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. [...]

New study shows fewer patients see primary care doc while in hospital

Heather Comak — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:43:50 +0000

A study published in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association highlights another interesting point about the continuum of care. I posted twice in the past couple of weeks about reducing rehospitalizations, (last week the CMS announced a pilot project to reduce readmissions) and often one indicator that a patient will avoid rehospitalization is if [...]

About one-third of surgeons suffer from burnout, study suggests

Tami Swartz — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:20:35 +0000

A new study in the Archives of Surgery has found that 30 – 38% of surgeons across the country suffer from burnouts, according to a piece in Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog. The study suggests that younger surgeons and female surgeons are at especially high risk for stress and burnout, and found that a number of [...]

Joint Commission releases document on hand hygiene adherence

Heather Comak — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:01:59 +0000

I’m sure many of you have had trouble not only getting staff members to comply with your facility’s hand hygiene rules, but also measuring their compliance, which can be just as tricky. Do you measure by observing secretly, by surveying staff members, or by product use? Guidance has finally come in the form of a [...]

CMS announces Care Transitions Project

Heather Comak — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:56:56 +0000

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced it will soon be launching a project aimed at reducing preventable rehospitalizations. This announcement comes just weeks after The New England Journal of Medicine published a study showing that 20% of Medicare patients were readmitted to a hospital within 30 days of being discharged, and [...]