It’s not news to most providers that suicide and drug abuse are on the rise. However, a trio of reports from the CDC have shed light on the extent of the problem.
In 2017, American life expectancy dropped for the third year in a row, with the main culprits of the decline being drug...
In December, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) issued new guidance for preventing infections associated with anesthesiology procedures and equipment in the operating room (OR). Published in SHEA’s journal Infection Control & Healthcare Epidemiology, the guidance...
Drawing information from patients can help boost understanding of why diagnostic errors happen and reduce the risk of future errors, according to new research. Diagnostic errors are a serious patient safety problem, impacting about 12 million adult outpatients each year and causing as many as 17...
It is an understatement to say 2018 was an eventful year. If you need to review anything, we’ve made this index of PSMJ articles to help you quickly find what you need.
We look forward to keeping you abreast of the patient safety field in 2019!
The ECRI Institute published its annual list of the top 10 health technology hazards facing healthcare in 2019. Longtime readers will recognize several hazards from ECRI’s 2018 and 2017 lists, such as cybersecurity and mattresses oozing body fluids.
What do you see outside your window? If you’re in many parts of the U.S., you might see a blanket of white. And even if the snow hasn’t started falling yet, it’s a safe bet that it will soon.
Most areas, and hospital facilities, are ready for the typical snowstorm. But are you ready for a...
On October 10, Hurricane Michael made landfall in Florida, forcing at least two hospitals to evacuate all of their patients after their buildings sustained heavy damage. On the same day, The Joint Commission (TJC) published a new Emergency Management Health Care Environment Checklist on its...
With a span of providers reaching almost half the country, the Dignity Health system kicked off its Human Trafficking Response (HTR) Program in 2014 with the intent of identifying and helping trafficking victims. Within a year, it identified at least 31 people with high or moderate indicators...
Communication can be one of the hardest skills for anyone to master. Yet in healthcare, miscommunication can pose grave challenges to patient safety and care quality. A 2016 malpractice study conducted by CRICO Strategies, a division of the Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical...
To boost patient safety and physician efficiency, Seattle Children's Hospital adopted overlapping emergency room shifts for physicians and achieved a dramatic reduction in patient handoffs, recent research shows.
