A culture of safety can be an elusive concept, making it difficult to create and even harder to sustain. That's why one region of VHA, Inc., is helping to lead its hospitals toward that goal one step at a time.
According to Joint Commission standards and federal law, patients have the right to effective communication, including access to interpretation and translation services. It's easy to understand why. Effective communication with a patient is a critical component of patient safety, education, and...
These 14 CLAS standards are organized by themes: Culturally Competent Care (Standards 1-3), Language Access Services (Standards 4-7), and Organizational Supports for Cultural Competence (Standards 8-14). Within this framework, there are three types of standards of varying...
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a new patient safety initiative, Partnership for Patients, in April.
In April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee released a new set of guidelines to eliminate central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI). The guidelines, titled Guidelines for the Prevention of...
Editor's note: The following column is written by Columnist Catherine Hinz, MHA, who currently works at PatientSafe Solutions, Inc. Previously, she served as the patient lead at HealthEast Care System in St. Paul, MN, worked for seven years as an ED health unit coordinator, and...
A pediatric patient at Shands Healthcare at the University of Florida, Gainesville made it to the operating room (OR) for a surgery likely to require blood, but upon arrival, no blood or active blood type and screen was available.
