The Joint Commission recently released its final sentinel event statistics for 2017. The same medical miscues as last year top the list; however, it seems encouraging that the total number of reported sentinel events declined for a second consecutive year while the proportion of self-reported...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 29, Issue 6
Kettering Health Network (KHN) is a non-profit network of eight hospitals, 10 emergency centers, and over 120 outpatient facilities in southwest Ohio. In 2016, the network reported more than 1 million outpatient visits, nearly 62,000 patient discharges, and about 315,000 emergency visits. KHN...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 29, Issue 6
Almost two-thirds of the hospitals surveyed in 2017 were found noncompliant in at least one—and possibly many more—of the top 10 most challenging standards for hospitals.
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 29, Issue 6
Patients continue to be stitched closed with surgical sponges, gloves, needles, electrodes, scalpels, wires, tweezers, forceps, scopes, masks, tubes, and scissors left inside them. To combat the problem, the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) released updates to its Guideline...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 29, Issue 6
The good news is that patient falls are largely preventable. Doing so can save patients undue pain and save a hospital around $1 million a year. The bad news: There are still between 700,000 and 1 million patient falls each year. Of that number, 30%–35% of falls lead to injuries such as internal...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 29, Issue 6
With the renewed focus on ligature and self-harm, facilities need to undergo a complete reassessment of the physical environment where patients with behavioral or mental health problems are cared for. That goes especially for emergency departments. Annually, 460,000 emergency department visits...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 29, Issue 6
The Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program—also commonly known as HFAP—will be keeping its name. The longtime accrediting organization had originally planned to take the name of the Accreditation Association for Hospitals/Health Systems (AAHHS), which acquired HFAP in 2015 from the...
There’s a case where a World War II POW committed suicide by hitting himself in the head with an empty metal canteen after days without water. While that happened in the hold of a Japanese prison boat, not a hospital, it highlights how resourceful a suicidal person can be when it comes to...
