There was a subsection of hospitals surveyed in 2023 that struggled with the notion of a continuity of operations plan (COOP), which, if I’m honest, kind of puzzles me. My sense is that without a fairly effective COOP (whether you call it that or not), an organization would have had a very...
During the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI) 2024 forum, three doctors gave an in-depth presentation on one of the biggest chronic health issues in the U.S.—diabetes.
Personal electronic devices—cell phones, smartwatches, earbuds, etc.—have become ubiquitous in our lives, but their use in laboratory environments poses significant safety risks. For hospital labs, which handle sensitive specimens and play a critical role in patient care, the challenge lies in...
The American Hospital Association (AHA) and the FBI have joined forces to address workplace violence in healthcare, blending the FBI’s expertise in behavioral threat assessment with the AHA’s understanding of hospital operations.
Natural disasters are not going away any time soon—and the days of practicing casualty events and unscheduled utility disruptions as standalone events are probably gone forever.
The COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges for hospitals, disrupting patient safety initiatives and straining healthcare systems. However, the American Hospital Association (AHA), just released a new report, New Analysis Shows Hospitals Improving Performance on Key Patient Safety...
The CMS Patient Safety Structural Measure (PSSM) went into effect this January for acute care hospitals and for cancer hospitals exempt from the Prospective Payment System (PPS). Built around five domains, the PSSM is meant to assess whether hospitals have a structure and culture that...
There are many great quotes about leadership, but none specifically about being an excellent laboratory safety officer. The absence in popular media of brave lab officers giving rousing speeches to staff on banding together and wearing their PPE to keep OSHA at bay is an oversight that will need...
Near misses—unplanned incidents that have the potential to cause harm but do not—present valuable opportunities to identify systemic vulnerabilities and prevent adverse outcomes in settings like behavioral health.
If you’re at your hospital, lab, or clinic when reading this and look up, odds are you can see a sprinkler overhead ready to put out a fire. These ubiquitous safety devices have saved countless lives ever since the first modern sprinkler was installed, though it was many more years before they...
