Thea Rosenbaum, MD, MBA, is the chief clinical transformation officer at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and has experience in breaking the rules—in a good way. As a member of the Breaking the Rules (BTR) coalition, UAMS asked their healthcare staff in 2015, 2018, and 2022...
One of the many lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic is that medical gas system capacity is an important consideration. I suspect a lot of folks are giving serious consideration to how best to shore up (and build upon) existing oxygen capacity, in the event that there is another...
In 2022, the Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario embarked on a journey to prune away the rules that hindered care and comfort in their Department of Emergency Medicine. The project was lead by Louise Rang, MD, FRCPC, RDMS, who attributed their success to a fantastic team and a budget line...
If you could break any rule in service of a better experience for patients or healthcare staff, what would it be? What rules create complexity and effort for doctors, nurses, and patients without improving safety, efficiency, or comfort? And what’s stopping you from ditching those rules?
Urinary tract infections are one of the most common healthcare-associated infections. Urinary catheters are also one of the most common medical devices experienced by adult patients in hospitals and emergency rooms worldwide. A catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) occurs when...
It’s not enough to have a good thing in healthcare—you’ve also got to keep it going. This applies to workforce planning as well explains, Patricia A. McGaffigan, RN, MS, CPPS, a vice president of the Institute of Healthcare Improvement and president of
While artificial intelligence might be headline news, healthcare and medicine will remain the domain of human caregivers for a long time to come. Doctors to diagnose illnesses, nurses to care for patients. Surgeons to perform operations, lab techs to identify diseases. Receptionists, pharmacists...
Hospitals no longer must worry about new—or in some cases even old—ligature risk extension requests (LRER) for deficiencies that cannot be corrected within 60 days. However, hospitals still need to perform risk assessments and have a way to reduce the potential for patients to harm themselves,...
Safe patient handling and mobility programs (SPHM) help reduce injuries to both patients and staff throughout long-term care facilities, acute care facilities, home healthcare, and other high-risk areas. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), SPHM programs involve...