Patient Safety Monitor Blog

AORN and 3M team up for hand hygiene initiative

Heather Comak — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:58:42 +0000

The latest initiative to be announced in the name of preventing healthcare-acquired infections (HAI) comes from the Association of PeriOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) and 3M. The two groups are partnering on the “It’s In Your Hands” campaign to bring to light the best hand hygiene practices for the according to AORN’s recently revised “Recommended Practices for [...]

The human side of patient safety

Heather Comak — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:48:00 +0000

An article appearing in the New York Times earlier this week addresses an interesting view on the world on patient safety: with so much focus on preventing adverse events, treating patients as human beings has fallen by the wayside. The author contends that in an attempt to fill out the right forms, ensure the correct [...]

Press Ganey report: Patient satisfaction increasing across the country

Heather Comak — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:39:30 +0000

Patient satisfaction is on the rise, according to Press Ganey’s annual Hospital Pulse Report. The report surveyed nearly 3 million patients about their experiences at more than 2,000 hospitals nationwide during 2008. Overall, patient satisfaction has steadily increased since 2003, with 85% of those surveyed reporting satisfaction with care in October 2008. Additionally, Press Ganey [...]

Another case of hospitals behaving badly

Heather Comak — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:57:02 +0000

St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford CT is the latest facility to make headlines for violating state regulations concerning patient care. The hospital was placed on probation by the Connecticut Department of Health, according to the Hartford Courant. One of the more recent instances involved a heart surgery patient who sustained a brain injury [...]

Joint Commission and HHS publish new video to improve patient-provider communication, reduce disparities in care

Heather Comak — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:55:43 +0000

The Joint Commission and Health and Human Services released yesterday a 30-minute series of videos titled Improving Patient-Provider Communication: Joint Commission Standards and Federal Laws. The videos, which can be found on YouTube, were created out of recognition that there are a lack of resources out there that touch on methods for improving communication between patients and their [...]

Diagnosis errors: No easy fix

Heather Comak — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:08:37 +0000

Physicians are responsible forone of the most complicated and important decisions in medicine: the diagnosis. Any further treatment plan rides on this diagnosis, and it may not be surprising that diagnosis error is now being looked at as a significant percentage of all medical errors. A report published in the November 9 Archives of Internal [...]

Announcing Patient Safety Monitor!

Heather Comak — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:57:28 +0000

HCPro is launching its newest product today: Patient Safety Monitor, an online resource for your patient safety needs. The product features the monthly newsletter Briefings on Patient Safety, a tools library, access to our popular “Patient Safety Talk” listserv, and weekly news alert. The main features is the Crosswalk, which organizes many patient safety-related regulations by [...]

RI hospital commits fifth wrong-site surgery since January 2007

Heather Comak — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:18:06 +0000

Staff members at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, have committed the facility’s fifth wrong-site surgery since January 2007, resulting in a $150,000 fine levied by the state’s Department of Health (DOH), reports The Providence Journal. This is only the second time that the hospital has been fined, the first being after the hospital’s third incorrect neurosurgery occurred [...]

Quantifying healthcare’s waste

Heather Comak — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:43:20 +0000

I thought readers of this blog might be interested to see some hard numbers that Thomson Reuters released earlier this week about the amount of waste present in the healthcare industry. According to a new white paper, the healthcare industry wastes between $600 billion and $850 billion each year. Here are the areas that were [...]

HHS awards $17 million to projects dedicated to preventing healthcare-associated infections

Heather Comak — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:16:12 +0000

Last week the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it awarded $17 million to specific projects in the name of fighting healthcare-associated infections (HAI). Of the total award, $8 million will specifically fund the national expansion of the Keystone Project, a program that successfully reduced the rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) [...]