Patient Safety Monitor Blog

Patient Safety Monitor Blog Contest Entry!

Heather Comak — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:33:11 +0000

Another entry received this week into the Patient Safety Monitor Blog Contest concerns a year-long effort to educate staff members about the National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG). Robin Jones, quality care coordinator at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Brownsville, TX, entered this week with a description of how staff incorporate the NPSGs into their daily [...]

Joint Commission changes wording in two National Patient Safety Goals

Heather Comak — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:45:07 +0000

This week’s Joint Commission Online called attention to two changes made to the 2010 National patient Safety Goals. The following changes are effective immediately: NPSG.03.04.01, Element of Performance 3: the date of preparation no longer needs to be indicated on medication or solution labels. The full list of what should be included is the medication name, [...]

Patient Safety Monitor Blog Contest entry!

Heather Comak — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:35:48 +0000

I want to highlight some of the entries into the Patient Safety Monitor Blog Contest, in honor of Patient Safety Awareness Week. Today I’d like to share an entry by Anna Green, who works in quality management and patient satisfaction at Boone County Hospital in Boone IA. Her facility has created a patient safety quilt [...]

MITSS accepting nominations for the Hope Award

Heather Comak — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:03:22 +0000

Do you know a healthcare provider or a team within a hospital that has worked to support healing and provide hope to those affected by an adverse event? MITSS, which stands for Medically Induced Trauma Support Services, has announced its annual award in honor of Patient Safety Awareness Week, happening this week (March 7-13). Self-nominations [...]

AHRQ Study: Patients less likely to receive necessary care on weekends

Heather Comak — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:52:55 +0000

A new report out from the Agency for Research and Healthcare Quality shows that patients who go to the hospital on the weekend are less likely to receive the necessary care than patients who visit the hospital during the week, according to HealthLeaders Media. In addition, 2.4% of patients admitted to the hospital on the [...]

OIG report identifes best ways to find adverse events

Heather Comak — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:41:21 +0000

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released a report outlining a study of the most useful method of identifying adverse events. The OIG was required to do so by the The Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006. Overall it found that nurse identification and analysis of present on admission indicators revealed the [...]

Canadian research team develops moniker to predict if patients will die or be readmitted after trip to ED

Heather Comak — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:54:17 +0000

A new tool developed by a Canadian research team could help hospitals and physicians determine a head of time which patients may be readmitted or die in the 30 days after being admitted to the emergency department. CTV News reported on a study appearing recently in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that surveyed nearly 5,000 [...]

Two studies show that nurses and docs like to text, but not tweet

Heather Comak — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:21:52 +0000

Two recent studies show that healthcare professionals are smart phone fans and use them to text for both personal and professional use, according to Online Media Daily. The first study, undertaken by Manhattan Research found that 64% of physicians own a smart phone, and by 2010 that percentage is expected to b 81%. Currently 39% [...]

Could reprocessed medical equipment be environmentally friendly and keep patients safe?

Heather Comak — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:13:14 +0000

Healthcare as an industry is looking for ways it can reduce its carbon footprint, being one of the largest environmental offenders. One of the ways it is increasingly doing so is by reprocessing medical equipment, which can also save hospitals money. In a recent Academic Medicine journal article, researchers from Johns Hopkins examine the practice [...]

Announcing a new Patient Safety Monitor Blog contest!

Heather Comak — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:52:04 +0000

Our contest last summer was such at hit that we’ve decided to launch a new contest in honor of the upcoming Patient Safety Awareness Week, which takes place from March 7-13. The contest is simple: Send in examples (this can be stories or written accounts, tools/forms, policies/procedures, etc.) of how your hospital is complying with [...]