Michael Appel MD Named Chief Patient Safety Officer at Northeast Georgia Health System

Northeast Georgia Health System, Inc. has hired Michael Appel, M.D. as Chief Patient Safety Officer. Combining his expertise in the cockpit with more than 20 years experience in healthcare, Dr. Appel brings the right recipe for innovative improvements in patient safety. “You don’t often get the chance to work with a person who has been an Ivy League professor, has flown thousands of hours for Delta Airlines and continues to practice anesthesiology,” says Carol Burrell, President and CEO of NGHS. “We’re excited by the ideas Dr. Appel brings to the table and proud of how he’s already helped make NGMC a safer place for patients.”

Dr. Appel credits his expertise in aviation safety as the foundation for his passion to improve healthcare. “I began reading aircraft accident reports at a young age, and couldn't afford to fly real airplanes" says Dr. Appel. "So I learned about aviation from a safety perspective first...long before I touched the controls of a real airplane. I read every accident report I could get my hands on."

Appel's deep understanding of aviation safety is what set the stage for his huge disappointment with the healthcare system. “It was chaos...what I witnessed when I first stepped foot into a hospital as a medical student. It was at that moment that I realized my mission in life was to make healthcare systems safer for patients."

“Sometimes it’s easy to get numb to terms and tools you use every day, and forget the real meaning behind those terms and the true reason for using those specific tools,” says Sam Johnson, MD, Vice President of Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer of NGHS. “Dr. Appel’s experiences help us all look at our jobs from a fresh perspective and ask ourselves what we can do to improve human performance.”

Having considered other offers from around the country, Dr. Appel chose Northeast Georgia Medical Center because "the climate is right at this hospital to be real pioneers in patient safety," says Appel. He credits a team of world-class physicians, a supportive administration, an involved and progressive board of directors, but most importantly the employees of the 5,000 staff referral center who, he says, "create a unique environment, ripe for groundbreaking improvements in patient safety."

Among the many patient safety projects at NGHS, several encompass techniques borrowed directly from aviation. One example uses "root cause analysis" in a way similar to aircraft accident investigations performed by the National Transportation Safety Board. By identifying a patient safety concern and working backward to fix the process itself, Dr. Appel's team makes errors less likely to be repeated.

Another approach inspired by aviation is the use of standard phraseology. Like aviation, healthcare needs a glossary of sacred terms which have specific meaning. "The word 'STAT' has been so abused as to be rendered meaningless", says Appel. In 2012, NGHS will launch a ‘Minutes Count’ campaign to tap into the efficiency that comes from using standard words with specific meanings. "When lives are at stake, communication needs to be crisp and concise," says Appel. "Listen to the exchanges between air traffic control and pilots. They speak a language created with safety at its core."

But Dr. Appel, who is frequently invited to speak nationally on patient safety, will be the first to tell you there are no short cuts. "No lecture is going to do anything for patient safety. The change we're after is one of culture, and that will take decades of hard work."

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Hospital Association of Southern California Launches SCORE Program with Safer Healthcare

The Hospital Association of Southern California has launched a new initiative to help improve healthcare quality  and reduce costs in the operating room. The Surgical Care and Operating Room Excellence (SCORE) Initiative is a nine-month program focused on creating operational efficiencies and enhancing the culture in the perioperative services area.

SCORE is designed to give hospitals the practical tools and skills needed for developing and sustaining effective, high-reliability processes in the OR.  By teaching high-reliability teamwork and communications skills and implementing innovative tracking technology and Lean Six Sigma improvement tools, SCORE will increase patient safety and reliability while reducing operational costs.

"Hospital operating rooms are highly complex and fast-paced by nature, requiring effective people, processes and technology all working together to achieve efficient, affordable and safe surgical care," said HASC VP of Hospital Operations and Performance Excellence Michele Graynor. "SCORE gives hospitals the ability to achieve these goals in a collaborative environment where administrators, staff members and physicians can all participate and leverage their collective wisdom."

SCORE was developed by a team of high-reliability experts and Lean practitioners to deliver quality improvements for hospitals. Developed in association with Safer Healthcare, a Denver, Colo.-based company, SCORE gives participating hospitals the ability to simultaneously improve patient safety, increase levels of quality, and reduce costs.

"We are extremely pleased to launch the SCORE initiative," said Tony Gorski, CEO of Safer Healthcare.  "For the first time, California hospitals will be able to benchmark and share their progress and best practices in the OR when it comes to quality improvement and patient safety."

SCORE will also leverage the innovative technology of TAGNOS, a Southern California-based company, to provide continuous visibility of the hospital's assets and patients using location-tracking and patient-flow software.  This solution will not only give the patient's location at all times, but also determine the patient's progress in the overall treatment process, the length of time needed to complete each step, and the remaining steps.  Any delays are flagged immediately, and the hospital staff is notified. This level of application intelligence allows hospitals to improve patient throughput, asset and staff utilization, and overall patient satisfaction.

"According to the Association of periOperative Nurses, one additional procedure per day can generate $4 million to $7 million of revenue in an average-sized facility in one year," said Neeraj S. Bhavani, CEO of TAGNOS. "Hospitals are faced with a limited number of operating rooms and ever-increasing surgical volume. Expediting patients through the surgical process will maximize allocation of limited resources by reducing scheduling delays and gaps in OR time."

Antelope Valley Hospital Converts to Masimo Patient Monitoring System

Antelope Valley Hospital and Masimo  announced the hospital's conversion to Masimo rainbow® SET Pulse CO-Oximetry™ technology—enabling advanced noninvasive patient monitoring capabilities that offer immediate, pain-free clinical data and physiological information. The hospital-wide conversion equips Antelope Valley's only full-service hospital with the most technologically and clinically-advanced oximetry and noninvasive patient monitoring solutions available—making patient monitoring both pain-less and cost-effective.

"Converting to Masimo rainbow® SET enables Antelope Valley Hospital to provide a higher level of monitoring care that is pain-free and less invasive than traditional capabilities," stated Edward Mirzabegian, CEO of Antelope Valley Hospital. "This new technology allows us to continuously track key blood, fluid, and respiration parameters without using invasive techniques to collect blood. It's like an invisible lifeline that provides our clinicians with immediate, real-time access to advanced clinical intelligence and continuous physiological measurements that were not available 10 years ago. And, because this technology is completely noninvasive, the cost-of-care is reduced to both the hospital and patient—enabling us to deliver an exceptional level of care and patient safety to our patients cost-effectively."

QuadraMed Expands Agreement with HANYS

QuadraMed Corporation, a provider of health care technologies and services that improve the healthcare quality, patient safety, and efficiency of patient care, has signed an expanded agreement with HANYS Solutions, a subsidiary of the Healthcare Association of New York State to include QuadraMed's identity management solutions.

HANYS Solutions, which has marketed QuadraMed's Quantim(R) suite of health information management (HIM) coding, compliance, and record management solutions since 2000, will now also offer QuadraMed's enterprise master patient index (MPI) solutions to New York-based hospitals and health systems. By adding QuadraMed's (#1 in KLAS*) identity management offerings to the products and services it currently resells, both entities will help New York health systems achieve a variety of financial, clinical, and regulatory objectives.

"Through this partnership, New York's hospitals will be able to leverage proven technologies that ensure data integrity and promote interoperability," said Duncan W. James, QuadraMed Chief Executive Officer (CEO). "Beyond playing a critical role in health information exchange and supporting compliance with 'meaningful use' guidelines, a reliable and accurate MPI paves the way for improved patient safety and care within and among health care facilities." 

QuadraMed's suite of identity management solutions, which includes enterprise MPI and clean-up services, work together to ensure one accurate clinical record is retained per patient, regardless of the data source, application, or facility being visited. By detecting and resolving erroneous or duplicate patient records, medical staff can quickly access a complete view of a patient's treatment history, helping to enhance coordination between caregivers within one organization or across multiple facilities, while improving overall patient safety.

Patient Safety Technologies Announces Third Quarter Results

Patient Safety Technologies, Inc.  announced financial results for its third quarter of 2011 ended September 30th, 2011.During the third quarter of 2011, the number of institutions using SurgiCount Safety-Sponge® System surpassed 78. This compares to approximately 57 institutions using the solution at the end of the third quarter of 2010. To date in the fourth quarter, Patient Safety Technologies has implemented 9 additional facilities with 12 additional facilities scheduled during the remainder of the fourth quarter. In total, the number of facilities currently using the Safety-Sponge® System and those with signed agreements and scheduled implementations is over 230.


For more information on retained surgical instruments and Patient Safety please visit our website at www.psqh.com

St Joseph Mercy Hospital Emergency Department Wins 2011 MITSS HOPE Award

The winner of the 2011 MITSS HOPE Award is the NEXT STEP Program at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Emergency Department in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The HOPE Award Honors Outstanding People Everywhere who have furthered the MITSS mission of Supporting Healing and Restoring Hope to patients, and families, and clinicians who have been impacted by adverse medical events. RL Solutions’ President and CEO, Sanjay Malaviya, presented the award at the MITSS 10th Annual Dinner and Fundraiser held at the Westin Copley Place, Boston.

To read the full article please visit Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare

Nancy Kielhofner New Executive Director at Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety

Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety Hires First Executive Director.
With the addition of Nancy Kielhofner, the Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety  is also undergoing a restructure of its governance model by incorporating to become its own independent organization.Founded by the Minnesota Hospital Association , the Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota Medical Association, the partnership works to promote patient safety through supportive efforts among all participants of the health-care system.

Kielhofner brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to an organization that is stepping up its efforts to meet new challenges, said MHA President and Chief Executive Officer Lawrence Massa."Nancy's extensive work advancing patient safety at hospitals in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois will be invaluable as she leads MAPS to the next level," he said. "Her track record in implementing quality improvement strategies and processes, coupled with her absolute passion for patient safety, will serve Minnesota patients well."

RF Surgical Announces New Agreement with Premier Healthcare Alliance

RF Surgical, Inc.announced a three year agreement with the Premier healthcare alliance.  Under the terms of the agreement, the more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals, and 78,000 additional healthcare sites in the alliance, can select RF Surgical Detection Technology to prevent and detect retained surgical instruments from occurring in the operating room.

 The RF Assure™ Detection System utilizes evidence-based radio-frequency (RF) detection technology to prevent and detect RSIs from remaining inside a patient post-surgery. It can safely, accurately and efficiently read through deep cavity tissue, fluids and bone to detect if radio frequency-tagged surgical sponges, gauze or towels remain in a patient following surgery, a dangerous and incredibly costly medical error.

“RF Surgical’s relationship with Premier is further evidence of the growing value placed on the use of adjunctive technology to avoid surgical error,” said Dr. Jeffrey Port, co-founder and chairman of RF Surgical. “We are pleased to partner with Premier to make RF Assure available to a greater number of healthcare providers, continuing to work towards the goal of eliminating the incidence of RSIs in the operating room setting.”








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Alabama Partners With Thomson Reuters for Statewide HIE

Alabama Medicaid and the State of Alabama are partnering with the Healthcare business of Thomson Reuters to build the infrastructure for a statewide health information exchange (HIE). The partnership is designed to to develop a  functional, user-friendly design for the HIE known as One Health Record®.
One Health Record® will securely capture real-time clinical and administrative data from electronic medical records, health care claims, and other sources and provide clinicians with comprehensive patient histories at the point of care so they can make better-informed medical decisions.

The statewide information exchange can improve the coordination of care, improve clinical outcomes, reduce unnecessary and redundant diagnostic tests, create a less fragmented clinical and administrative workflow, and reduce costs. Participation in the exchange helps providers earn federal meaningful use incentives.

"The state of Alabama is clearly committed to the creation of a robust HIE that will help practitioners deliver high quality, cost-effective care," said Jon Newpol, executive vice president for the Healthcare business of Thomson Reuters. "And we are committed to supporting that vision and achieving an aggressive, accelerated implementation schedule."

"We are pleased to start building the infrastructure for a comprehensive and sustainable health information exchange for Alabama," said Alabama HIT Coordinator Dan Roach III, MD. "Thomson Reuters was selected after a rigorous evaluation process due to its experience, quick implementation, and sophisticated analytic capabilities."

For more information on the efforts to improve Health Care Quality and Patient Safety please visit www.psqh.com

Meta Healthcare IT Solutions Celebrates 20th Anniversary

Meta® Healthcare IT Solutions is celebrating twenty  years of providing fully integrated software solutions and hospital information systems to healthcare institutions to promote and improve patient safety outcomes.
The company began with a mission to improve patient care by developing and supporting pharmacy information systems that streamline operations, increase productivity, improve patient outcomes and reduce medication errors. Meta Healthcare IT Solutions now offers a complete suite of enterprise patient safety solutions, including its meaningful use approved MetaCare Enterprise™ EHR suite of products. MetaCare Enterprise EHR equips physicians, nurses and pharmacists to better care for patients while achieving high clinician satisfaction.

"I'm proud that we have been able to have a considerable impact on how healthcare automation can be used clinically to improve patient care,” remarked Sal Barcia, CEO of Meta Healthcare IT Solutions and a pharmacist by training.  We have a team of talented and knowledgeable individuals who continue to provide the level of support and expertise that our customers expect. Along the way, we’ve worked with some of the most talented hospital clients that can be found anywhere. By listening closely to them and collaborating with them, together we’ve helped to radically improve patient care. They truly have been partners, and together we are changing healthcare.”

For more information on Healthcare IT and Patient Safety please visit www.psqh.com

HIMSS Response to New IOM Report on IT and Patient Safety

HIMSS Has a Focus On Patient Safety

The Institute of Medicine Report on Patient Safety and Health IT is a notable contribution to the dialogue on how to make the American healthcare delivery system safer. Its recognition that "Continuing to use paper records can place patients at unnecessary risk for harm and substantially constrains the country’s ability to reform health care" is a strong endorsement for the path healthcare is on. HIMSS also agrees with the IOM that we should not be complacent; there are ways to make health information technology even safer and better for healthcare providers and the patients they serve.

HIMSS notes that the scope of the IOM’s Patient Safety & Health IT report was limited, focusing on making health IT safer. While the deficits of the paper-based system have been well-addressed by IOM in its past publications “To Err is Human” and “Crossing the Quality Chasm”, those deficits still should be noted. The paper-based health system, still in use in many clinical practices and hospitals across our nation, has profound deficiencies in failing to portray a full and up-to-the-minute picture of patients' conditions and care. The paper-based health system kills.

to read the full release from HIMSS please visit http://www.himss.org/ASP/ContentRedirector.asp?type=HIMSSNewsItem&ContentId=78785&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Baxter Completes Acqusition of Baxa

Baxter International Inc.announced the completion of  its acquisition of Baxa Corporation, for a cash consideration of $380 million. Baxa develops pharmacy technology that enhances the efficiency and  patient safety of oral and IV dose preparation and delivery.

"The acquisition of Baxa demonstrates Baxter's long-term commitment to nutrition and patient safety and it allows us to offer a broader range of solutions for the safe preparation and delivery of IV medications," said Robert M. Davis, president of Baxter's Medical Products business. "We believe Baxa's expertise in safely preparing IV and oral liquid medications, and their shared commitment toward improving patient care through innovative drug preparation and delivery technology will benefit patients around the world."

To read more about Patient Safety please visit Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare

Getting a Feel for Better Infection Control

Nurse Training Important to Reduce Hospital Acquired Infections

For every one hundred patients admitted to hospitals for the year 2002, 4.5 patients developed a  hospital-acquired infection (HAI) (Graves & McGowan, 2008), and many experts believe the percentage has risen in recent years. Under new CMS guidelines, providers may risk partial or full denial of reimbursement for procedures where staff medical errors such as infections arise from a lack of training. With an IV catheter infection estimated to cost $100,000 in hospital care, clinical directors understand the need to improve nurse training and proficiency as an HAI risk-management activity and as a critical element of quality care and meeting patient safety goals.

As a result, healthcare organizations are exploring new options for training as part of their efforts to address the problem of infection control. One of the new options for training nurses includes advanced computer-based simulation—an approach previously used mainly in training surgical residents on specialized procedures or devices.


Practice Vs. Reality with “Dummies”
 
The market for medical simulation is estimated to reach $1.5 billion by 2012 (Quinn, 2010), with the dominant share of the market currently comprised of mannequin-based training for nurses and medics, along with specialized training developers. Training with mannequins at simulation centers has become a routine and valuable part of healthcare provider efforts to address patient safety both for training nurses new to a specific procedure as well as providing continuing education for experienced nurses. This is particularly true as so-called “dummies” have become increasingly high-tech with electronic displays, sensors, and readouts.
Yet mannequins have limits in their ability to address the full instructional experience of procedures. They cannot provide a learning experience that includes what a procedure “feels like” when performed on the internal organs of a patient. Achieving such experiential muscle memory is paramount to achieving proficiency in the specific procedure, as well as deeply learning every step in the process—from the first step of correctly cleansing the area to be treated, to the last step of properly applying the dressing and disposing of any waste. 


To read the full article please visit Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare

To Improve Patient Safety, Health Information Technology Needs Better Oversight, Accountability

IOM Report addresses Patient Safety

To protect Americans from potential medical errors associated with the use of information technology in patient safety, a new report by the Institute of Medicine calls for greater oversight by the public and private sectors.  The report examines a broad range of health information technologies, including electronic health records, secure patient portals, and health information exchanges, but not software for medical devices.

The secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services should publish a plan within 12 months to minimize patient safety risks associated with health IT and report annually on the progress being made, the report says.  The plan should include a schedule for working with the private sector to assess the impact of health IT on patient safety.  However, if the secretary determines that progress toward improving patient safety is insufficient within a year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should exercise its authority to regulate these technologies.  Concurrently, FDA should begin planning the framework needed for potential regulation so that the agency is ready to act if necessary.

To read the full article please visit Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare

AHRQ Announces New Grants to Fight Hospital Acquired Infections

AHRQ announced that it has awarded $34 million in fiscal year 2011 for grants and contracts to hospitals, academic medical institutions, and  research organizations to expand the fight against healthcare-associated infections . These projects funded by the agency help to attain the goals of HHS' Partnership for Patients initiative, a nationwide public-private partnership that aims to improve patient safety  and reduce unnecessary return visits to the hospital while making care less costly.

"Infections are not an inevitable consequence of health care; they are preventable," said AHRQ Director Carolyn Clancy, M.D.  "With this investment, we are building on proven strategies to give doctors and health care teams the help they need to ensure that patients are safe from infections."

These awards include projects to develop, test and spread the use of new modules of the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP), a proven method to prevent and reduce HAIs.The new modules target three additional infections that are also areas of focus for the Partnership for Patients:

    * Catheter-associated urinary tract infections, the most common HAI, which can occur in patients with urinary catheters.
    * Surgical site infections, a complication of surgery that can occur at the incision site or deeper within the body.
    * Ventilator-associated pneumonia, which can occur in patients who require mechanically assisted breathing and, as a result, have a higher risk of developing health care-associated pneumonia. This new module will be pilot tested in two states with funding from the HHS Office of Healthcare Quality.

For more informaiton on Patient Safety and healthcare acquired infections please visit Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare