PDC-St. John Expands its Securline Bar Code Blood Band

PDC-St. John, the global leader in healthcare identification solutions, announced the extension of its Securline® Hybrid Style Bar Code Blood Band. The blood recipient ID wristband system provides automated patient identification for blood transfusion, specimen collection, and tracking to improve patient safety and workflow efficiencies in hospitals and blood banks. With the addition of six new Blood Band product lines, PDC-St. John now offers the widest selection of blood bank ID solutions in the healthcare marketplace.

The patented, Securline^® Hybrid Style Bar Code Blood Band is dual-purpose to accommodate both laboratory information system (LIS) labels and handwritten patient information. Larger healthcare organizations with multiple labs and facilities can standardize and consolidate to a single blood band, regardless of using an LIS system, or in the case of an emergency or electrical outage, a handwritten system. 

To read full article please visit www.psqh.com

EarlySense Included in New Study On Reducing Risks of Pressure Ulcers

A post regulatory approval clinical and interventional study results confirm the EarlySense contact-free patient monitoring system's value as a risk assessment tool for preventing pressure ulcers. The clinical study data is published in the December 2011 issue of the Journal of Patient Safety. It can also be accessed on line at:

http://journals.lww.com/journalpatientsafety/Abstract/2011/12000/Using_Continuous_Motion_Monitoring_Technology_to.3.aspx .

The EarlySense contact-free patient monitoring system automatically and continuously records and documents a patient's cardiac, respiratory and motion parameters using a compact sensor placed under the patient's mattress. The system alerts the nursing staff when there are significant changes in a patient's condition, if a patient has left or is in the process of exiting the bed, or if a patient needs turning in order to avoid pressure ulcers.

Nurses are informed of patient status changes, bed entries and exits as well as turn requirements, via a wired or wireless communication system, on the patient's bed side monitor, at the nurse's station, on their handheld devices and on a large screen display mounted in a prominent spot on the wall in the department.

The quoted clinical study was a non-interventional study performed in two medical departments at two separate medical centers. The movement of 116 patients enrolled in the study was recorded and retrospectively analyzed.

"We found that the pressure ulcer risk score correlated highly with the EarlySense measured motion rate. Based on this, we have concluded that the EarlySense system has potential to serve as a risk assessment tool to be used to prevent pressure ulcers," said Eyal Zimlichman, M.D., a lead researcher from the Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.

The interventional study, conducted at a US hospital, evaluated the implementation of the EarlySense contact-free patient monitoring system in a 33-bed medical-surgical unit. Here, data from 666 patients in the pre-implementation period were compared with data generated from the 993 patients in the post implementation period. The researchers found a reduction of about 65% in incidence of pressure ulcers attributed to the use of the technology. Of the 41 staff nurses who routinely worked on the floor with the technology, 88% agreed that the turn alerts provided by the EarlySense system helped nurses to reduce risk of pressure ulcers.

"EarlySense continues to set the standard for technologies that help clinicians provide proactive care on hospital floors by monitoring, communicating and facilitating the management of timely clinical interventions - all without ever touching the patients. Our system has been repeatedly reported by medical professionals to assist in their effort to save lives and secure better clinical outcomes. Today's data pertaining to pressure ulcers is another example of how the EarlySense system can make a valuable contribution to patient safety and the hospital's bottom line," said Avner Halperin, CEO of EarlySense.

Bloomberg Business Week- New Study On Hospital Readmission Rates

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine  supports federal efforts to improve the coordination of care between doctors and hospitals to cut admissions, said the author, Arnold Epstein, a professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.The government will reduce Medicare payments to hospitals with higher-than-average readmission rates beginning in October because returning patients are seen as an indicator of poor care.

Initial admissions are the strongest predictor of readmission rates, not whether hospitals instruct discharged patients on how to care for themselves, the study showed. The link between admissions and readmissions is “a real phenomenon and it’s quite a strong effect,” said David Goodman, the director of Dartmouth College’s Center for Health Policy Research in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Admissions tend to be higher in places like New York, where there are many hospital beds, he said in a telephone interview.

Variations In Readmissions

Nationwide, rates of readmission within 30 days after hospitalization for congestive heart failure range from 11 to 32 percent of patients, Epstein’s study showed.

Epstein and his co-authors analyzed Medicare data from the first half of 2008 to identify four factors that could predict a readmission and help explain the variation. They include whether patients in an area with high numbers of readmissions were sicker than average, whether they receive discharge instructions, whether doctors or hospital beds are in short supply and overall hospital admission rates.

Only admission rates showed a strong correlation with readmissions in analysis that included all of the variables, the study showed. Admission rates explained 16 percent of the variation between different regions, the study said. Discharge instructions by comparison only accounted for about half a percent of the difference, according to the study.

“Programs directed at shared savings from lower utilization of hospital services might be more successful in reducing readmissions than” the planned payment reductions, the study said.

Medicare will begin paying bonuses next year to hospitals and physicians who can reduce medical spending by their patients as part of so-called accountable care organizations.

Goodman agreed that the program may help stem readmissions. Policy makers should also try to address differences in admissions across the country, he said.

“A bed that’s not filled by readmission by good efforts just gets filled up by another patient who, in another region, wouldn’t be admitted at all,” he said. “We run the risk of ignoring some of these broader and arguably more important patterns” by focusing on readmissions, he said.

--Editors: Adriel Bettelheim, Bruce Rule

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Wayne in Washington at awayne3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Adriel Bettelheim at abettelh

PharMEDium Announces Medication Safety Solution for Operating Room

PharMEDium announced the first generation solution designed to support medication safety and documentation in the Operating Room . PharMEDium has developed the first bar code scanner to support medication verification administration. "Our certiMED™ system is designed to be used with the extensive line of PharMEDium Ready-to-Use O.R. syringe medications by providing a visual and audible double check at the point of administration," said David Jonas, PharMEDiumChairman and CEO.

In the O.R., anesthesia providers prepare and administer critical medications in a complex environment. The certiMED™ scanner is designed to function as an extension to the market leading PharMEDium O.R. anesthesia syringe labels featuring the American Society of Anesthesiologists' endorsed ASTM color standard to differentiate drugs within a class. The certiMED™ scanner was also developed with pharmacy requirements in mind. certiMED™ provides a means to reconcile medications in real time while supporting the anesthesia provider by integrating pharmacy resources into the medication use process in the O.R. through the drug library.

Problems With Ventilator Alarms Have Led to More Than 100 Patient Deaths

More than one hundred patients have died in the past six years as a result of problematic alarms on ventilators, which are designed to beep warnings to caregivers when something goes wrong with the machine or the patient’s breathing.The Boston Globe reports that the problems seem to be related less to the devices themselves and more to human error.  An analysis conducted by the Globe and the ECRI Institute, a nonprofit patient safety organization, found that 119 people died between 2005 and May 2011 in incidents involving ventilator alarms. According to the analysis, an actual malfunction of the ventilator was the cause in only two of those deaths; all others were the result of caregivers’ ignoring the alerts, failing to hear them or setting the alarms incorrectly.

The report is the latest development in alarm fatigue, a problem that occurs when hospital and home-based caregivers become overwhelmed by the number of alarms that blare constantly  from medical devices, such as ventilators or cardiac monitors.

“Alarms occur frequently, and many times they’re false, and because of that many times people fail to act as quickly as they should when an alarm goes off,” Maria Cvach, assistant director of nursing and clinical standards at Johns Hopkins Hospital, told ABCNews.com.



To read the full article please visit-http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2011/12/12/ventilator-alarms-linked-to-patient-deaths/

Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare has extensively covered medical alarm fatigue. Please visit our website at www.psqh for more information.

White Plains Hospital To Use Communication System from Amcom

White Plains Hospital in White Plains, N.Y., has selected the Amcom MediCall Select to significantly improve communications throughout the hospital.. They will  use the Amcom operator console and Web-based on-call scheduling solutions to automate and speed communications for external callers as well as their staff. MediCall Select will also eliminate paper-based procedures for time-sensitive communications.

Amcom designed MediCall Select for community and regional hospitals that face the same critical communication requirements as larger hospitals. "Hospital communications require speed and accuracy at all times, and MediCall Select will help us achieve this," said Brian Chiodo, Director of Telecommunications, White Plains Hospital. "Not only will staff and patients benefit from improved communication capabilities, but we will also have the technology backbone in place to support our growth."

"Like many community hospitals seeking to maintain and enhance quality as they grow, White Plains Hospital is migrating to a more advanced approach to helping staff, patients, and guests interact," said Chris Heim, President, Amcom Software. "Whether a patient's family member is calling for an update, a nurse is searching for the right on-call specialist at 2 a.m., or a caller just needs directions, White Plains Hospital will be able to put the right people in touch quickly and easily. They also have the right platform in place to incorporate emerging communications technologies as needed down the road such as messaging securely to smartphones and tablets."

Please visit Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare for more information on patient safety and healthcare quality improvement programs

Nason Hospital Turns to Access Intelligent for EMR Program

When Nason Hospital, in Roaring Spring, Pa., decided to pursue an electronic medical records initiative, administrators realized that the project would require barcoding for electronic and paper forms. They also identified barcoded patient wristbands and medication labels as an area of need.

“We chose Access Intelligent Forms Suite to meet our forms, wristband and medication barcoding requirements,” said Deb McGraw, VP, Nursing/Patient Care Services at Nason.“The forms barcoding that Access Intelligent Forms Suite provides allows our HIM staff to get forms into Siemens EDM easily,” McGraw said. “This has helped us incorporate e-forms into the patient’s electronic record.”

As it is generating e-forms on demand, Access Intelligent Forms Suite also produces barcoded patient wristbands, which has helped the Special Delivery Unit to improve their patient safety efforts.“We utilize the Access solution to produce a mother's armband, two baby armbands and a crib card with the same ID number,” McGraw said. “This number is used prior to discharge to ensure that the correct mother and baby are paired before leaving the hospital and the mother signs that this comparison has been completed.”

About Nason Hospital
For over a century, Nason Hospital has been providing services to meet the healthcare needs of surrounding communities in Blair, Bedford, and Huntingdon counties. Located in a peaceful rural area in the hills of Pennsylvania, the facility provides an ideal setting for patients' care, and their families' and visitors' comfort.

About Access
Access is the world’s leading electronic forms (e-forms) management, automation and workflow software provider. Our solutions transform any paper-intensive forms process into a paperless, collaborative workflow. Hundreds of hospitals worldwide are using Access solutions to improve patient care and safety, cut costs and enhance electronic health records (EHR), patient safety and downtime planning initiatives.

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."

###

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.”








For more information on retained surgical instruments and patient safety

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