Healthcare Risk Management – March 1, 2015
March 1, 2015
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Nurse Fatigue a ‘Huge’ Threat to Patient Safety
Risk managers should adopt strategies to reduce fatigue caused by scheduling, overtime, and excessive workloads.
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Staff fatigue can be a compliance risk, too
Many healthcare leaders don’t realize that, in addition to threatening patient safety, nurse fatigue is also a compliance risk, notes CEO Nick Merkin of Compliagent, a compliance consulting firm in Los Angeles.
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Eight tips for addressing nurse fatigue
These tips for combatting nurse fatigue come from Bette McNee, health and human services technical specialist with The Graham Company, a healthcare consulting firm in Philadelphia, PA.
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Refrigerator alarms can wear on staff
Medical device alarms aren’t the only technology contributing to fatigue among nurses. Refrigerator alarms contribute to physical fatigue and alarm fatigue.
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Workers’ comp claims expected to decrease in 2015
There’s good news if the cost of workers’ comp claims has been a problem at your hospital. The latest outlook calls for claims to decrease this year, which continues a trend over the past decade.
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Infusion pumps are weak link in data security
Cyber security experts and healthcare leaders are warning that the biggest threat to your hospital system’s data security might be one of the most innocuous, seemingly harmless devices that doesn’t even appear to have anything to do with your computer system: the infusion pump.
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NIST explains why infusion pumps are weak link
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD, recently issued a report on the security risk from infusion pumps.
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Anthem breach traced to admin’s stolen login
The data breach at Anthem, one of the country’s most prominent health insurers, is thought to be the largest healthcare data breach in history by a wide margin. The insurer is reporting that the breach affecting 80 million people was traced to the theft of an administrator’s login key and password.
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Experts advise compliance not same as security
The data breach at Anthem holds important lessons for risk managers, say four cyber security experts consulted by Healthcare Risk Management.
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Settlement for misdiagnosing first U.S. Ebola patient
Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas announced recently that it has settled with the family of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States.
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Malpractice suit filed in Joan Rivers’ death
Melissa Rivers filed a malpractice lawsuit recently against doctors and the clinic where her mother, Joan Rivers, died after a routine medical procedure.
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Manual helps to improve medication reconciliation
Unintentional medication discrepancies during transitions in care pose a major threat to patient safety, with up to 67% of inpatients having at least one unexplained discrepancy in their prescription medication history at the time of admission, according to the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) in Philadelphia.
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Jury awards verdict of $5.2 million after diagnosis error and above-the-knee amputation
‘High-low’ agreement reduces verdict to $1.5 million
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Failure to treat bacterial infection from routine injection results in $2.3M verdict
Physicians and healthcare providers must recognize that HAIs are common, and when they are treating a patient who recently has received healthcare services or undergone a procedure involving an injection, extra precautions should be taken to rule out the possibility of an infection.
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Proper review and plan of care documentation can be your best defense
Are you familiar with the documentation requirements for your department? Do you have an obligation to review and sign off on residents’ notes? Does the documentation in the record reflect your plan of care? If you never reviewed, how do you know? Unfortunately, in one recent case where the medical care could be explained, the matter was settled due to insufficient documentation — which a good plaintiff attorney can characterize as sloppy and inattentive care.
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Injuries are a constant worry for nurses
Sixty percent of nurses worry that their job is negatively impacting their overall health, and one in 10 nurses were injured on the job in the past year.