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Research shows that electronic health records (EHRs) can threaten patient safety long after they are first implemented. The cause is a mix of human and technological errors.
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Ten hospitals in the Tennessee Surgical Quality Collaborative (TSQC) have reduced surgical complications by 19.7% since 2009, resulting in at least 533 lives saved and $75.2 million in reduced costs, according to new results presented at the recent national conference of the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP).
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Checklists are a good resource for helping staff assess situations that might or might not need intervention from a risk management professional, says R. Stephen Trosty, JD, MHA, ARM, CPHRM, president of Risk Management Consulting in Haslett, MI, and a past president of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) in Chicago.
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Risk managers should be directly involved with choosing an electronic health record (EHR) system and also with building the system, says Robert Hitchcock, MD, FACEP, a practicing ED physician in Dallas and an Emergency Department Practice Management Association (EDPMA) board member.
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Obesity-related lawsuits against providers have risen 64% in six years, according to a claims analysis by national medical liability insurer The Doctors Company, based in Napa, CA.
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The patient, a 24-year-old woman, sought treatment from a hospital and was complaining of abdominal pain and related stomach problems. After admission, a physician prepared to perform an endoscopy to diagnose the stomach problems
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While emphasizing that Ebola does not spread by the airborne route, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising in new infection control guidelines that health care workers wear N95 respirators or powered air purifying respirators (PAPRs) for treating patients stricken with the deadly virus.
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Hospital employee health professionals should consider using social media and Internet communications and campaigns to electronically promote safety and health for health care workers.
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Nurses nationwide recently expressed fear and anxiety over the possibility of having to treat Ebola patients in hospitals they claim are poorly equipped. In a national teleconference call in October, thousands of nurses called in to hear and share information about how health systems are responding to the Ebola crisis.
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The recent Ebola infection of two Dallas nurses raises troubling questions about how prepared hospitals are to protect their employees from infectious diseases and whether the health care industry needs a higher level of worker safety.