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With hospitals all over the country realizing that there is a benefit in having the surgical team pause, take a breath, and double-check that everything is in order before proceeding, a hospital in Washington has formalized that process even more by using a checklist that the team can go through before starting the procedure. The simple procedure can have a major impact on patient safety, the hospital reports.
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At Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC) in Seattle, staff are not only encouraged to speak up when they see errors or deficiencies that could harm a patient, they are required to do so. A patient safety alert (PSA) system obligates anyone seeing a dangerous situation to report it immediately, which then prompts an investigation.
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The best way to deal with the issue of hospital employees snooping in patient records and spreading private information may be with a contract and a specific policy about blogging or social networking, suggest two experts.
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The popularity of social networking sites can be helpful when it comes to screening new employees and seeing what current employees are saying on the Internet, says Jeffrey M. Pincus, JD, a partner with the law firm of Lewis Johs in Melville, NY. More companies are searching for a job applicant's online presence as a way to investigate his or her background, he says.
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When it seems as though nearly everyone is on Facebook, MySpace, or other social networking sites, you can be assured that many of your employees are online chatting about everything under the sun including what happened at work that day. For health care employees, that can lead to a serious breach of privacy if they pass on protected health information.
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Photographs of ED patients' clinical findings are being taken more frequently, due to the ubiquity of digital cameras, increasing use of electronic medical records, and their recognized value in medical education.
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Extending temporary privileges to a traveling surgeon can be risky business, says Leilani Kicklighter, RN, ARM, MBA, CPHRM, LHRM, a patient safety and risk management consultant with The Kicklighter Group in Tamarac, FL, and a past president of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) in Chicago.
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General surgeons have become scarcer in hospitals across the country, many of them beaten down by diminishing payments and grueling work hours, and some lured away by specialized surgery niches that offer more money and a better lifestyle. That means hospitals are increasingly dependent on surgeons-for-hire.
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Risk managers must mitigate the natural human temptation to snoop and gossip, because the potential legal ramifications can be huge, says Robert Wolin, JD, a partner with the law firm Baker Hostetler in Houston.
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Needlestick injuries were a hot topic in years past, when the health care industry took notice of the risk posed by exposure to hepatitis and HIV in the workplace, but now it is easy to assume that you've taken all the right precautions and lowered the risk as much as possible. But have you really?
