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After an instance of wrong-site surgery that still defies explanation, officials at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence agreed to conduct an extensive examination of safety procedures in the surgery department.
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The reporting of critical test results and lab values is the kind of process that makes a risk manager nervous if you think about it too much. How do you really know if your organization is reporting test results promptly, efficiently, and effectively, every single time?
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The nation's most recent scare with the H1N1 flu virus showed both the good and the bad of health care providers' preparations for a serious pandemic, and the assessments are largely positive.
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Be sure to include home care services in any pandemic response plans. Fortunately, more than half (53%) of the nation's home medical equipment and service providers have formal plans to respond to a pandemic flu, and another 23% have stockpiled N95 masks or other supplies related to a flu pandemic, according to a survey of 1,500 providers conducted at the beginning of the most recent flu scare.
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The potential benefits of electronic medical records (EMRs) are easier to spot than the possible drawbacks, according to some risk managers. Consider both the pros and cons of EMRs before adopting the technology, they say.
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A man slipped and fell while getting out of his hospital bed, causing him to suffer a fractured hip and leg. The man and his wife sued the hospital for negligence, claiming that he had not been fitted with "gripper socks" and that nurses had not responded after the man had attempted to call them with the call light.
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A woman who suffered from long-standing depression presented to the hospital seeking an adjustment of her antidepressant medication. During hospitalization, she suffered seizures. The hospital was unable to determine the etiology of the seizures and transferred the woman to another hospital in the area. Upon transfer, she underwent an examination and laboratory testing.
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Most hospitals still have not implemented standards proven to improve quality and save lives, even though it has been 10 years since the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) landmark report on the failure of U.S. hospitals to adequately protect patient safety. That is the conclusion of the 2008 Leapfrog Hospital Survey, which shows that only 7% of hospitals fully meet Leapfrog medication error prevention standards, and low percentages of hospitals are fully meeting mortality standards.
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Patients and air ambulance crews are dying at an alarming rate because the air ambulance helicopter industry has little oversight and poor organization, according to a recent safety review.
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With the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) expanding the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act's (HIPAA) patient health information privacy and security protections beyond what most already considered a compliance nightmare, some legal and privacy experts are saying the expansion may have taken compliance from merely difficult to nearly impossible to achieve.
