-
New biotechnology drugs are the culprit in many adverse drug events, and that means risk managers may want to implement stricter controls and require more pharmacist oversight for them, as well as encouraging more education about how to use these often powerful medications.
-
Mariko Bird, MD, an anesthesiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, recently studied the malpractice claims related to acute pain management and found 150 cases in the American Society of Anesthesiologists Closed Claims Project database, which has a total of 7,328 closed claims.
-
The Chicago Police Department and the patient safety team at the University of Chicago Medical Center are investigating suspiciously high levels of insulin that left two elderly female hospital patients dead and a third in a coma earlier this summer.
-
The Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) says it supports development of interoperable electronic personal health records (ePHR) that are interactive and use a common data set of electronic health information and e-health tools.
-
A woman who had an ectopic pregnancy and suffered from paranoid schizophrenia went to the hospital complaining of a two-week history of vaginal bleeding. Unable to detect any fetal heart tones or recognize a fetus in utero, an on-call obstetrician/gynecologist discharged the woman. The woman returned to the hospital a couple of days later, but again was discharged when she said she had started to feel better. The woman was subsequently found dead at home.
-
When a 43-year-old woman's family and a bystander had to call 911 to seek help for her as she was lying on the floor in the ED at Martin Luther King Jr. — Harbor Hospital in Los Angeles, it was the beginning of the end for the troubled hospital.
-
The recent case in which a woman died while awaiting care in a hospital emergency department (ED), while others called 911 for help, could be a reminder of the need for staff to check for updates on patients waiting for emergency treatment.
-
A recent incident in which police officers used a stun gun to stop a man who was trying to leave a hospital with his own child has prompted concern among health care professionals who wonder if the action was justified, especially because the man was holding the infant at the time he was stunned.
-
Pass the baton or pass the NUTS, but either way you're passing on vital patient information that can improve patient safety and reduce the risk of adverse events, say the risk managers who use these innovative patient handoff strategies.
-
A nursing home resident was thrown to the floor after her foot and leg became caught in her wheelchair. The employee pushing the woman's wheelchair had apparently disregarded warnings that the woman's foot and leg were caught and had continued pushing the chair, including giving it a hard lunge. The woman suffered severe injuries to her head and died 14 months later.
