When doctors, nurses, and other operating room staff follow a written safety checklist to respond when a patient experiences cardiac arrest, severe allergic reaction, bleeding followed by an irregular heartbeat, or other crisis during surgery, they are nearly 75% less likely to miss a critical clinical step.
Clinicians should take care in online communications including the electronic posting of information and the exchange of information via computers and phones.
A multidisciplinary clinical practice guideline that helps physicians identify children most likely to benefit from tympanostomy tubes, provide the best care before and after surgery, and improve counseling and education for parents was published in a supplement to the July edition of the journal Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery.
Healthcare providers must ensure that their business associates are in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA), but the obligation to monitor subcontractors is less clear.
Default values that are programmed into electronic health records (EHRs) and computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems can threaten patient safety. They can result in patients being administered wrong doses of medicine and other errors.