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When is the dual role of physician/investigator a conflict of interest? This is the question IRBs might consider in the aftermath of clinical trial participant Dan Markingson's suicide.
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For years, the debate has continued about returning the results of research to the study participants who made it possible. Would such a process be expensive and unwieldy? Could it cause more harm than good, when participants receive bad news?
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The national focus on patient-centered care isn't just about teaching patients to become more engaged in self-management of their careit also means putting patients on committees and advisory boards to participate in the process of developing quality programs.
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A growing number of organizations are disclosing errors to patients, but this can be disastrous if handled poorly.
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Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in Boston have shown that using bar-code technology to augment the counting of surgical sponges during an operative procedure increases the detection rate of miscounted and/or misplaced sponges. Their research is published in the April 2008 issue of the Annals of Surgery.
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Health care-associated infections due to multiple drug-resistant organisms, central line-associated bloodstream infections, and surgical site infections. The Joint Commission's new National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) for 2009 require you to implement evidence-based practices to prevent all three of these.
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In an effort to clarify the requirements of its Universal Protocol, The Joint Commission has made several revisions and additions, effective Jan. 1, 2009.
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If a patient noticed a health care provider didn't wash his hands, or suspected she was being given an incorrect dosage of medication, would she hesitate to speak up about her concern?
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Medication errors harm roughly one out of 15 hospitalized children, according to a new study. Researchers reported an 11.1% rate of adverse drug events in pediatric patients. Of those, 22% were deemed preventable, 17.8% could have been identified earlier, and 16.8% could have been mitigated more effectively.
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