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In 2000, quality professionals at Staten Island (NY) University Hospital reviewed the perioperative death of a 78-year-old woman undergoing hip fracture surgery. During a root-cause analysis of this sentinel event, a key area for improvement was identified: Medical staff lacked specific privileging for preoperative evaluations of high-risk patients.
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How do you think quick access to a team of clinicians with critical care expertise for patients in crisis would affect your hospitals mortality rates? The Cambridge, MA-based Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) recommends that organizations create rapid response teams (RRTs) to bring immediate help to the patients bedside or wherever it is needed.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently issued a special bulletin that warns of an increase in suspicious activity at hospitals.
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Its 3 a.m., and a well-dressed man and woman approach a clerk at a nurses station, official-looking clipboards in hand. They claim to be surveyors from the Joint Commission and demand to be taken to the pharmacy to inspect medication storage areas. In reality, theyre impostors seeking unauthorized access with motives unknown.
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Would you like a simple way to reduce pain and increase satisfaction of elderly patients? Allow them to sit on reclining chairs instead of gurneys, suggests Scott Wilber, MD, FACEP, director of the emergency medicine research center at Summa Health System in Akron, OH.
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What-If analysis is a structured brainstorming method of determining what things can go wrong and judging the likelihood and consequences of those situations occurring.
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What were you told about this patient by the previous caregiver during reports? What are you doing for this patient? What are you going to tell the next caregiver about this patient?
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Its the moment of truth: After months of preparation, inservices, and mock patient tracers, you finally get the phone call: Surveyors from the Joint Commission have arrived at your hospital.
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Have you ever included a patients personal information in statistical studies on specific diagnoses for JCAHO core measures and shared this with staff via e-mail? Do you ever e-mail colleagues about a patients outcome if that patient was seen at another institution?
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As a part of their overall patient safety program, many health care organizations require that managers submit corrective action reports for every significant incident in their department.