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When a physician discovers that he or she has been party to a medical error that caused harm to a patient, the realization is followed by a succession of emotions that, if not managed appropriately, can cause the physician to react in a way that ruptures the physician/ patient relationship and possibly precipitate a malpractice lawsuit.
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Allegations that prisoners of war were tortured by American military interrogators at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, possibly with the complicity or knowledge of physicians working with interrogators, resurrected a question that has come up in every war for centuries: What role, if any, should health care practitioners play in the interrogation and torture of enemies of their government?
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Organizations looking for additional guidance on risk analysis and management can find a new educational paper on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) web site.
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Are your history and physicals (H&Ps) updated and documented within 24 hours of the procedure? Is communication clear when you are handing off patients from one area to another, such as from the OR to post-op? If not, and you work at a hospital or freestanding surgery center, you are violating requirements from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
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The National Fire Protection Association has approved a change to its regulation allowing hospitals and surgery centers to use alcohol-based skin preps during all procedures, including those involving cautery or electrosurgery, as long as providers follow the amended regulation.
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Measuring the effectiveness of actions intended to improve patient care is an important element of performance improvement. Effectiveness evaluation determines whether an intervention has had the intended effect.
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During an April 2005 survey at Fort Sanders Sevier Medical Center in Sevierville, TN, JCAHO surveyors used the Survey Activity Guide (SAG) as their own guide for every system tracer they did, reports Nancy Van Voorhis, RN, CPHQ, manager of quality and clinical care. As we sat down at the system tracer sessions, the surveyors would pull out their SAG section on that system tracer. So my best advice is to use the Survey Activity Guide for your prep tool. We did, and we did fine.
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Increased public scrutiny of hospital performance on surgical infection prevention measures will continue, quality leaders predict. From the point of view of quality managers, this is a wonderful thing, says Terry Hill, MD, medical director for quality improvement at San Francisco-based Lumetra.
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One of the biggest discharge planning challenges at Sutter General Hospital in Sacramento, CA, involves patients who need dialysis after they come into the hospital, says Kate Tenney, RN, manager of case management.