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If you have patients waiting for long periods of time in your emergency department, you better start thinking about ways to cut those times.
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Perhaps the saddest thing about the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture: 2012 User Comparative Database Report, released in February by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is not that so many people believe the culture in their hospitals is an impediment to error reporting, but that so many people who work in the patient safety arena are not surprised at the high number of people responding that way.
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Some employers are taking advantage of people's tendency to post explicit and sometimes disparaging information about themselves on Facebook and other media by demanding access to those sites before hiring. After incidents in which patient information was posted on Facebook, some healthcare providers might consider monitoring employee sites on an ongoing basis.
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An autopsy determined that Anna Brown's death in a jail cell in September 2012 was caused by blood clots that formed in her legs and migrated to her lungs, according to authorities in St. Louis, MO. Police say Brown went to three hospitals complaining of leg pain in the days leading up to her death, including her visit to St. Mary's Health Center that led to her arrest for trespassing.
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Continuing reports of security breaches resulting in the loss of sensitive patient data show the weaknesses of some healthcare organizations, and some experts say criminals are targeting healthcare for cyber attacks.
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Encryption would sharply reduce the risk of damage from any loss of data, and widespread use could discourage thieves from trying to access healthcare information, says Brad Rostolsky, JD, an associate with the law firm of Reed Smith in Philadelphia who has worked with healthcare providers to ensure data security. Rostolsky acknowledges that encryption can be costly for a large organization.
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Can hospitals see a 90% reduction in mislabeled specimens within 90 days? Some hospitals in South Carolina have, and others are about to find out by trying a new toolkit to prevent mislabeled blood specimens used by a hospital that did experience that huge improvement.
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Stealing paper records or electronic media was the most common type of data breach in healthcare in 2010, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) "Annual Report to Congress on Breaches of Unsecured Protected Health Information." Losing the records or media was the second most common incident.
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If you examine the rash of recent data breaches, many follow the same distinct pattern, says Adam Bosnian, executive vice president of Cyber-Ark Software in Newton, MA. An attacker obtained access to an administrative or privileged account and then used that powerful entry point to take what they wanted.
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News: A woman presented to the hospital for induction of labor on Dec. 1, 1995, and she vaginally delivered a 10-pound, 12-ounce baby girl. The baby was not breathing at the time of birth and had poor tone, seizures, brain hemorrhages, and a fractured left clavicle. She was hospitalized in the intensive care unit for three weeks, and she was diagnosed with profound retardation and cerebral palsy.
