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We can predict much in life now. The health care industry has diagnostic tools to detect many forms of cancer, heart disease, and other life-threatening illnesses. Meteorologists can chart a mass of low pressure off the coast of Africa and reasonably predict when it will strike Florida.
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Following several recent adverse events, a special advisory panel is being brought together again in New York to recommend more ways to improve safety and outcomes in office-based surgery.
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When reviewing your handoff communication process, dont just focus on the handoff between clinical areas such as the operating room and the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU).
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In all of your disaster planning, did you imagine that you might have to climb onto the roof in the middle of a hurricane to ensure water drains away and doesnt collapse the roof?
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Like many people after Hurricane Katrina, the staff members at HealthSouth St. Augustine (FL) Surgery Center were feeling devastated and helpless.
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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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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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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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A wrong-site, wrong-procedure, and wrong-person universal protocol has been required by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations since July 2004 and supported by multiple national organizations, but adverse events continue.
