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A patient arrived from an assisted living facility with a documented allergy on the chart. Despite this safeguard, the patient still received an incorrect medication prior to the procedure. Fortunately, in this case, there was no lasting harm to the patient.
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Disclosing a medical error is never easy, but it can become especially complicated when you need to tell the patient that a previous provider was in the wrong. This delicate situation often requires communication with the other provider before you tell the patient anything.
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Educators often talk about "teachable moments," those times when the patient is ready to learn. This moment might be in a waiting area, exam room, or a hospital bed. To take advantage of these times, staff members in the Section of Patient Education at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, look for new ways to deliver patient education.
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This has been a grand month so far. I had the pleasure of speaking at the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) meeting in Orlando in May and The Gulf States ASC Conference in Biloxi in June. I reacquainted with old friends and made new ones, and I gathered many months of ideas for my column.
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Patients gradually are becoming accustomed to being asked for payment upfront, according to Marcy Quattrochi, manager of financial counseling at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, IL.
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After tornados were reported in the area of Joplin, MO, in May, Jenny Morris, administrator of Stateline Surgery Center in Galena, KS, turned to the local television station.
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To improve patient safety by encouraging providers to speak up about their concerns, managers should focus on the influences that have the strongest effect on behavior, suggest the authors of The Silent Treatment, a report released by the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, and VitalSmarts, a training company in Provo, UT.
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(Editor's note: This issue includes the second part of a two-part series on how a hospital addressed a wrong-site surgery. Last month, we looked at the details of the event and how the facility responded. This month, we look at what specific changes were made and how the top leader started networking with other CEOs on safety issue.)
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Several incidents of infection control breaches have been reported in recent months among ambulatory surgery providers:
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A major vein was torn during a Whipple procedure at a hospital that performs the procedure a few times a year, according to a case reported on The Law Med Blog.