By David R. Burda – When we last used this column to visit the topic of patient safety, things were bleak. In “Dead Patient Walking,” we argued that patients are at risk before they even receive care from such things as supply chain shortages, poor EHR systems, cybersecurity attacks and prior authorization delays.
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By David R. Burda – Better check the byline on this blog post. It’s about patient safety improving at hospitals. Yes, I’m the author. I also try not to be a hypocrite. If I write about patient safety dropping hospitals, like I did in this monthly column, “Dead Patient Walking,” then I feel compelled to write about it when it gets better…
By Jordan Messler MD SFHM FACP – How Clinical Decision Support Tech enables process improvement projects that impact patient safety. Despite decades of research linking patient safety measures to improved financial and clinical outcomes, hospitals often struggle to streamline inefficient workflows.
By Jim Hyman – Cyberattacks have crossed a critical threshold, and the risks have evolved from merely causing financial loss and damage to physical systems, to affecting people’s health and safety. Not long ago that statement might have been considered hyperbole, but now it is a stark reality.
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS) provided comments on Senator Mark Warner’s (D-VA) policy options paper, titled “Cybersecurity is Patient Safety.”
By David Burda – As I’ve said before, healthcare providers know how to make patient care as safe as possible. They just lack the total commitment and the right financial incentives to do so. With that bias in mind, another report destined for an email or file folder is out on how to make care safer.
By Jessica Serrao – Medical device alarms are meant to detect and alert caregivers to life-threatening situations, life-threatening device malfunction, and imminent danger to the patient. Within the critical care setting, however, studies show that more than 87% of device alarms require no medical action or attention.
By Jeffrey Brady MD MPH & Tejal K. Gandhi MD MPH – For us, as co-chairs of the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety, the pandemic helped to bring into sharp focus the need to fix the persistent patient safety problems that we’ve all been battling for decades.
By Jeffrey Brady MD MPH – For doctors, nurses, and other frontline care providers, treating patients with COVID-19 presents extreme challenges. Clinicians are working extra shifts under high-risk conditions. Suddenly, dedicated teams on “the front lines of care” face even more difficulties as they strive to protect their patients from safety threats.