Supporting Safer Healthcare

The January issue of Vanity Fair features an article by Buzz Bissinger about Mark Weinberger, an Indiana surgeon who spent three years in the Italian Alps evading millions of dollars in debt, family problems, and more than 350 malpractice suits. Evidence presented in the malpractice cases claims that Dr. Weinberger defrauded insurance companies and injured patients by recommending and performing [...]

Patient experience, and thus patient satisfaction scores, are intrinsically linked with how a hospital or other healthcare organization handles its patient complaint and grievance process.  In addiiton to making good business sense, there are specific CMS regulations and Joint Commission standards that outline how hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers must manage patient grievances.  Lisa Venn, JD, [...]

A scan of recent tweets by various healthcare writers led to a couple of thought-provoking articles regarding the pitfalls of social media, one was via  Kevin Pho, the other Ves Dimov.  #1 - Human Resources and Medical Staff Credentialers Beware: The applicant looks promising, you think he/she may be a good fit for the organization.  Whether you’re seeking to [...]

Emily Berry’s HcPro Credentialing Resource Center Blog asks an important question in a recent post: “It’s not uncommon for practitioners to hold privileges at more than one facility. But can a practitioner’s ambitions put patient care in jeopardy? Should medical staffs set a limit on how many different facilities they allow their privileged practitioners to [...]

Health.com reports that  Surgery Mix-Ups Are Surprisingly Common. A recent study in Colorado covering a period of  six and a half years, indicated that doctors operated on the wrong patient at least 25 times and on the wrong part of the body 107 times.  Considering the number of patients who would have had surgery in the State [...]

The Ohio State Medical Association has posted guidelines for physicians who use social media.  “Social Networking and the Medical Practice.”  If your hospital or practice needs to develop or update a social media policy for medical providers, this guide is a great place to start.

Readers Digest provides a first-hand account of the stress and anxiety medical professionals can feel after a medical error in Doctors Confess Their Fatal Mistakes.  Former Cleveland, Ohio pharmacist Eric Cropp talks about, not just his regret over his error and the subsequent death of a child, but also the enormous impact the event had on his life.  Patient [...]

Our days. or in some cases our nights, are spent with co-workers.  The desire to collaborate with compassionate, intelligent people led me to a career in healthcare, and over the past 25+ years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some phenomenal individuals. Some have been physicians; both those who have cared for family and for me, as well as those with whom [...]

Prior to the establishment of the new National Hemovigilance Program in February, 2010, the U.S. was the only developed country without an established method to nationally track and aggregate adverse events associated with blood transfusions. The program is part of the National Healthcare Safety Network of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and allows all U.S. hospitals that transfuse [...]

You may know the story of Taylee Blischke, a newborn who nearly died in April 2009 at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, California. Morphine was mistakenly given to Taylee, instead of her mother who was holding the infant. California investigators say mother and baby had IVs that were mixed up.  To add insult to injury, the hospital [...]