Supporting Safer Healthcare

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan has named Professor Sir Liam Donaldson as WHO Envoy for Patient Safety. In this role, Sir Liam, who served as England’s Chief Medical Officer between 1998 and 2010, will help the Organization promote patient safety as a global public health priority.    

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Are you struggling with improving handwashing compliance in your hospital? There are some simple steps organizatons can take that may help improve compliance with this important but basic infection control technique. The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare has put together a list of Handwashing Factors and Solutions, which is based on first-hand observation in multiple healthcare settings by Joint [...]

The Joint Commission is adding no new National Patient Safety Goals in 2011.  Minor revisions to existing elements of perfomance have been made, which are effective immediately. Click here for the full-text of the JC announcement.  2011 NPSG’s from the Joint Commission

The Joint Commission has released partial pre-publication standards updates for 2011, which will remain available on their web site until October 1, 2010.    The currently available pre-pubs include:   Hospital and Critical Access Hospital Standards – Language for the long-awaited MS.01.01.01 regarding Bylaws requirements - Effective March 31, 2011  Hospital Standards – Patient Centered Communication, which sets requirements for [...]

When jumbo jets collided in the Canary Islands on March 27, 1977, 583 passengers and crew died in the ensuing inferno; the worst aviation accident in history.  Investigation revealed mis-communication between the tower and cockpit, and the fact that the first-officer was apparently too intimidated by the more experienced captain to question his actions. The aviation industry responded by developing Crew Resource Management training, which focuses [...]

The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority has issued it's latest Advisory Report.  The eleven-member Authority was established in 2002 by the Pennsylvania Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Act (MCARE Act). Based on reports of medical errors that it receives from hospitals, birth centers, and ambulatory surgery centers around the State, the Authority releases a quarterly best-practice and staff education report. The [...]