Articles Tagged With: safety
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Safety culture is critical in improving surgical results
To achieve better results for surgical patients, healthcare facilities tend to focus on technical issues such as surgeons’ skills and OR equipment. However, a non-technical factor, the so-called “safety culture,” might be equally important in delivering high-quality patient care, investigators report in a study published online in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons in advance of print publication.
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Free resources for healthcare worker safety
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has an online resource to help healthcare leaders protect their employees from getting hurt when lifting patients, during exposure to chemicals, and when being exposed to other common hazards of working in healthcare.
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EPINet has new leadership, expands mission to go beyond threat of bloodborne infections
The International Healthcare Worker Safety Center — one of the original surveillance systems for healthcare worker needlesticks — has made a dramatic transition to an independent non-profit center that is widening the net beyond bloodborne pathogens to include worker exposures to Clostridium difficile and MRSA.
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Hospital safety scores show some improvements
The Hospital Safety Scores released recently by The Leapfrog Group show key shifts among many hospitals on the letter grades rating them on errors, injuries, accidents, and infections.
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Tampa hospital reduces falls 16% in facility’s common areas with simple changes
Determined to reduce slips, trips, and falls in common areas, a safety team at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, FL, studied incident reports to determine the most common causes and potential solutions. After implementing several mostly simple safety initiatives, the hospital saw a 16% reduction in falls from the previous year.
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Occupational Safety and Health Administration offers tools on workplace violence
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently unveiled a webpage developed to provide employers and workers with strategies and tools for preventing workplace violence in healthcare.
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Hospital recounts NICU mistake and how staff did not disclose properly
A recent issue of the Safety Matters publication at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston told the story of how a tubing connection error occurred in the neonatal intensive care unit, which caused intravenous fluid to damage the baby’s skin at the wrist.
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TV screens, ‘WalkRounds’ promote safety messages
Discussing mistakes in its Safety Matters newsletter is only one way that Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston encourages patient safety.
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Risk managers should disclose errors to staff, not just to the patient
Most hospitals have embraced the idea of disclosing medical errors to the patient and family members, but Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston goes a step further by informing all staff about these incidents. The policy could provide information to be used against the hospital in litigation, the risk manager says, but educating staff and improving patient safety are worth the risk.
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Concurrent Surgeries Save Time, But at What Price?
This practice is common and has been accepted for so long that it might be going on in your hospital, but only the surgical team knows about it.