Healthcare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement Archives – October 1, 2006
October 1, 2006
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New IOM report underscores ongoing threat of med errors
The Institute of Medicine (IOM), which shook the health care profession to its core with the 1999 publication To Err Is Human, has targeted medication errors once again with a new report, Preventing Medication Errors. -
'Condom' catheter can improve outcomes
The unfortunate reality is that many medical procedures are uncomfortable but often necessary to achieve optimal outcomes. However, when there is an option to choose a less onerous procedure and not sacrifice quality, most quality managers would argue for that approach. -
AQA, HQA collaborate on national quality strategy
Two health care quality collaborative organizations, the AQA alliance and the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA), have formed a new national Quality Alliance Steering Committee to better coordinate the promotion of quality measurement, transparency, and improvement in care. -
State task force develops protocols for wristbands
A task force of 11 Pennsylvania hospitals has developed a set of detailed protocols to reduce the risk of medical error when using color-coded patient wristbands. The protocols and a toolkit to help health care providers and facility managers implement them are available on the web site of the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority (PSA) (www.psa.state.pa.us/psa/site/default.asp). -
RFID tags help alert surgeons to problems
Physicians at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, CA, who tested sponges embedded with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags said the system accurately alerted surgeons when they deliberately left a sponge inside a temporarily closed surgical site and waved a detector wand over it. -
News Briefs
The state of Louisiana has unveiled a new public-private collaborative that will redesign its health care system in response to the impact of Hurricane Katrina. The collaborative hopes to fund its efforts through a proposed large-scale Medicaid waiver and Medicare demonstration program.