Healthcare Benchmarks and Quality Improvement Archives – November 1, 2007
November 1, 2007
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The Leapfrog Group: HAI prevention efforts still have a long way to go
In a stark reminder of just how far some hospitals have to go in improving patient safety, The Leapfrog Group, a Washington, DC-based patient safety organization, reports that 87% of the 1,256 hospitals that participated in its annual Hospital Quality and Safety Survey do not have all of the requisite policies in place to prevent many of the most common hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). -
Highlights of Leapfrog Survey Results
In the annual Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey, data are collected from hospitals on their progress toward implementing practices in four categories: -
Disaster brings new meaning to safety, quality
The recent flooding in America's heartland made lots of headlines, but in the health care facilities of the region much was going on behind the scenes that the public never got to see. -
Abbreviations formally linked to medication errors
In one of the first formal studies linking the use of abbreviations to medication errors, researchers reporting their findings in the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety state that 4.7% of the 643,151 errors reported to the Medmarx program from 2004 through 2006 were attributable to abbreviation use. -
Study: Temporary nurses not a threat to quality
Contrary to popular belief, negative perceptions of temporary nurses may be unfounded, say the authors of a new study in the Journal of Nursing Administration. -
Hospitals still lag in developing safe practices
While hospitals are doing will in complying with a number of the National Quality Forum's (NQF) guidelines of 30 safe practices, there are some areas in which significant improvement is still needed, according to new research from the Emory Center on Health Outcomes, and Quality, Rollins School of Public Health.