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More hospital employees than ever are receiving the influenza vaccine. A national survey shows that by mid-November, about 78% of them had been vaccinated a rate that is almost double the rate of about five years ago.
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In tough economic times, it's hard to promote laws or regulations that will cost employers money. But what if the money spent ends up saving employers even more? That is the argument that is propelling safe patient handling legislation in New York.
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Cameras nab you if you run a red light. They keep watch over ATMs, parking lots and airport travelers. And now they are being used to make sure health care workers wash their hands.
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When three of the 13 nurses on an inpatient oncology unit in Wisconsin were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, the employees were alarmed: Was something in the workplace triggering MS? An investigation found no relationship between the workplace and MS, but it did result in recommendations about handling hazardous drugs.
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A typical hospital collects hundreds, if not thousands, of data points for reporting to state, federal, and accreditation agencies. It's so much information that trying to determine what is most important to share with a hospital board could become a tedious chore.
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If you say it out loud, people will agree intuitively: You can learn more from your failures than from your successes. But that doesn't mean people want to trumpet what doesn't work.
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Almost everyone who has been in healthcare for long enough can tell a story about a tired physician or worn-out nurse who has either made a mistake or come this close to it due to fatigue.
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The most important consideration is to figure out what story you are trying to tell, says Lisa Snyder, MD MD, MPH, senior vice president and chief quality officer at Select Medical of Mechanicsburg, PA.
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As technology continues to evolve, so does its usage in the healthcare setting. Quality professionals are becoming more IT savvy as electronic health records become the new industry norm. Instead of flipping through paper charts and files, health information is searchable through electronic databases.
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The Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report in December that was critical of efforts made thus far to ensure medical errors associated with the use of health IT are minimized.
