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Informed consent is recognized as a fundamental principle of American law. The concept from which the informed consent doctrine evolved is based upon the common law tenet ...
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Health care workers were heroes of Hurricane Katrina as they worked under grueling conditions to keep their patients alive despite lack of electricity, air conditioning and water, and sewer service.
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Editors note: This e-mail was written by Pamela McVey, RN, CIC, chief nursing officer at Biloxi (MS) Regional Medical Center, to a chief nursing officer in Natchez, MS. McVey was formerly director of infection control/employee health at the hospital. She gave Hospital Employee Health permission to reprint this e-mail, and added this postscript: " We all understand that there is no getting back to normal. We are now in the process of redefining what is normal. There is a great spirit here in the coastal counties of Mississippi. Well be OK."
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Even before hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations in Oakbrook Terrace, IL, worried that small communities were not doing enough to prepare for a disaster.
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If a major disaster struck your community, how many of your employees would show up for work?
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Five years after the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act became law, hospitals have made a dramatic shift to safety devices, bringing about a decline of one-third to one-half in the rate of needlesticks among health care workers.
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Employee health professionals are beginning to retire, leaving opportunities for other nurses to move into the field and raising the value of the more seasoned, experienced practitioners.
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When things go wrong in airway management, they do so with a vengeance. Critical airway skills are a must in emergency medicine because intubations tend to occur in less than ideal circumstances. Along with those less than ideal circumstances come less than ideal risks for errors. Errors during endotracheal intubations have serious to devastating consequences for the patient. Hence, a prudent emergency provider anticipates potential problems during the process of airway management.
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A large hospital system has seen a 45% reduction in new obstetrical claims after implementing a series of steps that focus on the high-risk factors most likely to contribute to birth injuries, and similar drops were seen in categories such as mechanical injuries and birth trauma.
