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Seeking to give a voice to the patients served by its various institutions, Harvard has established the Harvard Community Ethics Committee with one distinct mission: To contribute to ethical decision-making. Now, those decisions are being made with input from members of the community.
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Due to the altruistic nature of most health care providers, members of the giving professions often put their own needs last, often to the detriment of themselves, their colleagues and their personal lives and sometimes their patients.
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About 12 years ago, Cynda Hylton Rushton, PhD, RN, FAAN, and others at Johns Hopkins set about to examine the issue of nurse self-care and the quality of care being delivered in pediatric palliative care.
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Physicians may be operating in burnout mode or suffering from other maladies related to distress and stress long before they are even aware of it, according to Michael K. Kearney, MD, one of the authors of a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) earlier this year titled "Self-care of Physicians Caring for Patient at the End of Life: "Being Connected A Key to My Survival."
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Hospitalists, very simply, are physicians who provide hospital-based care exclusively, and it is increasingly the model used by institutions in order to have physicians on staff and on call at their institutions on a 24/7 basis.
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The Joint Commission has issued a reminder to providers that many accreditation standards can help reduce the risk of transmission of H1N1 (swine) flu.
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In this month's special issue, we tackle the complexities of liability in outpatient surgery. Our cover story tells you about the most common problem areas, and how to avoid them. A story on page 67 tells you about how following national guidelines could offer protection from liability. We discuss the Life Safety Code on page 69.
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A child comes in for repair of a cleft palate. The left side of the mouth already has been repaired, and this procedure is scheduled for the right side. The consent form is correct and is signed. The team performs a timeout, and everyone agrees they will work on the right side. The surgeon cuts into the left side, according to a media report.
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Medicare's new Conditions for Coverage for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), which took effect May 18, include a requirement that ASCs must adhere to professional acceptable standards of practice for infection control. One key to avoiding liability in that area is proper instrument disinfection and sterilization.
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Complying with all of the vast details of the Life Safety Code is one of the more challenging aspects of outpatient surgery management.
