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Risk Management News: Healthcare and Patient Safety
Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA): Patient Safety News
A Video News Show for Health Professionals. New broadcasts monthly, with online video and transcripts.
Recalls and Safety Alerts: Serious Fungal Infections with Humira, Cimzia, Enb...
The manufacturers of Humira (adalimumab), Cimzia (certolizumab pegol), Enbrel (etanercept), and Remicade (infliximab) must strengthen warnings about the risk of developing opportunistic fungal infections from these drugs. These infections have been ...
Recalls and Safety Alerts: Serious Injection Site Reactions with Vivitrol
FDA is alerting healthcare professionals about the risk of serious reactions at the injection site among patients treated with Vivitrol (naltrexone). Vivitrol is administered intramuscularly to treat alcohol dependence. FDA has received nearly ...
Recalls and Safety Alerts: Updated Warning on Byetta
In October 2007, FDA warned healthcare professionals about reports of acute pancreatitis in patients taking the antidiabetic drug Byetta (exenatide). Since then, FDA has received reports of six cases of hemorrhagic or necrotizing pancreatitis in pat...
Recalls and Safety Alerts: Importance of Influenza Vaccination for Health Car...
As the flu season approaches, FDA is urging healthcare facilities to ensure that influenza vaccination programs are available for their personnel. Vaccinating healthcare workers will decrease the likelihood that they will contract influenza, and als...
Recalls and Safety Alerts: Increased Risk of Death in Elderly Patients Taking...
FDA is requiring that "conventional" antipsychotic drugs carry a boxed warning stating that these drugs increase the risk of death when they are used to treat dementia-related psychosis in elderly patients. This category includes such drugs as Haldo...
Recalls and Safety Alerts: Serious Hypersensitivity Reactions with Abacavir (...
FDA is alerting healthcare professionals that certain patients are more likely to experience serious and potentially fatal hypersensitivity reactions when treated with the antiretroviral drug abacavir. Abacavir is sold under the trade name Ziagen an...
Recalls and Safety Alerts: Serious Muscle Injury with Simvastatin/Amiodarone ...
FDA is reminding healthcare professionals that patients who take amiodarone along with drugs that contain simvastatin have an increased risk of rhabdomyolysis, a type of muscle injury that can lead to kidney failure and death. Amiodarone is an antia...
Preventing Medical Errors: Tragic Events with Concentrated Opiate Oral Solutions
An alert from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices warns about potentially fatal errors that can occur with concentrated oral opiate solutions. ISMP cites a recent case involving an 18 year old who was prescribed oxycodone oral solution to ...
New from FDA: FDA?s Drug Safety Newsletter Now Available
Every year, FDA receives more than 400,000 reports of adverse events associated with the use of drugs marketed in the U.S. FDA continually reviews these reports to identify signals of potential drug risks. The Drug Safety Newsletter is one way ...
More Health Care and Patient Safety News
Joint Commission International Center for Patient Safety Launches New Patient Safety Practices Online Resource
The Joint commission International Center for Patient Safety announced the launch of a new "in-development" Patient Safety Practices resource on the Center's website. This beta version of the new online database offers a rich collection of practices and interventions for preventing adverse events while also soliciting user suggestions for enhancing the content and funtionality of the website.
Patient Safety Practices: An online Resource for Improving Patient Safety is available at http://www.jcipatientsafety.org/psp
FAQs for the 2006 National Safety Goals
Questions about the applicability of the National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) and associated requirements.
JCAHO 2007 National Patient Safety Goals Implementation Expectations
Implementation expectations have been added to each requirement and appear in the same format as elements of performance (EPs) in standards. In addition, rationales have been added to some of the requirements. Organizations providing care relevant to these goals are responsible for implementing the applicable requirements or effective alternatives. Compliance with these requirements is assessed throughout the accreditation cycle, through on-site surveys, and the Periodic Performance Review (PPR).
Universal Protocol
Frequently Asked Questions about the Universal Protocol for Preventing Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure, Wrong Person Surgery
Could You Be Having Surgery in 2006? Be Ready to Communicate About Your Anesthesia
In a typical year, more than 40 million surgical procedures are performed in U.S. hospitals. The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) wants to remind patients who are facing surgery and other invasive procedures to communicate with their anesthesiologist about their anesthesia.
Health Care Risk Management Articles
Improving Surgical Site Infections Tracking
Lessons from a hospital’s two-year surveillance study could simplify the job of monitoring and documenting your post-op infection rates.
Besides the fact that most SSIs surface only after patients are long gone from your facility, surgical site infections in ambulatory surgery patients haven’t been extensively studied. The reason is simple: Traditional surveillance methods don’t let us comprehensively detect surgical site infections in ambulatory surgery. You can probably guess why.
Inside Local Anesthesia
Understanding the intricacies of dosing and side effects can help make administration safer.
Though surgical administrators often don’t deal directly with the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of local anesthetics, it wouldn’t hurt to gain an understanding of these complexities from an anesthesia provider’s perspective. Doing so will give you the ability to discuss with your providers the way local anesthesia is used in your facility and will help you set standards of care, enhancing safety.
Improving Cataract Procedures
How one surgery center benchmarked its way to improved cataract procedures.
You manage your employees, your case costs and your procedure times, and you’re not careless. Your facility turns a profit. Why compare it to other facilities? The accrediting agencies require you to, for one thing. But also, patients deserve to be treated, and staff members deserve to work, where people are striving for excellence. Competition breeds excellence, and numbers don’t lie. Benchmarking is essential.
Preventable Errors
How four wrong-site surgeries could have been avoided.
In patient safety and risk management circles, wrong-site surgery is considered one of the “never events.” Healthcare industry observers estimate, however, that as many as 4,000 wrong-site, wrong-patient or wrong-procedure incidents occur each year, not to mention an incalculable number of near-misses. Four examples of wrong-site surgeries, adapted from actual incidents, are described below. After each scenario, experts offer their views on what went wrong and what would have been the right thing to do.