This list is a worthy read for hospitalists; it’s entitled, “Top 10 patient safety concerns for health care organizations.” This list is created annually by the ECRI Institute, which analyzes approximately a half-million patient safety events from more than 1,200 US hospitals, to determine what represents the highest risk for patient safety. Those that “made” the Top 10 List this year are:
1. Data integrity failures with health information technology systems
2. Poor care coordination with patient’s next level of care
3. Test results reporting errors
4. Drug shortages
5. Failure to adequately manage behavioral health patients in acute care settings
6. Mislabeled specimens
7. Retained devices and un-retrieved fragments
8. Patient falls while toileting
9. Inadequate monitoring for respiratory depression in patients taking opioids
10. Inadequate reprocessing of endoscopes and surgical instruments
This list outlines what should be serious concerns for most hospitals and hospitalists; and hospitals are likely in search of hospitalists ready and willing to take on quality improvement projects in any of these areas. In my experience as a chief quality officer, these events are all too frequent, and often require complicated multi-layer solutions, including decision support, reminders, checklists, “hard stops,” and/or accountability. Hospitalists can and should be perfectly “poised” to help identify the issues, define the scope, and implement highly reliable solutions that reduce future risks to our patients. Click here for the full report: https://www.ecri.org/Forms/Pages/PSRQ_Top10.aspx
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