Hospitals, patient safety

Mardon, R.E., Khanna, K., Sorra, J., Dyer, N. and Famolaro, T. 2010. Exploring relationships between hospital patient safety culture and adverse events. Journal of Patient Safety, 6(4), 226-32. 

Finland No Hospital Patient safety coordinator. South Karelia Social and Health Care District Mari Liukka In preparation (part of a PhD Thesis)... 

Based on the literature review, key dimensions of hospital patient safety culture were identified and items drafted to measure those dimensions. Items were written to obtain a staff-level perspeetive of the extent to which a hospital organisation s culture supports patient safety and event reporting. In addition, most of the items were foeused on the respondent s own work area or unit beeause unit-level eulture is more salient and relevant and has the most immediate influenee on staff attitudes and behaviors. Sinee eulture varies aeross units, it was important to foeus respondents on their own unit s eulture by asking them to identify and seleet their unit first and then answer the questions in the survey about that unit. However, some patient safety eulture issues cut across units, so the last part of the survey foeused specifically on hospital-wide patient safety eulture, ineluding handoffs and transitions, pereeptions of management support and teamwork aeross units. 

Wear, J. O., Hospital Patient Safety, Proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology, 1973, pp. 352-366. 

Radioactive iodine is given by tlie primary health care provider, orally as a single dose The effects of iodides are evident within 24 hours, with maximum effects attained after 10 to 15 days of continuous therapy. If the patient is hospitalized, radiation safety precautions identified by the hospital s department of nuclear medicine are followed. 

With all the technology found in the modern hospital today, the lack of coordination between other parts of health care, the pharmaceutical industry, and the agencies is outdated. A network that connects these parts together will improve patient safety, improve care, speed the development of new treatments, and support new medical breakthroughs. 

NICE Guidance (2007) National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Guidance. Technical patient safety solutions for medicines reconciliation on admission of adults to hospital. http //www.nice.org.uk/guidance/index.jsp action=byID o=11897. Cited 30 Dec 2008 NHS (2004) Connecting for Health. Connecting for health business plan London Department of Health, http //www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk. Cited 30 Dec 2008 NHS (2005) NHS Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework. Enhanced Service-Medication Review (Full Clinical Review). EN7, Version 1.http //www.psnc.org.uk/data/files/... 

The main process (Fig. 1.1) for the care of a patient is normally the Primary care process (the patient handles their own drugs)—or the community care process (the patient gets help from community nurses at home or at a nursing home). All other processes such as hospital care (secondary/tertiary care) and the pharmacy process must support the main patient process. For improvement we must focus on patient safety and reduce drug-related problems. This means correct prescription and correct use (follow-up, documentation and communication) from the supportive process to the main process. 

It s a promising way to automate aspects of medication administration, says Robert Krawisz, former executive director of the National Patient Safety Foundation. The technology s impact at VA hospitals so far has been amazing. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) already uses bar codes nationwide in its hospitals, and the result has been a drastic reduction in medication errors. For example, the VA medical center in Topeka, Kan., has reported that bar coding reduced its medication error rate by 86 percent over a nine-year period. 

Lovern E. 2001. Minding hospitals business Purchasing coalition pushes hospitals to improve patient safety through process measures, but industry says standards are too expensive. Mod Healthcare 31 30. 

Soraya Dhillon is a Foundation Professor and Head of The School of Pharmacy at the University of Hertfordshire. Professor Dhillon has extensive experience in Clinical Pharmacy and Clinical Pharmacokinetics and has held positions in Community and Hospital Pharmacy. She has published widely in the evaluation of clinical pharmacy services and education. She currently holds a nonexecutive role as Chairman of Luton Dunstable Foundation Trust and has a particular interest in driving forward patient safety initiatives. 

For nearly 33 years, the USP has been reporting programs for health care professionals to share experiences and observations about the quality and safe use of medications. This year, the USP Center for the Advancement of Patient Safety publishes its sixth annual report to the nation on medication errors reported to MED MARX (Table 6). It was observed that drug product packaging/labeling is one of the main courses of medication errors in hospitals. 

A patient should be monitored for each medication used. Nurses or other practitioners administering medications to hospitalized patients, and patients or caregivers for ambulatory patients, need to be aware of basic medicafion safety related to their therapy. Patient counseling should include ... 

Accrediting organizations emphasize patient safety as a fxmdamental issue. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services includes monitoring of medication errors as part of their conditions of participation, noting that the medical staff is responsible for developing policies and procedures that minimize drug errors. This fxmction may be delegated to the hospital s... 

These cases also provoked an investigation into FDA policies by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), a division of the National Academy of Sciences. Criticizing the absence of national reporting requirements, the IOM report suggested that hospitals receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funds should be required to report to the FDA.54 IOM members also proposed a National Center for Patient Safety that would review drugs on the market and distribute information to physicians and the public. 

Collaborative work toward error prevention with the American Hospital Association (AHA), the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), the National Coordinating council on Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCCMERP), the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF), the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), and dozens of other consumer and professional organizations. 

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