Hospital readmissions are a complex problem. Now that reimbursement is affected, the issue is getting more attention, but attention on its own doesn't solve the problems that create readmissions. Rushed patient discharge, disconnects between the patient and the healthcare...
Mountain States Health Alliance's (MSHA) Franklin Woods Community Hospital (FWCH) in Johnson City, Tenn., is just over two years old, but it's accomplished a lot despite its young age. FWCH is already a top performer in five of six domains measured as part of the QUEST quality...
Like Franklin Woods Community Hospital (see p. 7), Sycamore Shoals Hospital (SSH) in Elizabethton, Tenn., a Mountain States Health Alliance hospital, is a participant in the QUEST collaborative. And like its sister hospital, SSH has achieved impressive results. Specifically, it...
There is a whole field of medicine related to keeping patients safe in hospitals, and many of these professionals' daily jobs involve making sure patients are helped, not harmed, while receiving hospital care.
In just about every hospital, there is at least one person devoted to keeping patients safe from medication errors every step of the way: storing and labeling look-alike/sound-alike drugs properly, ensuring nurses hand off patients with a chance to ask questions, teaching the...
A transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure replaces a patient's diseased aortic valve through a delivery device introduced in the groin. The procedure is often used for patients too sick or weak for traditional open-heart surgery. However, TAVR is fairly new and...
Editor's note: "Culture club" is a new Patient Safety Monitor Journal feature that focuses on how combining safety efforts creates a more effective overall culture of safety. This month, we take a look at how peer review can influence your culture of safety.
Conducting a timeout, including the use of a checklist, before beginning a surgery is a well-known requirement of The Joint Commission-it has been a standard of quality care for years now. Staff in operating rooms are used to systematically ticking off checklists, and just about...
