Medication reconciliation remains one of the most critical and challenging components of patient safety, particularly during transitions such as admission, transfer, and discharge. Discrepancies in medication lists, missed doses, and communication gaps can lead to preventable harm, especially in...
Hazardous waste is a routine byproduct of medical laboratories, and proper handling and disposal are critical for workplace safety and regulatory compliance. Federal legislation enforced by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act requires laboratories...
Intensive care units (ICU) are among the most controlled clinical environments in a hospital, but they also present unique security challenges. Emotions often run high when patients are critically ill, and family members facing life-threatening situations may react unpredictably in moments of...
Emergency response time is increasingly being viewed as a core indicator of hospital staff and patient safety performance. While traditional safety metrics, such as falls, infections, and sentinel events, document what has already happened, response time reveals how well a system performs while...
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems do more than just heat and cool air. During optimal performance, HVAC systems also control humidity, establish directional airflow or pressurization relationships between spaces, filter and dilute recirculating air, and flush contaminants...
In this guest column, Dan Scungio, MT(ASCP), SLS, laboratory safety officer for multihospital system Sentara Healthcare in Virginia, and otherwise known as “Dan, the Lab Safety Man,” discusses the important issues that affect your job every day. Today, he talks about how too much experience can...
Hospitals and health systems this year are navigating a complex mix of financial pressure, rising patient acuity, workforce shortages, and rapid technological change. Yet even under those conditions, many organizations have managed to improve key quality indicators.
A recent California assembly bill marks one of the most prescriptive workplace violence prevention mandates hospitals have faced to date—not just requiring plans on paper, but forcing operational decisions around weapons detection, staffing, training, and patient access.
Patient safety rarely fails because of a single mistake. It breaks down when systems don’t hold under stress—during handoffs, missed follow-ups, staffing strain, or moments when staff hesitate to speak up.
