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• Wall Street Journal reports on most effective ways to reduce HAIs

  Nearly two million patients a year will be hospitalized by an infection, resulting in nearly 100,000 deaths, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). These infections are not inevitable, so with the help of doctors, nurses, administrators, the nonprofit Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths, and the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, WSJ came up with two lists of new technologies and old techniques hospitals may want to implement to stop infections.

• Bar codes on patient arm bands to improve safety and prevent medical errors

  Polk County hospitals in Florida are using bar-code technology at the bedside to help improve patient safety, according to The Ledger. Every year, medication errors harm at least 1.5 million people, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies reported in 2006.

• Greeley Reflections

  Each week, a senior consultant from The Greeley Company's Center for Healthcare Accreditation will discuss a hot-button topic or challenging issue facing hospitals in the areas of accreditation, survey preparation, and more. To learn more visit The Center for Healthcare Accreditation.

  Claude (Bud) Pate
  REHS, Vice President, Content and Development

  Taking a quick look at the NPSG updates

  Part 3 of 4
  

  The Universal Protocol now applies to ALL invasive procedures rather than those that put the patient at more than minimal risk. On its face, this appears to cover many procedures not currently subject to the time out. However, we also understand that the Joint Commission intends to ease back on the scope of the Universal Protocol.

• Medicare patients suffer from a medical error every 1.7 minutes

  A recent evaluation of almost 5,000 hospitals across the nation found that 913,000 "patient safety events" occurred between 2005 and 2007, according to NaturalNews.com. The evaluation, conducted by HealthGrades, reviewed a Medicare database and the hospitals' performance on 12 different measures of patient safety. The patient safety events were errors that led to medical problems.

• WHO warns hospitals about expected surge

  After a three-day meeting at the headquarters of the Pan American Health Organization in Washington D.C., where more than 100 experts gathered to review the H1N1 flu, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned hospitals to ready themselves for the next wave of sick patients, according to The Washington Post. The WHO warns that young adults, especially woman, infected with H1N1 virus are falling seriously ill at an unexpectedly rapid pace.

• Greeley Reflections

  Each week, a senior consultant from The Greeley Company's Center for Healthcare Accreditation will discuss a hot-button topic or challenging issue facing hospitals in the areas of accreditation, survey preparation, and more. To learn more visit The Center for Healthcare Accreditation.

  Claude (Bud) Pate
  REHS, Vice President, Content and Development

  Taking a quick look at the NPSG updates

  Part 2 of 4
  

  Seven goals were moved to the standards. (The requirement will remain, but will receive less emphasis during the survey.)

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