HCPro.com: Briefings on Patient Safety

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January 2008 (Volume 9, Issue 1)	view entire issue

Practice makes perfect
Almost 13 years ago, University Community Hospital (UCH) in Tampa, FL, was under a huge amount of public scrutiny. In April 1995, doctors at the hospital committed a few well-publicized errors, most notably the amputation of a patient's wrong leg. Donna Scott, RN, BSN, MBA, CPHQ, LHRM, director of product management, accreditation, and compliance for Quantros, Inc., was hired to serve as UCH's administrative director of performance measurement (Scott began working for Quantros in 2005). The lessons learned during this time remain relevant today, she says.

The cost and truths of human error
Editor's note: The following is the third in an occasional series about human error and its role in medical error. This month, author Robert J. Latino, executive vice president of the Reliability Center, Inc., in Hopewell, VA, discusses human error and how it is viewed by those involved, those on the outside, and those investigating the error. Approximately 5.7 million workers are injured annually in the United States. In the healthcare field alone, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) reported in 1999 that medical error was accountable for between 44,000 and 98,000 deaths per year. Human error will almost certainly be a contributor to such undesirable outcomes because human decision-making will determine one's behavior. And poor decision-making results in preventable deaths, costly equipment downtime, poor product quality, and hence, reduced profitability.

Keeping kids safe
At Brownwood (TX) Regional Medical Center (BRMC), staff members use new, cost-effective techniques to help keep their smallest patients safe. The facility's pediatric security process, updated in September 2007, was enhanced after an infant was abducted from another Texas hospital. "A child was abducted from a hospital in Lubbock, TX, which is about three and a half hours from here, so it's not right next door, but that was not the first child in Texas that had been abducted from a hospital," says Buffy Simpson, RN, assistant nursing director on the medical-surgical/pediatric unit.

Other recently-published articles from Briefings on Patient Safety:

Minnesota develops rules for preventing surgical errors

2009 Leadership standards tell hospital leaders to make patient safety a priority

Taking responsibility for building accountability among staff members

Work stress and its effect on a professional environment

Family-activated RRTs stress involvement

Early warning system to be surveyed in January

WalkRounds involve senior leaders with frontline staff

Infection control-related NPSG not new to field

The fundamentals of accountability

Three keys to ensuring your anticoagulant therapy program is ready

Pennsylvania association promotes standardized wristbands to prevent errors

Latest Sentinel Event Alert exposes disruptive behavior among staff members

Evolving titles in patient safety: Medication safety officer

Increased documentation added to 2009 NPSGs

California hospital team takes aim on VTE

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