Patient and Family Engagement

Check out the video below of Jeff Brady, M.D. from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) who discusses the importance of the online Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety.

Google Glass

Last month, Dr. Rafael Grossman from the Eastern Maine Medical Center became the first surgeon to ever use Google Glass while performing surgery.  

Instead of a video camera, Google Glass Hangout was used to capture the entire procedure and was streamed live for those who had the receiver with them. Permission from the patient was granted and no identifying information was given during the surgery.

The patient underwent a procedure called “percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy” where a feeding tube is passed through the abdominal wall. Viewers were able to see the patient’s abdomen and the endoscopic view.

Grossman explained that his intention for using Google Glass was to show how the device and platform are tools that have great potential in healthcare and surgery. It can “allow better intra-operative consultations, surgical mentoring and potentiate remote medical education, in a very simple way.”

Videos of how Grossman uses Google Glass can be found here: www.rgrosssz.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/ok-glass-teach-me-medicine

 

Hospital Alarms

According to an article published in The Washington Post, several hundred alarms per patient per day can cause alarm fatigue in any given hospital. Loud alarms can come from medical devices and equipment that scan for potentially dangerous changes in a patient’s heart rhythm, blood pressure or other vital signs.

However, most of the noises coming from a patient’s room is a false alarm or is something that doesn’t require any action, such as a ventilator sounding a warning all because a patient coughed. This can cause nurses and other health care workers to respond by turning down the volume on the devices, shutting them off or completely ignoring them. These actions can have serious and potentially fatal consequences.

Patient-safety advocates have warned of alarm fatigue for years, but the issue is taking on greater urgency as hospitals invest in more-complex and noisy machines that are meant to save lives.  

The ECRI Institute, a Pennsylvania-based patient-safety organization, listed alarm hazards as the number one issue on its annual list of top 10 health-technology dangers for 2012 and 2013. And over a three and a half year period, the Joint Commission estimated that there were close to 1,000 alarm incidents in which patients died or were injured.

Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore created an alarms task force, analyzed data and found that the average number of alarms that sounded per bed per day in one ICU was 771.  

In seven years, the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates medical devices, received 862 death reports associated with alarms. The agency is increasing staff awareness of alarm safety when it reviews applications for new devices. It is also working with hospitals and other groups to standardize alarm sounds.

Just last month, the Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals, began directing facilities to make alarm safety a top priority or risk losing their accreditation. Beginning next year, the commission will require hospitals to identify which alarms pose the biggest safety risks by unnecessarily adding noise or being ignored. By 2016, hospitals must decide who has the authority to actually turn off the alarms.

Snyder and Wenner, P.C.

2200 E Camelback Road
Suite 213
Phoenix, AZ 85016
602-224-0005

Questions that can save your life

According to a study by the Institute of Medicine, 44,000 to 98,000 Americans die every year from medical mistakes. This number makes medical errors one of the leading causes of death. The Joint Commission reports that the most common medical mistakes are wrong-site surgery, delay in treatment, post-op complications and medication errors.

While medical mistakes can happen at any given time, better communication on the patient’s part can help drastically.

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, there are 10 questions that every patient should ask when being treated by a health care provider. They are:

What is the test for?

How many times have you done this procedure?
When will I get the results?
Why do I need this treatment?
Are there any alternatives?
What are the possible complications?
Which hospital is best for my needs?
How do you spell the name of that drug?
Are there any side effects?

Will this medicine interact with medicines that I'm already taking?

These simple questions can make you as a patient feel better and can even save your life.

Snyder and Wenner, P.C.
2200 E Camelback Road
Suite 213
Phoenix, AZ 85016
602-224-0005

 

Prescription Painkiller Overdoses

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prescription painkiller overdoses have become an epidemic, especially among women.

Between 1999 and 2010, nearly 48,000 women died of prescription painkiller overdoses. Deaths from these overdoses among women have increased more than 400 percent since 1999 compared to 265 percent among men.

This under-recognized and growing problem for women results in approximately 18 women dying every day in the United States. However, health care providers can help improve the way painkillers are prescribed in order to assist women in having access to safe and effective pain treatment.

When prescribing painkillers, health care providers can use prescription drug monitoring programs to identify patients who may be improperly obtaining or using prescription painkillers and other drugs. They can also recognize that women are at risk of prescription painkiller overdose and follow guidelines for responsible prescribing, including screening and monitoring for substance abuse and mental health problems.

Women should discuss all medications they are taking with their health care provider and only use prescription drugs as directed.

Snyder and Wenner, P.C.
2200 E Camelback Road
Suite 213
Phoenix, AZ 85016
602-224-0005

Misdiagnosis

According to an article that was published in The Daily Courier in Prescott, Ariz., the most common medical error, according to a recent study, is misdiagnosis.

Researchers studied more than 350,000 medical malpractice cases that spanned 25 years in the U.S. that patients had won. They found that misdiagnosis accounted for nearly three out of every 10 successful malpractice claims, and nearly seven out of 10 paid claims based on misdiagnosis were related to care that occurred outside of the hospital.

Unfortunately, these claims noted that about half of the patients died while the rest experienced serious and permanent harm, with 80,000-160,000 people becoming permanently disabled each year.  Diagnostic errors appear to be the most common, most costly and most dangerous.

So, how can you avoid being misdiagnosed? The first step is to provide as much relevant information as you can to your health care provider so they can come up with the correct diagnosis. You should also provide a summary of your medical history as well as a detailed list of all medications you are taking.

The second step is to ask questions if you’re unsure about the diagnosis, such as: What else could it be? Is there anything that doesn't fit (meaning any symptom, findings upon examining you, or a test result that isn't explained by the diagnosis)? Is it possible that I have more than one problem?

The third step is to make sure you, as the patient, understand what has been said to you. Get a written record of the doctor’s instructions and know when you should start to feel better and what to do if there is no improvement.

The fourth and final step is to make an effort to follow the care instructions you’ve been given, to notice if you feel better or not and to track any new symptoms that arise.

Snyder and Wenner, P.C.
2200 E Camelback Road
Suite 213
Phoenix, AZ 85016
602-224-0005

Medication orders going to the wrong patients

According to an article published in Med City News, medical errors and the secondary problems they can cause are costing providers anywhere from $17 billion to $1 trillion.

A new study from the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority has shed light on what exactly is causing medication orders to get dispensed to the wrong patient. Apparently, 43 percent of these mistakes happen in administration. Other reasons for these errors include the mix-up of patients sharing a room, the wrong patient being chosen from an automated dispensing cabinet and protocol being ignored for identifying patients by relying on the patient or family to verify the patient’s identity.

Prescribing errors accounted for 12 percent of mistakes, such as healthcare workers ordering a medication on the wrong chart. About 38 percent of the medication errors stemmed from transcribing or transferring a paper medication order to an electronic or paper medication administration record.  

The study stressed that better engagement and computerized prescriber order entry (CPOE) are two critical ways to reduce those errors.

Snyder and Wenner, P.C.

2200 E Camelback Road

Suite 213

Phoenix, AZ 85016

602-224-0005