http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (HealthDay) -- Following the manufacturer's recommendations is inadequate for cleaning suction tips, with residual debris identified after cleaning, according to a study published in the August issue of the AORN Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-ineffective-suction.html Other Thu, 02 Aug 2012 04:50:01 EST news263101183 (Medical Xpress) -- Research led by the University of Birmingham has shown that a specialised drug prescribing system could help to prevent a repetition of the notorious 2002 killings of elderly patients by nurse Colin Norris. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-drug-boost-patient-safety.html Medications Tue, 31 Jul 2012 07:15:54 EST news262937740 A surgical patient safety program that combines three components—accurate outcome measurement, support of hospital leadership, and engaged frontline providers—reduces surgical site infections (SSIs) by 33 percent in patients who undergo colorectal procedures, according to a new study published in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-surgical-patient-safety-lowers-ssis.html Surgery Mon, 30 Jul 2012 01:00:01 EST news262785644 (HealthDay) -- Circulating perioperative nurses can help reduce surgical errors and incidents in the cardiovascular operating room (OR) and improve patient safety, especially with regard to surgical prepping and aseptic technique, according to research published in the June issue of the AORN Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-circulating-nurses-recover-errors-cardiovascular.html Cardiology Tue, 05 Jun 2012 13:50:01 EST news258120415 A significant number of adults are at risk of unintentionally overdosing on over-the-counter (OTC) pain medication, according to a new study in the US by Dr. Michael Wolf, from Northwestern University in Chicago, and his colleagues. Their work, looking at the prevalence and potential misuse of pain medication containing the active ingredient acetaminophen as well as the likelihood of overdosing, appears online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-misuse-over-the-counter-pain-medication-potential.html Medications Wed, 30 May 2012 10:09:36 EST news257591301 The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute's Procedural Sedation/Patient Safety Practice Improvement Module (PIM) has received approval from the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) to be part of ABIM's Approved Quality Improvement (AQI) Pathway. Internal medicine physicians, gastroenterologists and any internal medicine subspecialists using procedural sedation can engage in quality improvement through the AGA Procedural Sedation/Patient Safety PIM to earn maintenance of certification (MOC) practice performance credit. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-aga-independently-abim-approved-module-gi.html Other Mon, 07 May 2012 17:02:14 EST news255628925 Radiologists classify themselves as less competent than other physicians regarding knowledge of patient imaging costs and patient safety, a new study shows. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-radiologists-health-policy-issues.html Other Mon, 30 Apr 2012 02:50:01 EST news254971196 Hospitals that adopt strategies to reduce errors and meet government requirements face an initial tradeoff between improved clinical quality and a decline in the quality of individual patients' experiences, according to new research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-hospitals-tradeoff-clinical-quality-good.html Health Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:38:23 EST news251980696 In one of the largest studies of its kind, a consortium of investigators from 13 countries led the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in the U.S. and the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium in Europe, found that nurses who reported better working conditions in hospitals and less likelihood of leaving also had patients who were more satisfied with their hospital stay and rated their hospitals more highly. The study was released today in the current issue of the prestigious British Medical Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-international-quality-safety-problems-hospitals.html Health Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:14:18 EST news251486051 The results of two randomized trials indicate that among intensive care unit (ICU) patients receiving prolonged mechanical ventilation, use of the sedative dexmedetomidine was not inferior (outcome not worse than treatment compared to) to the standard sedatives midazolam and propofol in maintaining light to moderate sedation; also, dexmedetomidine reduced the duration of mechanical ventilation compared with midazolam, and improved patients' ability to communicate pain compared with the other drugs, according to a study in the March 21 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-sedative-duration-mechanical-ventilation-comfort.html Other Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:27:03 EST news251479594 Patient Safety Awareness Week (March 4-10) is an annual National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) led education and awareness campaign for health care safety. Penn State Hershey Medical Center participation focuses around raising awareness of patient safety activities and creating awareness among providers, patients and members of the community. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-medical-minute-health-team.html Health Fri, 09 Mar 2012 06:00:26 EST news250495216 (Medical Xpress) -- Hospitals are currently under pressure to control the cost of medical care, while at the same time improving patient health and reducing medical errors through appropriate nurse staffing levels. A study into the effects of a law requiring increased nurse-to-patient ratios on patient mortality finds that mandating such changes do not reduce adverse patient outcomes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-reveals-nurse-to-patient-ratios-patient-safety.html Health Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:00:01 EST news249554268 At NYU Langone Medical Center the focus on quality, patient safety and patient experience are not just broad stroke initiatives – but measureable, quantifiable and concrete. Patients and health care professionals can learn about this commitment to world-class care and operational transparency in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery's recently published "2012 Quality and Outcomes Report," which is now available online as well as in hard copy at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) meeting taking place this week in San Francisco. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-orthopaedic-surgery-transparency-patient-safety.html Surgery Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:25:14 EST news248091907 In an effort to reduce the inappropriate use of medical imaging and improve quality of care, a large, tertiary-care hospital has successfully implemented a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system with clinical decision support for radiology, according to a study in the February issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology. Significant increases in meaningful use (for electronically created studies, from 0.4 percent to 61.9 percent; for electronically signed studies, from 0.4 percent to 92.2 percent) and the adoption of CPOE (from 0.5 percent to 94.6 percent) were observed. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-large-hospital-successfully-cpoe-clinical.html Other Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:19:37 EST news247288748 (AP) -- A British medical journal says a worrying number of drug studies are being suppressed by researchers and that the lack of public data could threaten patient safety. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-uk-experts-drug-info-patients.html Medications Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:18:11 EST news244912681 (Medical Xpress) -- Sending thorough and timely reports to nursing homes when a patient is discharged from the hospital could help promote patient safety during the early days after a hospitalization.   Yet, these reports called discharge summaries are frequently incomplete and delayed.   That's according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Their findings, recently published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, determined that reports regularly lacked necessary information on diet, activity level, therapy and pending laboratory tests of nursing home patients after departure from the hospital.   The study, which was funded by the UW Health Innovation Program and the National Institutes of Health, involved 489 Medicare patients treated for strokes and hip fractures. All were sent to nursing homes after discharge from the hospital between 2003 and 2005.   According to a requirement from The Joint Commission that accredits health care facilities, hospitals must submit discharge summaries (which provide details on the patient's hospital stay and future care) within 30 days after a patient is discharged from the hospital. Discharge summaries often serve as the primary template for guiding the care of patients discharged to nursing homes, especially in the first few days after hospital discharge.   However, Dr. Amy Kind, assistant professor of medicine in the division of geriatrics and lead author of the study, identified a number of problems with the summaries. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-discharge-summaries-key-role-nursing.html Health Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:40:02 EST news243760662 In the fast-paced world of health care, doctors are often pressed for time during patient visits. Researchers at the University of Missouri developed a tool that allows doctors to view electronic information about patients' health conditions related to diabetes on a single computer screen. A new study shows that this tool, the diabetes dashboard, saves time, improves accuracy and enhances patient care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-tool-diabetes.html Health Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:08:47 EST news240836918 The nation's transition to electronic medical records, now in full swing, risks overlooking potential patient safety problems, independent advisers warned the Obama administration Tuesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-safety-computerized-medical.html Health Tue, 08 Nov 2011 18:00:34 EST news239997611 A safe working environment for nurses is also a safe environment for the patients in their care, according to a new study led by public health researchers at Drexel University. Researchers, led by Dr. Jennifer Taylor, an assistant professor in Drexel's School of Public Health, found that safety climate was associated with both patient and nurse injuries, suggesting that patient and nurse safety may be linked outcomes. The study was published online in BMJ Quality and Safety in October. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-hospital-safety-climate-linked-patient.html Health Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:03:09 EST news239904182 The Norwegian healthcare services are organized in primary and secondary service levels. According to PhD student Kristin Laugaland at UiS effective and safe care depends on coordination across the two service levels in which transitions across them represent a crucial stage in the recovery of elderly people. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-if-coordination-fails.html Health Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:19:53 EST news238328365 "Too busy," and "too complicated." These are the typical excuses one might expect when medical professionals are asked why they fail to use online error-reporting systems designed to improve patient safety and the quality of care. But, Johns Hopkins investigators found instead that the most common reason among radiation oncologists was fear of getting into trouble and embarrassment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-survey-reveals-doctors-online-error-reporting.html Other Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:53:49 EST news237027222 Hospital executives should consider the value-added services of hospital-based radiology groups before allowing radiology departments to be taken over by teleradiologists or other specialists, according to an article in the September 2011 issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-hospitals-value-added-hospital-based-radiology-groups.html Other Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:11:46 EST news234094288 Are you scheduled for heart bypass surgery or weight loss surgery? You might want to find out just how frequently different hospitals in your area are performing those procedures before deciding where to go. A new study finds that hospitals with higher surgical volumes for certain procedures are less likely to cause unintentional serious injuries to hospitalized patients when compared to those hospitals that perform the procedures less often. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-surgeries-hospitals.html Other Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:50:01 EST news234087945 Use of natural language processing, such as in the form of free-text searches of electronic medical records (EMRs) of clinical and progress notes of patients performed better at identifying postoperative surgical complications than the commonly used administrative data codes in EMRs, according to a study in the August 24/31 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-electronic-medical-text-tool-postoperative.html Other Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:53:51 EST news233337213 The NHS is poorly prepared to care for obese patients, lacking dedicated equipment and adequately trained staff, among other things, reveals an analysis of patient safety incidents, published online in Postgraduate Medical Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-nhs-ill-obese-patients.html Health Tue, 26 Jul 2011 03:41:54 EST news230870505 Patient safety researchers are calling for the expanded use of electronic health records (EHRs) to address the disquieting number of medical errors in the healthcare system that can lead to readmissions and even death. Their commentary is in the July 6 issue of JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-e-health-bigger-role-patient-safety.html Other Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:33:58 EST news230293904 The rate of adverse events and harm reported at Veterans Health Administration (VHA) medical centers appears to have decreased, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Surgery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-incorrect-surgical-procedures-veterans-health.html Other Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:39:19 EST news230225948 As part of the Target Safely initiative, the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has developed a white paper, the first of a series of such papers, on the safe use of integrating intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) into the radiation oncology clinic. The executive summary of this white paper is published in the July print issue of Practical Radiation Oncology (PRO), ASTRO's clinical practice journal. T http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-astro-publishes-white-paper-imrt.html Cancer Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:50:07 EST news229873113 A new study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery has identified patients who are at a higher risk of morbidity and mortality when undergoing knee replacement surgery in both legs at the same time. The study found that patients who have a history of significant medical problems, especially congestive heart failure or pulmonary hypertension, are at increased risk for major complications. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-patients-bilateral-knee-surgery.html Other Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:58:01 EST news229856262 A group of 26 of the nation's leaders in medicine, health care, patient safety, and research today called for sweeping changes in the design, supervision and financing of U.S. hospital residency care programs to protect patients from serious, preventable medical errors, and end dangerously long work hours for physicians in training. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-experts-reforms-errors-medical-resident.html Other Fri, 24 Jun 2011 04:08:47 EST news228107177