November 22nd, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in Research
Tags: Alarm Fatigue, Alarm-system settings, Assign responsibilities, Best Practices, Cost-effectiveness, ECRI, health care, Hospital Hazards, Medical Errors, Patient Safety, Protocol, Technology
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Alarm fatigue is the most dangerous of health care technology hazards, topping even radiation exposure and medication errors from infusion pumps, according to the updated Top 10 list offered by ECRI Institute.
It’s not surprising that alarm fatigue rang in at #1. There can be as many as 40 alarms an hour in some units. Staff modify alarm setting outside of safe parameters, can’t tell the alarm’s importance (or even which device is issuing it) or the alarm isn’t relayed to the paging system, according to ECRI Institute, a nonprofit organization focusing on patient-safety and cost-effectiveness in health care. Its report (registration required) is online. The report includes recommendations and resources for each of the 10 top hazards.
Staff may turn alarms off or down to reduce alarm fatigue, as well as reduce stress on the patient and family, the report notes. And properly setting alarms is complex to begin with, so ECRI offers best practices to reduce alarm fatigue while maintaining patient safety: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*
November 21st, 2011 by DeborahSchwarzRPA in Opinion, Research
Tags: 6-month rule, Brown, Center for Liver Disease And Transplantation, Donors, Dr. Robert S. Brown, Health News, Hepatitis, Liver, New England Journal of Medicine, Organ, Research, Study, Supply and Demand, Transplant
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Robert S. Brown, Jr., MD, MPH
The November 10, 2011 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine features an editorial by Robert S. Brown, Jr., MD, MPH, Director of the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation, titled Transplantation for Alcoholic Hepatitis — Time to Rethink the 6-Month “Rule.”
In this editorial, Dr. Brown addresses the difficult questions surrounding how to fairly allocate donor organs, which are in far shorter supply than their demand. In the case of patients with alcoholic hepatitis, current guidelines exclude such patients from the liver transplant waiting list unless they have successfully abstained from alcohol for at least six months. Yet as Dr. Brown points out, many die before this required, albeit arbitrary, window elapses. And a new study indicates that Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Columbia University Department of Surgery Blog*
November 21st, 2011 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Opinion, Research
Tags: Academia, AFib, Atrial Fibrillation, Clinical Research, Differences, Effectiveness, Foundation, Funding, Gender, Knowledge, Large Institutions, Research, Scientific Growth, Study
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I learned a lot from putting together an abstract for a national heart meeting.
- More than just learning how to e-submit, e-upload and e-print a large poster;
- More than what t-tests and chi-squares measure;
- More than learning that females respond differently to AF ablation;
- And surely more than which coffee shop offers the best work place.
Putting this thing together showed me stuff: the process of discovery, it’s role in helping us be better doctors and the difficulties inherent in doing this kind of valuable research in our current system.
So of course…bloggers blog.
First: Many have asked why we bothered doing research? What’s the motivation? Money? Fame? A greater purpose?
It was none of these. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
November 20th, 2011 by Linda Burke-Galloway, M.D. in Health Tips, Research
Tags: Alcoholism, Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway, Drinking, Good Morning America, High Risk Pregnancy, Hispanics, Hospitals, Mothers, OB-GYN, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Parents, Patient Care, Pregnancy, Pregnant Women, Women
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photo from www.newscientist.com
A recent medical study by Dr. Ira J. Chasnoff of the Children’s Research Triangle asserts that Hispanic women who have assimilated to American culture have a greater risk of having children born with fetal alcohol syndrome. According to Chasnoff, pregnant Hispanic women in San Antonio had the second highest drinking rate of 29 cities in the states that were studied. I find that rather hard to believe based on my twenty-one year history of taking caring of Hispanic pregnant women. I have seen first, second and third generation Hispanic women and never encountered alcoholism among any of them. However, Chasnoff brings up an interesting point about alcohol and pregnancy. There are two schools of thought. According to Good Morning America, there are physicians such as Dr. Jacques Moritz, who think an occasional glass of wine is okay to consume during pregnancy however the U.S. Surgeon General and the American College of Obstetrician-Gynecologists advocate strict abstinence from alcohol while pregnancy.
According to medical literature, more than one-half of women of childbearing age report drinking alcohol and 1 out of 8 women report binge drinking. Alcohol appears to have negative effects throughout the entire pregnancy, not just during the first-trimester. At present, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Linda Burke-Galloway*
November 20th, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in Research
Tags: Australia, Canada, Content, France, Germany, Global Health, Health Affairs, Hospital Medicine, Medical Errors, Medical Home, New Zealand, Patient Satisfaction, Patient-Centered Medical Home, Research, Survey, The Netherlands
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Adults who received care from a medical home in 11 Westernized countries were less likely to report medical errors and were happier with their care, according to a new Commonwealth Fund international survey.
The 2011 survey included more than 18,000 ill adults in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It included people who reported they were in fair or poor health, had surgery or had been hospitalized in the past two years, or had received care for a serious or chronic illness, injury or disability in the past year. The vast majority had seen multiple physicians.
A medical home was defined as patients reporting a regular source of care that knows their medical history, is accessible and helps coordinate care received from other providers. Results were published in Health Affairs.
Sicker adults in the U.S. were the most likely to Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
