Insights & News in Healthcare Safety

What Hospitals Need to Know: Using Water During Processing of Medical Devices

Every day, hospitals’ central sterile processing teams rely on water as they clean and sterilize a variety of medical devices. In this blog, ECRI outlines general considerations to support safe and...

Using Evidence to Facilitate Physician-Patient Conversations about GLP-1 RAs

Glucagon-like peptide receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) now available to promote weight loss—Wegovy (semaglutide), Zepbound (tirzepatide), and Saxenda (liraglutide)—could potentially make much needed g...

ECRI’s Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for 2024

ECRI recently published our Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for 2024 Special Report—the annual guide that calls attention to pressing patient safety concerns facing the healthcare industry. For thi...

IWD 2024: How to Continue Progress in Cervical Cancer Screening

International Women’s Day is an opportune time to celebrate improvements in women’s health outcomes—and reflect on steps we can take to achieve even more progress. For this blog, we’re focusing on ...

Monitoring Patients Who Take GLP-1 RAs for Weight Loss – What Prescribers Should Know

Roughly one year after their introduction, Wegovy (semaglutide) and Zepbound (tirzepatide) continue to shake up the obesity treatment landscape in the United States. Uptake for these two glucagon-l...

Weighing the Evidence on New Weight Loss Drugs – Five Takeaways

The prevalence of overweight and obesity keeps worsening in America despite our enormous collective effort to lose weight. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that overwei...

15 Years as a PSO. Decades Improving Safety.

This year, ECRI and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices PSO celebrates our 15th anniversary as an AHRQ-listed Patient Safety Organization. Over this decade and a half, we have worked tirele...

The Insidious Dangers of Disposable Isolation Gowns—and How to Address Them

Isolation gowns are a longstanding infection control tool across hospital settings. These garments are intended to safeguard patients and clinicians by preventing the spread of disease-causing micr...

Exploring Oral Hygiene’s Role in Reducing Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a lung infection that develops 48 hours or more after initiating invasive mechanical ventilation. Mechanical ventilation assists breathing in patients who h...