ECRI PSO Deep Dive: Safe Ambulatory Care

Strategies for Patient Safety & Risk Reduction Overview For its eighth deep dive analysis, ECRI PSO has extended the focus beyond the hospital to ambulatory care—a setting that represents the l...

Guidelines for Optimizing Safe Implementation and Use of Smart Infusion Pumps

Developed in 2020 to help healthcare facilities standardize smart infusion pump technology.

Four Ways to Say No to Adverse Drug Reactions

The seeds of an adverse drug interaction can be planted at any point in the care process, by any of the individuals involved. For instance, take a look at these common scenarios: A clinician, over...

Rethinking Incident Investigations in Senior Care

Decisions made and actions taken in the first minutes and hours after an incident occurs in an aging services organization set the stage for everything else that follows. For instance, consider thi...

The EtO Sterilization Dilemma

Ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization has been in the news a lot lately, and healthcare has much at stake. According to officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), approximately 56% of a...

Diagnosing Communication Gaps in Diagnostic Test Reporting

In the United States, there are 30 times more outpatient visits as hospital discharges. As a result of the high volumes and complexities inherent to ambulatory settings, one in twenty patients can ...

2020 Top 10 Health Technology Hazards Executive Brief

Learn how to identify and address health technology hazards in your facilities This 13th edition of our Top 10 list features many first-time topics, with an emphasis on newly developing hazards and...

Speaking Up About Patient Safety Requires an Observant Questioner and a High Index of Suspicion

Healthcare practitioners are expected to speak up about patient safety concerns to help intercept errors and avoid adverse patient outcomes. By ‘speaking up,’ we mean raising concerns for the benef...

Safer Opioid Prescribing through Health IT

Editorial Note: This blog was also co-authored by Shari Medina, MD, of Harris Healthcare, chair of EHRA’s Patient Safety Work Group who led the Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety’s workgroup ...

ECRI Data Help Reignite Support for Patient Identifier in Congress

After heart disease and cancer, medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States and include misdiagnoses, incorrect anesthesia, delayed treatment, and patient misidentifica...

4 Ways to Prevent Harm from Surgical Staplers

If you’ve been following medical device safety issues this year, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the headlines about patient injuries and deaths related to internal surgical staplers. The devices...

Independent Double Checks: Worth the Effort if Used Judiciously and Properly

Manual independent double checks of certain high-alert medications have been widely promoted in healthcare to help detect potentially harmful errors before they reach patients.1,2 Many practitioner...

Dangerous Wrong-Route Errors with Tranexamic Acid—A Major Cause for Concern

Problem: Earlier this month, we were notified about two cases of accidental intraspinal injection of tranexamic acid, occurring in two different states. Unfortunately, the report was sent anonymous...

Avoiding the Blame Game in Preventing Medical Errors

In late 2017, a catastrophic medication error led to a patient death at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. While waiting for a PET scan, an elderly woman was incorrectly administered vecuronium,...

Guidelines for the Safe Use of Automated Dispensing Cabinets

Standard best practices and processes directly associated with ADC design and functionality.

Gap Analysis Tool for Safe IV Push Medication Practices

Identify and manage targeted risks associated with IV push use.

High-Alert Medication Learning Guides for Consumers

Helps consumers understand how errors happen and the steps necessary to keep them safe.

Mix-ups Between Epidural Analgesia and IV Antibiotics in Labor and Delivery Units Continue to Cause Harm

Problem: Within weeks of each other, two hospitals have reported mix-ups between epidural analgesia and intravenous (IV) antibiotics in labor and delivery (L&D) units. These mix-ups mimic previ...

Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2019

What technology hazards are lurking in your hospital? Hackers exploiting remote access vulnerabilities, mattresses remaining contaminated after cleaning, and retained surgical sponges—these are jus...

Check for Proper Nucala Dose Preparation

If you are using NUCALA (mepolizumab) for patients who have eosinophilic asthma, please check to ensure the correct volume is being dispensed. In a Safety Brief in our June 28, 2018 newsletter, we ...

A Call to Action: The Case for Medication Safety Officers (MSO)

Detailed information for hospital leadership on the value a Medication Safety Officer can provide.