Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control January/February Issue

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Involving Patients in Hand Hygiene Patient engagement in improving hand hygiene can improve compliance. Learn how to get patients to intervene. p. 8 Medical Error Deaths Higher Than Previous Estimates A new study suggests the number of deaths due to medical errors could be up to 4.5 times higher than originally thought. p. 6 A Look Inside One of the Country's Safest Hospitals The Leapfrog Group rates Swedish Covenant one of the safest hospitals in the nation. Here's how it got there. p. 22 Improving Sepsis Management 7 ideas for for managing sepsis, a condition that has increased as a primary diagnosis by 132 percent between 1997 and 2011. p. 20 INDEX Table of Contents p. 4 Hand Hygiene p. 8 Infection Control p. 9 Executive Briefing: Electronic Surveillance of Hand Hygiene p. 13 Executive Briefing: Mobile Equipment Disinfection p. 18 Clinical Quality & Infection Control January/February 2014 • Vol. 2014 No. 1 Top 10 Patient Safety Issues for 2014 By Ellie Rizzo Patient safety is a serious issue. While sentinel events continue to happen in healthcare, the bottom line is no one wants patients getting hurt. Linda Butler, MD, chief medical officer at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, N.C., says the key to reducing harm is taking on responsibility to change: "As healthcare providers, we track many [sentinel] events and strive to have rates that approach zero. The use of technology and safety systems have lowered some of our rates and improved our outcomes. However, much of the burden for safe care lies with the clinical providers who interact with these patients while they are hospitalized," she says. In no particular order, the following is a list of the 10 most pressing patient safety considerations for 2014. The following list has been compiled from material from the Patient Safety Movement Foundation in partnership with The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare, as well as from comments from Dr. Butler; Susan Moffatt-Bruce, MD, PhD, chief quality and patient safety officer at Columbus-based Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center; and Linda Efferen, MD, chief medical officer and senior vice president at Oceanside, N.Y.-based South Nassau Communities Hospital. 1. Healthcare-associated infections. HAIs are both prevalent and costly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 5 percent of all inpatients will develop an HAI. The Association for Healthcare Research and Quality puts the cost of an average HAI in the tens of thousands of dollars. Dr. Moffatt-Bruce of Wexner Medical Center notes an additional difficulty in reducing HAIs: climbing rates of multidrug-resistant infections. "We must improve the use of antibiotics and partner to understand where the tension is around prescribing priorities," she says. The CDC's 2013 report on antibiotic resistance confirms the problem and the need to find long-term solutions based around HAI prevention, antibiotic prescription and antibiotic use as soon as possible. continued on page 5 Reducing Readmissions: How a MacArthur 'Genius' is Revolutionizing Care in One of the Most Dangerous Towns in America By Ellie Rizzo 5 Joint Commission Hospital Accreditation Survey Mistakes to Avoid By Sabrina Rodak Complying with state and federal regulations is critical for hospitals to receive funding, attract patients and, most importantly, ensure safe, high-quality care. Mark Pelletier, RN, COO of accreditation and certification operations at The Joint Commission, and Tom Barton, RN, field director at The Joint Commission, share five hospital accreditation survey mistakes to avoid. Camden, N.J. has high hospital readmissions rates: both hospitals accepting inpatients in the city limits paid steep CMS penalties in 2012, reducing their penalties for fiscal year 2014 by only .05 percent. Camden also struggles with preventable admissions, unnecessary emergency department visits and distribution of healthcare access. Things would seem completely bleak, were it not for the fact that Camden is emerging as one of the most innovative places 1. Lacking a safety culture. Failing to develop a culture of safety and quality is one of the biggest mistakes hospitals make because the culture forms the foundation of all activities, including those examined by surveyors. Without leadership support and staff engagement in a culture that focuses on safety and quality, hospitals are more likely to either be deficient in certain standards or meet the letter of the law without accepting the full meaning of the standard, which can ultimately jeopardize safety, according to Mr. Barton and Mr. Pelletier. continued on page 11 continued on page 6

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