Promoting patient safety and improving the quality of patient care
Category: Practices & Tips
In this guest submission, Rebecca Temsen writes why sleep is so important.
By Rebecca Temsen
Sleep is the mother of all rest, healing, peace of mind, and emotional stability. So many times, we have seen what happens with our tempers, the structure of our families, and the effectiveness of our jobs when we (or our loved ones) go without sleep. It’s detrimental, it’s starvation-oriented, and it’s decaying. We all need time to rest and be alone in a quiet, peaceful setting.
The Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety released a clinical education podcast – Selecting Patient Monitoring Systems.
“We are often asked by our clinical followers what patient monitoring systems that we would recommend,” said Michael Wong, JD (Founder/Executives Director). “To help with their decision making process, we have produced a clinical education podcast to provide some guidance on selecting patient monitoring devices.”
From the articles we have been reading this week, here are 3 tips for managing pain and using opioids safely.
#1 Tip for Managing Pain and Using Opioids Safely – Premier Safety Institute new toolkit helps providers manage pain, curb opioid use
Continue reading “3 Tips for Managing Pain and Using Opioids Safely”
By John Schall, Chief Executive Officer of Caregiver Action Network (CaregiverAction.org)
Family caregiving can be like having a full-time job. Caregivers manage doctor appointments, provide transportation, make sure medications are taken on time, and keep the home going – to name just a few of the vital tasks that they perform on a daily basis. This can feel overwhelming. To do all this, caregivers sometimes need help. Fortunately, technology can make life a bit easier for family caregivers,
and can help keep loved ones safe and healthy. What’s more, these services can help caregivers stay on top of it all and enable them to restore some balance to their lives.
America’s 90 million family caregivers fulfill so many roles, but it’s impossible for them to do everything.
Continue reading “Family Caregiving is Like Having a Full-Time Job”
At certain dosages, the opioids you give to patients to manage surgical pain can lead to respiratory depression — and overdoses can lead to respiratory failure.
#opioid overdoses can lead to respiratory failure, insufficiency, and arrest #patientsafety Share on XIn this article published in Outpatient Surgery, Michael Wong, JD (Founder and Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety) discusses why pulse oximetry and nursing spot checks are not enough to prevent respiratory depression and keep patients safe.
To read the PPAHS Statement on Continuous Monitoring, please click here.
To read the article in Outpatient Surgery, please click here.
How to Prevent Deadly Blood Clots: Three Free Resources from the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety
World Thrombosis Day asks us to be aware of tips to prevent deadly blood clots:
When you think of potentially deadly health issues, do you think of a blood clot? According to a recent U.S. survey, only 7 percent of people say they are concerned about blood clots, known by the medical term thrombosis. However, what they might not know is one in four people worldwide die from conditions caused by thrombosis, making it a leading cause of global death and disability.
In honor of WTD 2017, the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety believes that blood clots safety consists of four steps: Continue reading “How to Prevent Deadly Blood Clots: Three Free Resources from the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety”
In this article by Michael Wong, JD, is the Founder & Executive Director of the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety and Stephen Routledge, MPH, is Patient Safety Improvement Lead, Canadian Patient Safety Institute, Mr. Wong and Mr. Routledge discuss what doctors can do to prevent medical errors during transitions of care.
To read the article on Hospital News, please click here.
This is a special rewrite of an article Mr. Wong and Mr. Routledge wrote for Canadian Healthcare Network.
The following is an excerpt of an article first published on The Doctor Weighs In on June 28, 2017. To read the full article, please click here.
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In 2005, Paul Buisson, a celebrated Quebec animator and cameraman died as a result of opioid-related respiratory depression. What lessons can we learn more than a decade later? Continue reading “The Preventable Death of Paul Buisson: 3 Lessons on Preventing Opioid Death”
Written by Michael Wong, JD, Founder & Executive Director of PPAHS
As founder and executive director PPAHS, when I speak at conferences about the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety support for continuous electronic monitoring of patients receiving opioids, I am often asked two questions:
Continue reading “The Vital Role Nurses Play in Patient Care”
This article was first published in Patient Safety Solutions in August 2016. As part of our efforts to bring in expert viewpoints from across the #patientsafety community, we have reposted this with permission.
By Bradley T. Truax, MD
Our March 15, 2016 Patient Safety Tip of the Week “Dental Patient Safety” noted numerous cases of death related to sedation in dental practices. The majority of those cases occurred in pediatric patients. Continue reading “Patient Safety Tip of the Week: Guideline Update for Pediatric Sedation”