Promoting patient safety and improving the quality of patient care
Tag: ambulation
This week’s must reads contain three must do’s for patient safety.
#1 Must Do for Patient Safety – Prescribe opioids in a reasonable manner
Although opioid abuse, misuse and diversion are clearly valid safety concerns, the current environment has resulted in a backlash against the use of opioids, which has led to reluctance on the part of some physicians to prescribe and to difficulty for some patient to filling their opioid prescriptions.
This week in #patientsafety, we issued a statement on our position about the need to treat patient ambulation as a key metric. From around the web, ISMP released an updated self assessment for community/ambulatory pharmacy medication safety. We also found figures on opioid-related inpatient stays and emergency department visits by state from 2009-2014, and a dentist’s statement that the industry prescribes opioids “way too quickly”.
Patient Ambulation a Key Metric to Improved Health. PPAHS calls for dialogue at the clinical and governmental levels to identify and codify best practices that will prioritize patient ambulation.
ISMP Releases Updated Community/Ambulatory Pharmacy Medication Safety Self Assessment. Community and ambulatory pharmacy settings can now access a newly revised tool that will help them review and improve their medication safety practices.
Opioid-Related Inpatient Stays and Emergency Department Visits by State, 2009-2014. This HCUP Statistical Brief presents data from HCUP Fast Stats on the national rate of opioid-related hospital inpatient stays and emergency department (ED) visits from 2005 to 2014.
Opioids unnecessary for dental work, doc says. The American Dental Association recently reported dentistry is responsible for prescribing 12 percent of all instant-release opioids.
The following is a first in a series of position statements. If you would like to read/download our position on ambulation
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Movement is a critical factor to improving patient health. Patient ambulation, the ability to walk from place to place independently with or without an assistive device, is necessary to improve joint and muscle strength, as well as prevent pressure ulcers during extended bed rest. It is a critical factor in improving patient well-being while in hospital, as well as reducing total length of stay (LOS). Continue reading “Patient Ambulation a Key Metric to Improved Health”
This week in #patientsafety, all quiet on the PPAHS front. We’re working on a few longer-form pieces and podcasts, so stay tuned! From around the web, our top news picks for the week focus on ambulatory care, sepsis, and painkiller prescriptions in Canada.
Nothing this week.
The Joint Commission publishes ambulatory care, office-based surgery chapters. The chapters describe how ambulatory care organizations and office-based surgery practices apply The Joint Commission’s requirements for patient safety.
Sepsis drives more readmissions than medical conditions tracked by CMS. Sepsis accounts for more 30-day readmissions and is more costly than heart attacks, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia, according to new research in JAMA.
Guidelines for prescribing painkillers are silent on acute-pain treatment. In Canada, new national standards for prescribing painkillers do not address treating patients with acute pain–and some are questioning whether Health Canada’s rejection of a request to expand the scope of the standards was the right decision.
According to the CDC, the maternal death rate in the U.S. has more than doubled since 1987. So, with that shocking statistic in mind, we felt that we had to point out articles dealing with pregnancy … and a reminder that alarm fatigue just doesn’t annoy nurses … and, lastly, one interesting video from Derriford Hospital in the UK that is improving health outcomes for its patients by doing the “wiggle”. Continue reading “Weekly Must Reads in Patient Safety (Sep 26, 2014)”