Promoting patient safety and improving the quality of patient care
Tag: BLOOD CLOTS
The month of March is blood clot awareness month. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention):
Anyone can be affected by a blood clot regardless of age, gender, or race. This Blood Clot Awareness Month, learn the signs and symptoms of a blood clot and find free resources to share with friends, family, and colleagues to help raise awareness about blood clots.
By Michael Wong, JD (Founder & Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)
CDC estimates that almost one million Americans suffer from venous thromboembolism (VTE), also known as blood clots. VTE is a term that is comprised of two medical conditions deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which is a blood clot in one or more of the deep veins in the body, usually in the legs, and pulmonary embolism (PE), which is a blood clot in a pulmonary artery in the lungs.
According to the CDC:
Doctors are fighting to ensure their stroke patients are getting access to the medications they need, reports FOX13 News in Memphis, Tennessee:
Continue reading “Two Steps For Reducing Your Risk of Blood Clots”
Editor’s note: Blood clots are occurring in patients diagnosed with COVID-19. This article offers some of the key treatments and recommendations you may experience when admitted to hospital and then discharged home. As well, it discusses the interim clinical guidance from the Anticoagulation Forum.
By Michael Wong (Founder/Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)
An average of 274 people die from blood clots – which works out to about one death every six minutes. These statistics are pre-COVID statistics.
Because of the current COVID-19 pandemic, this may be changing. There have been reports about the development of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with COVID-19. The International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis has collected a number of studies and case reports on thrombosis in COVID-19 patients, and the Journal of American College of Cardiology released a review of current understanding, citing many of the studies and case reports which are on the ISTH site.
This COVID-19 pandemic is proving a challenge for clinicians to care for patients diagnosed with COVID-19. The interim clinical guidance from the Anticoagulation Forum (AC Interim Guidance) discusses the challenges of diagnosing a thrombotic event in COVID patients:
Editor’s note: Our understanding of COVID-19 symptomatology is evolving as the current pandemic unfolds. The International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis has collected a number of studies and case reports on thrombosis in COVID-19 patients. The Journal of American College of Cardiology released a review of current understanding, citing many of the studies and case reports which are on the ISTH site. This COVID-19 pandemic challenges us to use current knowledge and innovate new approaches to care for patients diagnosed with COVID-19. This article seeks to summarize some of the current knowledge about thrombosis in COVID-19 patients, knowing that future studies and case reports will undoubtedly refine the statements made below. However, this is science, continually evolving and improving based on current understanding. With that, this article offers some insights about VTE in patients admitted to the hospital who have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
By Michael Wong (Founder/Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety), Laurie Paletz, BSN PHN RN BC SCRN (Manager, Stroke Program Department of Neurology, Cedars-Sinai), and Thereza B. Ayad, RN, MSN, DNP, CNOR (Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Medical School-Graduate School of Nursing; Surgical Services Clinical Staff Educator, North Shore Medical Center)
(reviewed by Sue Koob, MPA, Chief Executive Officer, Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association and Pat Salber, MD, MBA, Editor-in-Chief, DoctorWeighsIn)
Continue reading “COVID-19 Patients Are at a Greater Risk of Blood Clots”
Articles the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS) have been reading the this past week.
Make the Operating Room Smoke-Free
Nurse Janelle Casanave, RN, urges you to make your operating room smoke-free:
Continue reading “3 Ideas for Greater Safety and Patient Satisfaction in the Hospital”
Articles we have been reading this past week of April 16, 2018 ask us to reconsider how we think about patient safety.
#1 – COPD prevalence is nearly double in rural areas compared to metropolitan areas
The risk of COPD is nearly double in rural areas compared to that in urban areas, according to CDC’s Weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report.
Continue reading “8 Ways We Need to Reconsider How We Think About Patient Safety”
Patient advocates and leading medical societies involved in awareness building and improving patient safety in Atrial Fibrillation (Afib) and venous thromboembolism (VTE) gathered recently for the 1st Annual Anticoagulation Summit, a two-day conference.
Michael Wong, JD, founder and Executive Director of the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS), presented a poster on the OB VTE Safety Recommendations, which were released by PPAHS, in collaboration with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the National Perinatal Association. The recommendations, compiled by a panel of health experts, give clinicians a step-by-step checklist to help assess all OB patients’ risks for VTE and identify the appropriate prophylaxis regimen to improve health outcomes for maternal patients. Continue reading “PPAHS Participates in 1st Annual Anticoagulation Summit”
This week’s must reads focus on patient safety tools.
This week in #patientsafety, PPAHS announced our position that all patients receiving opioids must be monitored with capnography. From around the web, the American Journal of Nursing summarized venous thromboembolism (blood clots) guidelines from American College of Chest Physicians, Ontario released a dataset and tool to explore opioid-related morbidity and mortality, and Pain Medicine News discussed a researcher’s exploration of alternatives to opioids. Continue reading “Patient Safety Weekly Must Reads (June 3, 2017)”
This week in #patientsafety, we highlight again that it is Blood Clot Awareness Month. From around the web, three studies: one on the effect of hospital inspectors on patient safety; one on sepsis; and, one on the relationship between opioid supply levels and long-term use.
March is Blood Clot Awareness Month. Blood Clot Awareness Month is a time for us to highlight stories and resources that you can share with colleagues, patients, and loved ones to bring attention to blood clots.
When Hospital Inspectors Are Watching, Fewer Patients Die. A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine studied records of Medicare admissions from 2008 to 2012 at 1,984 hospitals and found that in the non-inspection weeks, the average 30-day death rate was 7.21 percent. But during inspections, the rate fell to 7.03 percent.
UAB study highlights risks of sepsis. A new study from researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham analyzing three different methods for characterizing sepsis has helped to illustrate the risk of death or severe illness attributable to the condition.
With a 10-day supply of opioids, 1 in 5 become long-term users. With an initial 10-day opioid prescription, about one-in-five patients become long-term users, according to data published Friday in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.