Promoting patient safety and improving the quality of patient care
Tag: Capnography
Achieving patient safety is the watchword for this week’s Must Reads.
2015 National Patient Safety Goals
The Joint Commission’s 2015 National Patient Safety Goals were released. Although TJC says that it has “no new Goals for 2015”, it is probably a good presentation for all healthcare facilities to look at to make sure they are meeting these objectives. Continue reading “Weekly Must Reads in Patient Safety (Jan 16, 2015)”
Happy Thanksgiving!
Do We Need to Start a Revolution? – This is the question asked by Fred N. Pelzman, MD, who writes:
Over and over again, we were told about the sorry state of the U.S. healthcare system, how we are first in cost and last in quality, and there’s something inherently wrong with the way “we” take care of people in this country.
Continue reading “Weekly Must Reads in Patient Safety (Nov 28, 2014)”
[Editor’s note: This article first appeared in The Doctor Weighs In. The team at Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety thank Pat for her tremendous courage and working with us on this tragic story of what happened to her husband. We hope that in this retelling, hospitals will be encouraged to ensure that similar events become “never events”.] Continue reading “Sleep Apnea + Opioids = Post-Surgical Preventable Death”
By Briggs Adams (Editorial Manager, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)
When the leader of St. Joseph’s/Candler Hospital respiratory therapy team was initially considering using capnography to monitor patients receiving opioids after surgery, he predicted the outcome would go in one of two ways.
“Quite honestly, we thought capnography was either going to be tremendously successful or a complete disaster,” said Harold Oglesby, Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT), Manager, The Center for Pulmonary Health, Candler Hospital, and St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System (SJ/C). Continue reading “A Decade of Excellence: Hospital Celebrates 10 “Event Free” Years of Patient Safety”
In his op-ed, Lakshmipathi Chelluri, MD, MPH (Professor, Department of Critical Care Medicine, Co-chair, P&T Committee, UPMC Presbyterian, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine), asks a great question “Preventable In-Hospital Cardiac Arrests―Are We Monitoring the Wrong Organ?”[1]
To help prevent the onset of cardiac arrest, Dr. Chelluri suggests that clinicians should be monitoring for respiratory compromise as a key trigger or potential alert for cardiac arrest. Continue reading “Monitoring for Respiratory Compromise to Detect Cardiac Arrest”
As you may be tired of reading about the death of Joan Rivers, we thought that we’d highlight some important practice recommendations instead …
… and then just one article on Joan Rivers. Not only is the article in Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News, but Kenneth P. Rothfield, MD, MBA (chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology at Saint Agnes Hospital) is quoted in this article. Dr Rothfield is on our board of advisors, so we must confess that we are biased towards his passion and commitment to patient safety. Continue reading “Weekly Must Reads in Patient Safety (Sep 19, 2014)”
By Kenneth P. Rothfield, M.D., M.B.A., Chairman, Department of Anesthesiology, Saint Agnes Hospital (Baltimore, MD), Lynn Razzano, RN, MSN, ONCC (Clinical Nurse Consultant, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety), and Michael Wong, JD (Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)
It is often said that a death is meaningful if it serves as lessons for others to learn from and increase awareness so they “speak up” when found in a similar situation. So, what can be learned from the death of Joan Rivers? Continue reading “4 Lessons Learned from the Death of Joan Rivers”
by Sean Power
July 24, 2014
This past weekend (July 17) marks the anniversary of the tragic death of 18-year old Amanda Abbiehl, whose story serves as a powerful reminder of the need for continuous electronic monitoring.
Lynn Razzano, Clinical Nurse Consultant with the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety, offers an appeal to her clinical colleagues:
“On the four year anniversary of the untimely passing away of 18-year old Amanda, hospitals need to think of how this could have been actively prevented. My hope is that this promotes more vigilance in appropriately assessing a patient when opioids are in use and ensuring that all patients receiving opioids are continuously electronically monitored.
Continue reading “PPAHS Mourns the Fourth Anniversary of the Passing of Amanda Abbiehl”
At the International Anesthesia Research Society annual conference, which took place May 17-20, 2014, the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety presented results from the first national survey of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) practice. The survey results showed good news and bad news for patients receiving opioids. Continue reading “The Good and Bad News for Patients Receiving Opioids: Physician-Patient Alliance Presents Survey Results at International Anesthesia Research Society Annual Conference”
At the annual conference of Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), which took place March 30 – April 2, 2014, the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS) presented eight key points to improve patient safety and health outcomes.
Three of the most commonly overlooked clinical points are: