Promoting patient safety and improving the quality of patient care
Tag: OB VTE Safety Recommendations
Anticoagulants (more commonly referred to as blood thinners) are routinely used to treat, prevent and reduce the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE), which consists of prevent deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE).
According to World Thrombosis Day, 1 in 4 people worldwide are dying from conditions caused by thrombosis:
Continue reading “National Patient Safety Goal to Reduce the Patient Harm from Anticoagulants”
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”
March is Blood Clot Awareness Month.
Spearheaded by the National Blood Clot Alliance, #BCAM is a time for patients, caregivers, healthcare professionals, and advocates to draw attention to deep vein thrombosis and venous thromboembolism.
According to the National Blood Clot Alliance:
“Blood clots do not discriminate. They can and do affect anyone from children to senior citizens, from professional athletes to mothers, women and men – no one is immune. Tragically, roughly 274 lives are lost each day in the U.S. simply because public awareness about life-threatening blood clots is so low.”
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. Continue reading “March is Blood Clot Awareness Month”
By Sean Power
“Competent and thoughtful leaders contribute to improvements in safety and organizational culture.”
—The Joint Commission, Sentinel Event Alert 57
Earlier this month, The Joint Commission released Sentinel Event Alert 57, The essential role of leadership in developing a safety culture, calling on leaders to prioritize and increase the visibility of everyday actions that create a culture of safety.
There is no better time to amplify that message than Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 12-18, and we are calling on leaders to make every week patient safety awareness week at their healthcare facilities. Continue reading “Patient Safety Awareness Week Needs to Be Every Week”
The Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety has been invited to become a partner of World Thrombosis Day, an international multi-organizational campaign devoted to increasing global awareness about thrombosis, including its causes, risk factors, signs/symptoms, evidence-based prevention and treatments.
World Thrombosis Day aims to highlight the need for action on thrombosis, specifically underscoring the unrecognized threat and serious consequences (morbidity and mortality) related to venous thromboembolism (VTE).
Continue reading “Physician-Patient Alliance Partners with World Thrombosis Day”
This week in patient safety news, we featured a guest post article on pre-op screening and assessment for OSA. We also found some great articles addressing the ICU, the opioid crisis, and the latest in wearable monitor studies. Continue reading “Patient Safety Weekly Must Reads (October 21, 2016)”
PPAHS will be beginning a new #patientsafety campaign to develop practical solutions to help assess and prevent venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients undergoing orthopedic procedures, particularly total knee and hip replacement. More commonly known as blood clots, VTE consists of both deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolisms (PE) .
In the past, we have focused on the issue of VTE regarding maternal patients and stroke patients. In collaboration with panels of international health experts, PPAHS has developed the OB VTE Safety Recommendations and the Stroke VTE Safety Recommendations (both of which are free resources on our website). Members of the panel included:
According to the CDC, VTE is estimated to affect 900,000 Americans annually. It is a preventable, hospital-acquired condition that is responsible for 100,000 deaths each year. The US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has also issued a statement identifying venous thromboembolism as the third most prevalent factor accounting for readmission 30-days after surgery (6.3%).
Hip and knee replacement operations are among the most commonly performed procedures in the U.S. About 1 million of these procedures are performed each year (for more on prevalence, see the study by Hilal Maradit-Kremers, MD, MSc et al, “Prevalence of Total Hip (THA) and Total Knee (TKA) Arthroplasty in the United States”). The 30-day readmission rate following hip and knee replacement is 4.3% and 3.9% respectively, with the readmission rate rising to 7.8% 90-days after surgery.
Over the next few months, we will be putting together an expert patient safety panel on orthopedic VTE to advise and help answer healthcare reporters’ questions, looking for interviewees for Patient Safety Podcasts (such as the series created in collaboration with the Society of Hospital Medicine), and for guest contributions to our blog.
This week (March 13-19) is Patient Safety Awareness Week.
The National Patient Safety Foundation says the campaign is “designed to spark dialogue and promote action to improve the safety of the health care system for patients and the workforce.” Continue reading “3 Ways To Improve Safety for Patient Safety Awareness Week”
36-year old Casi Rott had just arrived home, after being discharged from hospital after giving birth to triplets.
Reports the NY Daily News: Continue reading “Mom Dies After Giving Birth by C-Section to Triplets”
By Sean Power
An article by The Globe and Mail highlights a World Health Organization (WHO) report showing that the United States is falling behind Canada when it comes to maternal mortality.
According to the WHO report, the US average declined to 14 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015; Canada’s figure sits at 7, where it was in 1990.
Continue reading “Women Twice as Likely to Die in Childbirth in US Than Canada”