Tag: respiratory compromise

5 Key Steps to Assessing and Identifying At-Risk Patients for Respiratory Compromise

The cost of opioid-related adverse events, in terms of both human life and hospital expenses, remains at the forefront of the public eye. It has been estimated that yearly costs in the United States associated with opioid-related post-operative respiratory failure were estimated at $2 billion.

The Society of Hospital Medicine, which is the largest organization representing hospitalists and a resource for hospital medicine, recently released a comprehensive guide, “Reducing Adverse Drug Events Related to Opioids” (otherwise known as the RADEO guide).

To better understand the RADEO guide, the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety interviewed its lead author, Thomas W. Frederickson MD, FACP, SFHM, MBA. Continue reading “5 Key Steps to Assessing and Identifying At-Risk Patients for Respiratory Compromise” →

Top Five Patient Safety Interviews

In honor of the fifth anniversary of the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS), PPAHS today announced the top five patient safety interviews by PPAHS.

“To increase awareness and promote discussion about and practical solutions for patient safety issues, PPAHS interviews doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, and patients’ families,” said Michael Wong, JD (Executive Director, PPAHS).

By the number of views, the five most popular interviews on the PPAHS YouTube channel are: Continue reading “Top Five Patient Safety Interviews” →

Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety Celebrates Fifth Anniversary: 5 Tips for Improving Patient Safety

Today, the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS) celebrated its fifth anniversary.

In recognizing this milestone, Michael Wong, JD (Founder and Executive Director, PPAHS) pointed out five tips for improving patient safety from PPAHS in the last 12 months: Continue reading “Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety Celebrates Fifth Anniversary: 5 Tips for Improving Patient Safety” →

A New Tool to Predict Respiratory Failure: An Interview with Hiroshi Morimatsu, MD, Ph.D

By Michael Wong, JD (Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)

Being able to easily assess a patient’s condition via a single, multi-parameter indicator would help clinicians determine whether changes in treatment are needed. The desire for such an indicator was confirmed in two surveys conducted by the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS) conducted in 2013 and again in 2015.

In PPAHS 2013 First National Survey of Patient-Controlled Analgesia Practices, 7 out of 10 hospitals indicated they would like “a single indicator that accurately incorporates key vital signs, such as pulse rate, SpO2, respiratory rate, and etCO2.” Respondents to this survey consisted of a mix of clinicians—18% physicians, 35% non-physicians (such as RTs and RNs), and 47% pharmacists.

A similar desire for a multi-parameter indicator was also found in a 2015 survey of nurses from the American Hospital Association. In this nursing survey, it was found that 67% of respondents said that they would like a single monitor multi-parameter device that measures all current physiological monitoring parameters. Continue reading “A New Tool to Predict Respiratory Failure: An Interview with Hiroshi Morimatsu, MD, Ph.D” →

PPAHS Presents at International Conference on Opioids

At the International Conference on Opioids (ICOO), which took place in Boston June 5-7, 2016, the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety (PPAHS) presented a poster on the survey of nurses it conducted. The survey’s objective was to identify:

Practices and technologies that nurses believe are needed to reduce the occurrence of respiratory compromise and
Those areas of medical practice that would benefit most from improved intervention.

Continue reading “PPAHS Presents at International Conference on Opioids” →

Extension – Calls for Proposals on Respiratory Failure Leading to Critical Illness or Death

The Respiratory Compromise Institute (RCI) has called for proposals to conduct a structured literature review or meta-analysis of various clinical conditions that pose a moderate to high risk for the development of respiratory failure leading to critical illness or death.

To provide researchers more time to complete their applications, RCI has extended the time for application submission to 5pmET on February 1, 2016.

Continue reading “Extension – Calls for Proposals on Respiratory Failure Leading to Critical Illness or Death” →

Respiratory Compromise Institute Calls for Proposals on Respiratory Failure Leading to Critical Illness or Death

The Respiratory Compromise Institute (RCI) today called for proposals to conduct a structured literature review or meta-analysis of various clinical conditions that pose a moderate to high risk for the development of respiratory failure leading to critical illness or death. The request for applications can be found by going to http://www.respiratorycompromise.org/research-and-grants/

Continue reading “Respiratory Compromise Institute Calls for Proposals on Respiratory Failure Leading to Critical Illness or Death” →

A How-To Guide for Reducing Adverse Drug Events Related to Opioids (RADEO)

By Sean Power

Respiratory compromise is the primary antecedent to ‘code blue’, the leading trigger of rapid response calls, and the number one cause of ICU admissions. Respiratory compromise is one of three indicators accounting for 66 percent of all preventable patient safety issues and causes higher mortality rates, longer hospital and ICU stays, and millions of healthcare dollars every year.

Respiratory compromise consists of respiratory insufficiency, distress, arrest, and failure. Respiratory Compromise is a state in which there is a high likelihood of decompensation into respiratory insufficiency, respiratory failure or death, but in which specific interventions (enhanced monitoring and/or therapies) might prevent or mitigate decompensation.

Continue reading “A How-To Guide for Reducing Adverse Drug Events Related to Opioids (RADEO)” →

Hypoxemia in the PACU: Most Episodes Occur After 30 Minutes from Admission

By Sean Power, Community Manager, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety

Is reliance on pulse oximetry to detect hypoxemia related to opioid-induced respiratory depression the best practice to identify patients at risk?

Toby N Weingarten, MD, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, raises this question by calling attention to an analysis by Epstein et. al.,[1] which found that, contrary to expectations, most episodes of hypoxemia—abnormally low concentrations of oxygen in the blood—take place after 30 minutes from admission to the postanesthesia care unit (PACU). He notes that the administration of opioids was greater in patients who experienced hypoxemia than those who did not.

Continue reading “Hypoxemia in the PACU: Most Episodes Occur After 30 Minutes from Admission” →