Tag: St Joseph’s/Candler

Preventing Avoidable Deaths

In a clinical education podcast, Frank Overdyk, MD, who is an anesthesiologist practicing in Charleston, SC, discusses preventing avoidable deaths and the costs of monitoring patients receiving opioids and the costs of not being monitored. It is impossible to predict with 100% accuracy how a particular patient will react when administered an opioid. Continuous patient monitoring, which costs just $20-$30 per day in the case of monitoring with pulse oximetry, is a small price to pay to help prevent avoidable patient deaths.

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

I recently interviewed Frank Overdyk, MD, who is an anesthesiologist practicing in Charleston, SC, about the costs of monitoring patients receiving opioids and the costs of not being monitored. Dr. Overdyk is a member of board of advisors of the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety and organized the two conferences on opioid-induced respiratory depression (“OIRD”) for the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation.

Continue reading “Preventing Avoidable Deaths” →

Respiratory Therapists Are Integral to Reducing Opioid-Related Adverse Events

Harold Oglesby - Celebrating 10 Years's Event Free

In a recent interview with Harold Oglesby, RRT, Manager, The Center for Pulmonary Health, Candler Hospital, St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System (SJ/C), our discussion focused on the success factors that contributed to SJ/C’s 12 years free from opioid-related adverse events.

During the interview, Mr. Oglesby highlighted five key learnings from his experiences in implementing and continuously improving SJ/C’s QI initiative.  One of these learnings was the importance of involving Respiratory Therapists (RT) throughout the process. Continue reading “Respiratory Therapists Are Integral to Reducing Opioid-Related Adverse Events” →

Top 10 Opioid Safety Articles in 2014

Of the more than 125 articles we posted in 2014, below are 10 of the most read and most discussed articles on opioid safety (order is by publication date).

As you read through these articles, please ask yourself – has a new standard of care been established requiring continuous electronic monitoring by hospitals of all patients receiving opioids? Continue reading “Top 10 Opioid Safety Articles in 2014” →

A Decade of Excellence: Hospital Celebrates 10 “Event Free” Years of Patient Safety

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” →

Survey, Experience Confirms Continuous Electronic Monitoring With Capnography Boosts Patient Safety and Lowers Healthcare Costs

By Harold Oglesby, RRT, Manager, Pulmonary Medicine, St. Joseph’s Hospital/Candler Health System, and Michael Wong, JD, Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety

(This article first appeared in Becker’s Clinical Quality & Infection Control.)

Though continuous electronic monitoring of all patients receiving patient-controlled analgesia is not a universal practice among the nation’s hospitals today, a new survey indicates it may become one soon. Continue reading “Survey, Experience Confirms Continuous Electronic Monitoring With Capnography Boosts Patient Safety and Lowers Healthcare Costs” →

Managing Risk with Patient-Controlled Analgesia: Recently Released Safety Checklist Addresses Joint Commission Concerns of Opioid-Related Adverse Events

The Risk Management Quarterly, the peer-reviewed journal for The Association for Healthcare Risk Management of New York, Inc. (the NY chapter of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management), recently published in its Summer 2013 edition an article by Michael Wong, executive director of the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety, on managing risk with patient-controlled analgesia (PCA). Continue reading “Managing Risk with Patient-Controlled Analgesia: Recently Released Safety Checklist Addresses Joint Commission Concerns of Opioid-Related Adverse Events” →

Notre Dame class project: improving patient safety through monitoring

by Michael Wong

18-year old Amanda Abbiehl tragically died in 2010 at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center (SJRMC).

The cause — a PCA (patient-controlled analgesia) pump error. Continue reading “Notre Dame class project: improving patient safety through monitoring” →