Search the hub
Showing results for tags 'USA'.
Found 660 results
-
Content ArticleThis blog by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices identifies ten medication safety concerns in the US from 2021 that still need to be addressed. These concerns are: Mix-ups between the paediatric and adult formulations of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines Mix-ups between the COVID-19 vaccines or boosters and the 2021-2022 influenza (flu) vaccines EPINEPHrine administered instead of the COVID-19 vaccine Preparation errors with the Pfizer-BioNTech purple cap or grey cap COVID-19 vaccines Errors and delays with hypertonic sodium chloride Errors with discontinued or paused infusions Infection transmission with shared glucometers, fingerstick devices, and insulin pens Adverse glycaemic event errors Every organisation needs a medication safety officer Increasing error reporting
-
Content ArticleThis study in the International Journal for Equity in Health used an online survey to measure and assess relationships between health behaviours and outcomes, and measures of wealth and civic engagement. The relationships found in the survey results support the interrelationships of constructs within the conceptual model. The model can serve as a guide for future equity research, encouraging a more thorough assessment of equity.
-
News ArticlePfizer and BioNTech said Tuesday that they were seeking emergency-use authorisation for the first coronavirus vaccine for children younger than 5 in the US and have begun submitting data on the safety and efficacy of the first two doses of a planned three-dose regimen. The Food and Drug Administration asked the companies to apply for authorization of their vaccine, and in an email, FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Caccomo said the omicron surge had generated new data “impacting the potential benefit-risk profile of a vaccine for the youngest children.” In December, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that the immune response generated by the vaccine in children between 2 and 4 years old was not sufficiently robust. But the companies said the vaccine had provoked a strong enough response in children 6 months to 2 years old. A third shot was added to the trial to increase the immune response. An earlier vaccine trial in children 5 to 11 years old was also focused on showing that those children had adequate immune responses after vaccination. In addition, there were enough cases of illness in that study population to determine that the vaccine was 91% effective in preventing symptomatic illness. The companies said Tuesday that the FDA requested they move forward with an application because of the “urgent public health need in this population,” noting that 1.6 million children under the age of 4 have tested positive for the coronavirus. “The need for a safe and effective vaccine for our youngest children is significant, particularly given the rapid spread of the omicron variant, the notable rise in the number of hospitalizations in young children with severe disease, and the possibility that future variants could cause severe disease in those who are unvaccinated,” Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. Read full story Source: The Washington Post, 1 February 2022
-
News Article
Survey of Americans who attempted suicide finds many aren’t getting care
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The number of people who try suicide has risen steadily in the U.S. But despite gains in health coverage, nearly half are not getting mental health treatment. Suicide attempts in the United States showed a “substantial and alarming increase” over the last decade, but one number remained the same, a new study has found: Year in and year out, about 40% of people who had recently tried suicide said they were not receiving mental health services. The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, traces a rise in the incidence of suicide attempts, defined as “self-reported attempts to kill one’s self in the last 12 months,” from 2008 to 2019. During that period, the incidence rose to 564 in every 100,000 adults from 481. The researchers drew on data from 484,732 responses to the federal government’s annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which includes people who lack insurance and have little contact with the health care system. They found the largest increase in suicide attempts among women; young adults between 18 and 25; unmarried people; people with less education; and people who regularly use substances like alcohol or cannabis. Only one group, adults 50 to 64 years old, saw a significant decrease in suicide attempts during that time. Among the major findings was that there was no significant change in the use of mental health services by people who had tried suicide, despite the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 and receding stigma around mental health care. Over the 11-year period, a steady rate of about 40%t of people who tried suicide in the previous year said they were not receiving mental health care, said Greg Rhee, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and one of the authors of the study. The Affordable Care Act, which took effect fully in 2014, required all health plans to cover mental health and substance abuse services, and also sharply reduced the number of uninsured people in the U.S. However, many respondents to the survey in the new report said the cost of mental health care was prohibitive; others said they were uncertain where to go for treatment or had no transportation. “It is a huge public health problem,” Dr. Rhee said. “We know that mental health care in the U.S. is really fragmented and complicated, and we also know not everybody has equal access to mental health care. So, it’s somewhat not surprising.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: New York Times,19 January 2022 -
Content ArticlePatient safety is an integral component of high-quality and effective medical care. The stakes are especially high in oncology, where avoiding errors is imperative to delivering safe and effective radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and other high-risk treatments. Changing paradigms in cancer treatment, including oral chemotherapy, personalised medicine, biosimilars, and immunotherapy, create evolving safety challenges for the oncology community. Moreover, shifting federal healthcare policies could have significant implications for the safety and access to high-quality and effective cancer care for millions of patients with cancer. Challenges and opportunities in ensuring patient access to safe, affordable, and high-quality cancer care remain significant within the policy landscape. To explore current patient safety and access issues in oncology, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) convened the NCCN Policy Summit: Ensuring Safety and Access in Cancer Care in Washington, DC, on June 15, 2017. Oncology stakeholders gathered to discuss pertinent patient safety issues and access implications under the Trump administration, as well as policy and advocacy strategies to address these gaps and build on opportunities moving forward. The programme consisted of presentations and two roundtable discussions with vigorous dialogue and audience comments and questions.
-
Content ArticleIn this article in Inforisk Today, Marianne McGee looks at warnings from patient safety experts and federal authorities around cyberattacks on the public health sector. She looks at emerging trends in the way that cybercriminals target healthcare, recent work to bring down cybercriminal gangs and the impact of ransomware attacks on healthcare systems.
-
News ArticleNew data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revealed that unvaccinated adults infected with Covid-19 who are 65 and older are 49 times more likely to need hospitalisation compared to those who have received booster doses. The CDC also found that in December, unvaccinated adults in that same age group experienced a rate of Covid-related hospitalisation 17 times higher than those who are fully vaccinated. For unvaccinated adults between 50 and 64, they are 44 times more likely to require hospitalisation compared with those who are immunised. In that same age group, unvaccinated adults were also 17 times more likely to experience Covid-related hospitalisation. According to the CDC, adults who are 65 and older and have received both doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine showed a 94% reduced risk of Covid-related hospitalisations. “Getting very sick means that older adults with Covid-19 might need hospitalization, intensive care, or a ventilator to help them breathe, or they might even die. The risk increases for people in their 50s and increases in 60s, 70s, and 80s. People 85 and older are the most likely to get very sick,” the CDC said on its website. “Get vaccinated as soon as possible,” the agency added. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 January 2022
-
Content Article
BMJ: Raining in Los Angeles (14 January 2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
Amid climbing covid case numbers and with scarce resources, Tara Vijayan describes what it has been like in the US to triage treatments that aim to prevent patients being hospitalised with COVID-19 -
Content Article
Bleed Out: HBO documentary (2018)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Investigations and complaints
Medical error is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. After a routine partial hip replacement operation leaves the mother of filmmaker and comedian Steve Burrows in a coma with permanent brain damage, what starts as a personal video diary becomes a citizen’s investigation into the state of American healthcare. -
Content Article"To healthcare workers in the COVID era, holidays mean death, and we knew Omicron was coming before it had a name. The wave caused by this variant has barely begun, rapidly gathering steam, and we are exhausted, attempting to pull from reserves badly drained by earlier surges." Kathryn Ivey, a critical care nurse at a medical center in Nashville, Tennessee, confronts the Omicron surge filling her hospital.
-
Content Article
Hospitals are in serious trouble (7 January2022)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
Omicron is inundating a healthcare system that was already buckling under the cumulative toll of every previous surge, writes Ed Yong in an article for the Atlantic. When a healthcare system crumbles, this is what it looks like. Much of what’s wrong happens invisibly. At first, there’s just a lot of waiting. Emergency rooms get so full that “you’ll wait hours and hours, and you may not be able to get surgery when you need it,” says Megan Ranney, an emergency physician in Rhode Island. When patients are seen, they might not get the tests they need, because technicians or necessary chemicals are in short supply. Then delay becomes absence. The little acts of compassion that make hospital stays tolerable disappear. Next go the acts of necessity that make stays survivable. Nurses might be so swamped that they can’t check whether a patient has their pain medications or if a ventilator is working correctly. People who would’ve been fine will get sicker. Eventually, people who would have lived will die. This is not conjecture; it is happening now, across the United States. -
News Article
USA: COVID-hospitalisation numbers are as bad as they look
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Many supposedly “incidental” infections aren’t really incidental, and cannot be dismissed, writes Ed Yong. More Americans are now hospitalised with COVID-19 than at any previous point in the pandemic. The current count—147,062—has doubled since Christmas, and is set to rise even more steeply, all while Omicron takes record numbers of healthcare workers off the front lines with breakthrough infections. For hospitals, the math of this surge is simple: Fewer staff and more patients mean worse care. Around the United States, people with all kinds of medical emergencies are now waiting hours, if not days, for help. Some reporters and pundits have claimed that this picture is overly pessimistic because the hospitalisation numbers include people who are simply hospitalised with COVID, rather than for COVID—“incidental” patients who just happen to test positive while being treated for something else. In some places, the proportion of such cases seems high. UC San Francisco recently said a third of its COVID patients “are admitted for other reasons,” while the Jackson Health System in Florida put that proportion at half. In New York State, COVID “was not included as one of the reasons for admission” for 43% of the hospitalised people who have tested positive. But the “with COVID” hospitalisation numbers are more complicated than they first seem. Many people on that side of the ledger are still in the hospital because of the coronavirus, which has both caused and exacerbated chronic conditions. And more important, these nuances don’t alter the real, urgent, and enormous crisis unfolding in American hospitals. Whether patients are admitted with or for COVID, they’re still being admitted in record volumes that hospitals are struggling to care for. “The truth is, we’re still in the emergency phase of the pandemic, and everyone who is downplaying that should probably take a tour of a hospital before they do,” says Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Massachusetts. Read full story Source: The Atlantic, 12 January 2022 -
Content ArticleIn this opinion piece for The Hill, the authors argue that urgent action is needed to prevent huge amounts of avoidable harm in the American healthcare system. They point to successful strategies under the Obama administration to demonstrate that the right political will can both improve patient safety and save money. They highlight actions that policy makers, official bodies and patients should take to promote the patient safety agenda.
-
Content ArticleThis study in The Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology applied a structured human factors analysis to understand the factors that contribute to vaginal retained foreign objects (RFOs). Trained human factors researchers looked at 45 incidents that occurred between January 2000 and May 2019 at an academic medical centre in Sothern California. The narrative of each incident was reviewed to identify contributing factors, classified using the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System for Healthcare (HFACS-Healthcare). The authors of the study concluded that the top two contributing factors in vaginal RFO incidents were skill-based errors and communication breakdowns. Both types of errors can be addressed and improved with human factors interventions, including simulation, teamwork training, and streamlining workflow to reduce the opportunity for errors.
-
Content ArticleThis report was submitted to the United States Congress by the Department of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). It sets out effective strategies to improve patient safety and reduce medical error.
-
Content Article
ECRI's Risk Assessment
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Improving systems of care
Keeping patients and staff safe is a top priority for every healthcare organisation. Leaders must be vigilant in continually monitoring, measuring, and improving risk, as well as identifying processes, environments, cultures and other factors affecting patient safety and organisational performance. ECRI’s Risk Assessments provide an efficient web-based solution for conducting such evaluations. These assessments collect multidisciplinary safety perspectives—from front-line workers to the executive suite—with reporting and analysis dashboards to help identify opportunities for improvement. -
Content ArticleClinician burnout in healthcare is a growing area of concern, especially as the COVID-19 pandemic stretches on. Research from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Regenstrief Institute looked at ways organisations can address burnout.
-
Content ArticleThis study, published in BMJ Open, seeks to evaluate variation in Illinois hospital nurse staffing ratios. It attempts to determine how higher nurse workloads are associated with mortality and length of stay for patients, and cost outcomes for hospitals. In their conclusion, the authors suggest that if nurses in Illinois hospital medical–surgical units cared for no more than four patients each, thousands of deaths could be avoided, and patients would experience shorter lengths of stay, resulting in cost-savings for hospitals.
-
Content Article
Is the FDA Failing Women? (September 2021)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Women's health
Many devices in current use were marketed before the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began regulating devices in 1976. Thus, manufacturers of these devices were not required to demonstrate safety and effectiveness, which presents both clinical and ethical problem for patients, especially for women, as some of the most dangerous devices—such as implanted contraceptive devices— are used only in women. This article from Madris Kinard and Rita F. Redberg investigates whether and to what extent devices for women receive less rigorous scrutiny than devices for men. This article also suggests how the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health could more effectively ensure safety and effectiveness of devices that were marketed prior to 1976. -
Content ArticleThis report, published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in the United States, presents findings from a review of 5,500 patient safety records in which the Covid-19 public health emergency was included as part of the description of the event or unsafe condition. It forms part of a series of Network of Patient Safety Databases Data Spotlight reports.
-
News Article
US Patients can order ‘don’t weigh me’ cards to take to doctors
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Patients in the US are able to order “don’t weigh me” cards to take to the doctors in a move aimed at reducing anxiety and stress on a visit. The US group behind the initiative said being weighed and talking about weight “causes feelings of stress and shame for many people”. The cards say: “Please don’t weigh me unless it is (really) medically necessary.” It adds: “If you really need my weight, please tell me why so that I can give you my informed consent”. On the other side, it explains why the patient may not want to be weighed, including “when you focus on my weight I get stressed” and “weighing me every time I come in for an appointment and talking about my weight like it’s a problem perpetuates weight stigma”. It also says most health conditions can be addressed without knowing the patient’s weight. Public Health England guidance to health and care professionals says they are in a “unique position to talk to patients about weight management to prevent ill-health” and recommends brief interventions. It says the first step in a brief intervention over a patient’s weight is to weigh and measure them. “You should view this as a normal part of a routine consultation,” it says. Read full story Source: The Independent, 23 December 2021 -
EventuntilIt’s time to register for the 2022 World Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit, hosted by Patient Safety Movement in the USA. The 2022 World Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit (WPSSTS) is co-convened by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care and the International Society for Quality in Health Care, and will celebrate the Patient Safety Movement Foundation’s first 10 years of achievements. The 2022 WPSSTS will confront leading patient safety issues with actionable ideas and innovations to transform the continuum of care by dramatically improving patient safety and eliminating preventable patient harm and death. The WPSSTS brings together all stakeholders; we need everyone to step up and be part of the solution. We invite international hospital leaders, patient and family member advocates who have experienced harm, public policymakers and government officials, other non-profits working toward zero harm, healthcare technologists, engineers, and the future of healthcare – students and residents. All stakeholders are invited to actively and intimately plan solutions around the leading patient safety challenges that cause preventable patient deaths in hospitals and healthcare organizations worldwide. The WPSSTS will also feature keynote addresses from public figures, patient safety experts, and plenary sessions with healthcare luminaries, patient advocates, as well as announcements from organizations who have made their own commitments to reach the Patient Safety Movement Foundation’s vision of ZERO preventable harm and death across the globe by 2030. Event timings: 4 March 2022 8.00 am PST (4.00pm GMT) - 5 March 2022 5.00 pm PST (6 March 1.00am GMT) Buy tickets
-
Content Article
COVID Nursing and PTSD (December 2021)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
In an article for the Patient Safety Journal, Cassandra Alexander, a nurse, shares what it is like on the front lines and the toll it has taken on her mental health—a deeply personal and painful story, yet a traumatic experience shared by many nurses around the United States. -
News ArticleMore than 167,000 children are believed to have lost parents or caregivers to Covid during the pandemic – roughly one in every 450 young people in the US under age 18. The count updates the October estimate that 140,000 minors had lost caregiving adults to the virus, and is four times more than a springtime tally that found nearly 40,000 children had experienced such loss. In a report titled Hidden Pain, researchers from the COVID Collaborative and Social Policy Analytics published the new total, which they derived by combining coronavirus death numbers with household-level data from the 2019 American Community Survey. The death toll further underscores the daunting task facing schools as they seek to help students recover not just academically, but also emotionally, from a pandemic that has already stretched 22 months and claimed more than 800,000 American lives. It’s an issue of such elevated concern that Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, on 7 December, used a rare public address to warn Americans of the pandemic’s “devastating” effects on youth mental health. An accompanying 53-page report calls out the particular difficulties experienced by young people who have lost parents or caregivers to the virus. Bereaved children have higher rates of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder than those who have not lost parents, according to a 2018 study that followed grieving children for multiple years. They are more than twice as likely to show impairments in functioning at school and at home, even seven years later, meaning these children need both immediate and long-term counseling and support to deal with such a traumatic loss. “For these children, their whole sky has fallen, and supporting them through this trauma must be a top priority.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 22 December 2021
-
Content ArticleAn examination of how humans interact with their environments and each other led this team to question one of its long-standing medication safety practices and change how they work.
