EMTALA Considerations for Triage
January 8, 2018
When most people think of triage, they think of nurses making sense of the chaos caused by 141 million annual visits to the ED. Patients who are part of this massive onslaught of unscheduled care arrive daily at any hour, and the first person they see is someone in triage, usually a nurse, whose job…Read More
Defending Shoulder Dystocia Claims
October 16, 2017
There is only one thing that frightens an obstetrician more than a difficult shoulder dystocia delivery − getting a letter from a plaintiff attorney notifying you that you are being sued for alleged malpractice in a shoulder dystocia delivery you did several years ago. What is especially upsetting is that you remember that delivery, how…Read More
Code STEMI: Calling Dr. Herrick
October 5, 2017
We hear the overhead announcements all the time in the hospital … Code Blue … Code Red … and more recently, Code Trauma … Code STEMI … Code Stroke … and Code Sepsis. From the standpoint of risk and safety, these latter four are the “Codes” that practitioners and nurses must master in order to…Read More
Preventing Surgical Site Infections
September 25, 2017
Surgical Site infections (SSIs) occur in 2% to 5% of surgery patients. This category of infection comprises approximately 22% of all healthcare-associated infections and has a 3% mortality. Patients with SSIs require significant care and average 7 to 10 days of increased length of hospital stay. The cost of providing care for a single SSI…Read More
Preventing CAUTI (Catheter-Associated UTI)
September 18, 2017
Catheter-associated urinary tract infections are the fourth most common HAI. They comprise over 12% of all acquired infections in acute care hospitals. 93,300 of these UTIs are estimated to be acquired in hospitals each year, with an estimated death toll of 13,000 patients. Source: Hubspot
Case: Avoiding Cognitive Bias in Diagnosing Sepsis
September 11, 2017
If you ask leadership at many hospital organizations to name their highest current quality priority, many will respond that it is sepsis. In recent years, medical researchers have identified that key interventions dramatically alter the course of sepsis. Key factors such as early identification, early administration of antibiotics, and appropriate fluid loading significantly reduce morbidity…Read More
Can Efficiency & Productivity Return to the Physician Documentation Workflow in the Era of Enterprise EHRs?
September 7, 2017
Over the last several months, many of our articles have focused on the importance of redesigning physician documentation systems to increase patient safety and minimize diagnosis-related errors. If you are familiar with The Sullivan Group, you clearly understand the alignment of that topic with our mission and the role we have played with many health…Read More
Preventing Central Line-Associated Blood Stream Infections (CLABSI)
September 5, 2017
The CDC defines a Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infection as: “A laboratory-confirmed bloodstream infection (LCBI) where central line (CL) or umbilical catheter (UC) was in place for more than 2 calendar days on the date of event, with day of device placement being Day 1 and the line was in place on the date of event…Read More
Healthcare-Associated Infections
August 28, 2017
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) as: “Infections that patients acquire during the course of receiving healthcare treatment for other conditions.” Healthcare-associated infections are very common, and the cost associated with them is enormous. It is estimated that 1 out of every 25 hospitalized patients is treated for an HAI,…Read More
Striking the Balance with EMR Risk Notifications
August 23, 2017
In general, practitioners don’t appreciate anything that “pops up” or gets in the way of their typical workflow. This aspect of some EMRs can cause dissatisfaction, even anger. A good example is warnings related to medication prescribing. In some programs, drug interactions of any severity and their complications litter the screen with overwhelming frequency. This…Read More
