In patients undergoing noncardiac surgery, neither aspirin nor clonidine (a medication primarily used to treat high blood pressure) taken before and after surgery reduced the risk of acute kidney injury, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being released to coincide with its presentation at the American Society of Nephrology’s annual Kidney Week meeting.
Hospitalized premature infants are exposed to unsafe levels of a chemical found in numerous medical products used to treat them, raising questions about whether critically ill newborns may be adversely affected by equipment designed to help save their lives.
A controversial medication used by breastfeeding women should not be restricted because of the benefits it offers mothers and their babies, according to researchers at the University of Adelaide.
Hospital workers who deal directly with patients wash their hands less frequently as their workday progresses, probably because the demands of the job deplete the mental reserves they need to follow rules, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
The sound of monitor alarms in hospitals can save patients’ lives, but the frequency with which the monitors go off can also lead to “alarm fatigue,” in which caregivers become desensitized to the ubiquitous beeping.
Improvements in verbal and written communication between health care providers during patient handoffs can reduce injuries due to medical errors. I-PASS, an original system of bundled communication and team-training tools for handoff of patient care between providers resulted in a 30% reduction in injuries due to medical errors after its implementation across 9 institutions, according to a study released Nov. 6, 2014 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have developed a brief and simple method to help hospital care providers recognize delirium in elderly patients
A recently concluded demonstration project made meaningful progress toward introducing a "patient-centered medical home" approach at "safety net" practices serving vulnerable and underserved populations. Lessons learned in the course of developing and implementing the Safety Net Medical Home Initiative (SNMHI) are featured in a special November supplement to Medical Care. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Anesthesia-related complications decreased by more than half in four years, according to the Anesthesia Quality Institute’s (AQI) National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry (NACOR) of more than 3.2 million anesthesia cases. The results are being presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY™ 2014 annual meeting.
A University of Nebraska Medical Center research team has determined that a longtime antibiotic, vancomycin, is still effective in treating Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections and that physicians should continue to use the drug even though several newer antibiotics are now available in the marketplace.
In a new study recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center concluded that overuse of cardiac stress testing with imaging has led to rising healthcare costs and unnecessary radiation exposure to patients.
Hospitalized patients wash their hands infrequently. They wash about 30 per cent of the time while in the washroom, 40 per cent during meal times, and only three per cent of the time when using the kitchens on their units.
Medications are the leading cause of allergy-related sudden deaths in the U.S., according to an analysis of death certificates from 1999 to 2010, conducted by researchers at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. The study, published online today in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, also found that the risk of fatal drug-induced allergic reactions was particularly high among older people and African-Americans and that such deaths increased significantly in the U.S. in recent years.
A University of Utah study shows for the first time that continuous infusion benzodiazepines – a class of sedatives that includes lorazepam and midazolam, once considered the standard of care in the ICU – are linked to an increased likelihood of death among patients who receive mechanical ventilation, when compared to the sedative propofol.
It's a simple message: Call 9-1-1 at the first warning signs of a heart attack. Unfortunately, many still choose to either drive to the hospital, or wait to see if the symptoms disappear. New research from the MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute reconfirms relying on emergency medical services helps heart attack patients avoid delays and expedite treatment.
Pharmacists have an important role in ensuring that clinical trials are conducted according to good clinical trials practices. The Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association has released the HOPA Investigational Drug Service Best Practice Standards, the first of its kind.
The Movi chair is a replacement of the old-fashioned wheelchair. It is designed for use in a hospital or skilled-nursing facility, or even in the home as a mobility aid. Designed with the safety and comfort of patients and care givers in mind.
The most common type of hospital-associated infection may be preventable with a vaccine, new research in mice suggests. The experimental vaccine prevented urinary tract infections associated with catheters.
Changes in how medical diagnoses are coded under the latest international disease classification system – better known as the ICD-10 codes – may complicate the assessment of hospital safety, say researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
More than 95 percent of patients treated in an Emergency Department mistake their emergency contact as the designated medical decision maker for end-of-life care, according to a new study by Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
In a new effort to eliminate harm and reinforce a culture of caring in healthcare, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing faculty members Ellen Ray, DNP, MS, RN, CNM, Cynthia Foronda, PhD, RN, CNE, and Brigit Van Graafeiland, DNP, CNRP, have been chosen to serve in the third cohort of the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute Patient Safety and Quality Leadership Academy.
While anesthesia is safer than ever before, every person scheduled for a procedure or surgery must have a serious conversation with their physician anesthesiologist about their anesthesia care delivery plan ahead of time, according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA®).
A recent literature review by the Cochrane Collaboration found no scientific evidence that care provided by a nurse anesthetist is as safe and effective as patient-centered, physician-led anesthesia care, prompting the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA®) to call for further examination to measure patient safety and anesthesia care delivery.
A Penn Medicine team has found that targeted automated alerts in electronic health records significantly reduce urinary tract infections in hospital patients with urinary catheters. In addition, when the design of the alert was simplified, the rate of improvement dramatically increased.
The common thought in the medical community is that the randomized, controlled trial is the gold standard in medical research. Findings from these studies are thought to be most reliable and are often endorsed by guideline-making organizations and brought into medical practice. But, Penn Medicine researchers caution that the rapid adoption of one or two studies as the basis for clinical practice, even if they are randomized controlled trials, can lead to misinformation and potential harm. Using the case of Beta-blockers, they show how clinical practice guidelines are too often adopted quickly then overturned in the ensuing years. Their work is published in the current issue of BMJ Quality and Safety.
As the Food and Drug Administration mulls over whether to rein in the use of common antibacterial compounds that are causing growing concern among environmental health experts, scientists are reporting today that many pregnant women and their fetuses are being exposed to these substances. They will present their work at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
A disposal, plastic listening device that attaches to the abdomen may help doctors definitively determine which post-operative patients should be fed and which should not, an invention that may improve outcomes, decrease healthcare costs and shorten hospital stays, according to a UCLA study.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have discovered an enzyme that regulates production of the toxins that contribute to potentially life-threatening Staphylococcus aureus infections. The study recently appeared in the scientific journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Richard Saitz, M.D., of the Boston University School of Public Health, and colleagues tested the effectiveness of two brief counseling interventions for unhealthy drug use (any illicit drug use or prescription drug misuse) among primary care patients identified by screening.
Among mechanically ventilated intensive care unit (ICU) patients, receipt of high-protein nutrition via a feeding tube enriched with immune-modulating nutrients vs standard high-protein nutrition did not result in a significant difference in the incidence of new complications.
In the first analysis of its kind, UC San Francisco research shows that emergency department closures can have a ripple effect on patient outcomes at nearby hospitals.
Among patients on chronic hemodialysis, those with depressive symptoms and pain were more likely to abbreviate or miss dialysis sessions, visit the emergency department, and be hospitalized. Depressive symptoms were also linked with an increased risk of premature death.
Adoption of hourly rounds schedules for nurses working in acute care hospitals may improve patient safety and overall satisfaction with care provided, according to research reported in the Journal for Healthcare Quality, the peer reviewed publication of the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ, www.nahq.org).
In creating an adhesive patterned after glue produced by the lowly underwater sandcastle worm, researchers are reporting today that they may have solved the problem of premature births that sometimes result from fetal surgery. It also could open up numerous opportunities to safely perform more complex fetal surgeries in the future. Their report will be presented at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
Anxiety regarding inconclusive cancer screening test results among some patients is real and is only natural. However, as evidenced by Gareen et al, published July 25 in Cancer, the incidence and effects of anxiety associated with false positive or other results of computed tomography (CT) lung cancer screening exams are far less than claimed by some in the medical community.
The benefits of medical imaging far outweigh the risks when children receive The Right Exam, ordered The Right Way, with The Right Radiation Dose. However, overuse and misuse of imaging change the benefit-risk ratio and Mayo Clinic is leading a collaborative effort to ensure a national protocol is put into action. The commentary, published online in the Journal of Patient Safety, calls for the American College of Radiology, the Joint Commission, the Intersociety Accreditation Commission, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to require three safety practices for accreditation of all American hospitals and advanced diagnostic imaging facilities. “No hospital or medical imaging facility in the country should be granted the privilege of imaging children unless it first meets fundamental safe practice performance measures,” says Stephen Swensen, M.D., lead author and radiologist, Mayo Clinic.
Among patients who underwent gall bladder removal for acute calculous cholecystitis, lack of postoperative antibiotic treatment did not result in a greater incidence of infections, according to a study in the July 9 issue of JAMA.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found that the risk of patient harm increased two-fold in 2006 – the peak year that teaching hospitals nationwide embraced the pursuit of minimally invasive robotic surgery for prostate cancer.
Author Leana Wen, M.D., director of patient-centered care research and assistant professor of emergency medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, teaches patients how to better advocate for their health in her book, “When Doctors Don’t Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Testing.”
Children who undergo simple emergency surgeries, such as hernia repairs or appendix removals, on weekends are more likely to suffer complications and even die than children getting the same kind of treatment during the week, according to results of a Johns Hopkins Children’s Center study.
Every living cell’s surface has a protein-embedded membrane that’s covered in polysaccharide chains – a literal sugar coating. A new study by a Cornell University researcher found this coating is especially thick and pronounced on cancer cells – leading to a more lethal cancer.
St. John’s wort, the leading complementary and alternative treatment for depression in the United States, can be dangerous when taken with many commonly prescribed drugs, according to a study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
Simulation techniques that target medical errors and seek to provide continued improvement in the quality and safety of patient care are rapidly becoming the new “go to” methods for professional healthcare education. Ranging from simulated human patients to detailed animations and disaster scenarios, these fool-proof techniques are increasingly used by hospitals, universities, and training schools to bridge between classroom learning and real-life clinical experience.
The number of deaths involving commonly prescribed painkillers is higher than the number of deaths by overdose from heroin and cocaine combined, according to researchers at McGill University. In a first-of-its-kind review of existing research, the McGill team has put the spotlight on a major public health problem: the dramatic increase in deaths due to prescribed painkillers, which were involved in more than 16,000 deaths in 2010 in the U.S. alone. Currently, the US and Canada rank #1 and #2 in per capita opioid consumption.
A study in the July issue of Anesthesiology revealed that patients who receive a simple, multicolor, standardized medication instruction sheet before surgery are more likely to comply with their physician’s instructions and experience a significantly shorter post-op stay in recovery. These findings are important because surgical patients often fail to follow their doctor’s medication instructions for preexisting conditions such as diabetes and hypertension on the day they are having surgery – a costly mistake that can lead to surgery cancellation, complications and longer hospital stays.
Proving that less really is more, five specific tests or procedures commonly performed in anesthesiology that may not be necessary and, in some cases should be avoided, will be published online June 16 in JAMA Internal Medicine. The “Top-five” list was created by the American Society of Anesthesiologists® (ASA®) for inclusion in the ABIM Foundation’s Choosing Wisely® campaign.
Adults over 65 who have recently begun thiazide diuretics are at a greater risk for developing metabolic-related adverse events, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
RSS