Disruption in the healthcare setting occurs all too often and can be dangerous for patients and staff like. Part 1 of this series discussed some of the reasons behind the volatile behavior of patients or their families and provided a list of organizations with resources for managing the problem (OR…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on June 13 announced that starting this month it will be implementing survey process improvements for how it assesses safety culture in hospitals and critical access hospitals. Improvements will be implemented for all other programs by October. Among the process improvement expectations: An organization will…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on June 11 issued a Health Advisory on investigations of hepatitis A outbreaks in multiple states in people reporting drug use and/or homelessness and their contacts. From January 2017 to April 2018, the CDC has received more than 2,500 reports…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on June 5 updated its Safety Communication: “Recommendations to Reduce Surgical Fires and Related Patient Injury.” Among the recommendations: Perform a fire risk assessment before each surgical procedure. Encourage communication among anesthesia personnel, surgeons, and OR staff. Practice safe use and administration…

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Editor's Note National efforts by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to reduce hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) helped prevent some 8,000 deaths and save $2.9 billion in costs between 2014 and 2016, according to a new report released June 5 by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Data…

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Editor's Note On June 8, the American Hospital Association (AHA) is hosting its second annual Hospitals Against Violence National Day of Awareness, termed “#HAVhope Friday.” The day has been set aside to focus attention on how hospitals, health systems, and their caregivers work daily to end all forms of violence…

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Editor's Note ECRI Institute on June 5 announced a new consultative service focused on helping healthcare organizations prevent surgical fires by uncovering hidden vulnerabilities. There have been guidelines published by ECRI Institute and others to prevent and extinguish fires for many years, but implementation of the guidelines is the challenge,…

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Editor's Note Approximately one-third of casualties during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars resulted from nonbattle injuries (NBIs), this study finds. In this analysis of 29,958 casualties (battle injuries and NBIs), NBIs caused 34.1% of total casualties and 11.5% of all deaths. Rates of NBIs were higher among women than men…

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Editor's Note Working the night shift and sleeping during the day for just a few days can disrupt levels and time-of-day patterns of more than 100 proteins in the blood (ie, plasma proteomes), this study finds. Six healthy men volunteers in their 20s spent 6 days in the clinical translational…

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Editor's Note The ECRI Institute on May 21 announced that it had provided conclusive research to help guide the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) new “FDA Report on the Quality, Safety, and Effectiveness of Servicing of Medical Devices.” The FDA report, which addresses concerns about the quality of service provided…

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