Perspectives on Patient Safety Gets a New Look!

• 5/8/2009
• Author: Jim Parker
• Category: Perspectives on Patient Safety Blog
• 15136 Views
• 2 Comments
• 

“And now for something completely different.”
 
Your friendly neighborhood Perspectives on Patient Safety staff are pleased to unveil the newsletter’s new look. Designed by our trusty project manager, Bridget Chambers, we think the new design not only looks smashing, but also enhances readability. Check out the new design in your June issue, which is heading your way soon.
 
Of course, we are not substituting style for content. To quote the Bard, we “have that within which passeth show.” The issue has a great line up of articles. The cover story deals with the troubling issue of wrong site, wrong side, wrong patient surgery, which continues to be one of the leading causes of sentinel events reported to The Joint Commission. The article walks you through the final verification process designed to prevent such grievous errors, as required by The Joint Commission’s Universal Protocol and NPSG.01.02.01.
 
Also in June, the “Patient Safety Pulse” department brings readers up-to-date on resources The Joint Commission and Joint Commission Resources are making available to help organizations address the emerging H1N1 influenza strain and other potential pandemic flu viruses. Even if this illness does not become a pandemic on the scale of 1918’s Spanish Flu, for example, health care organizations should keep the threat of pandemic on their radar and make sure they have plans in place to address that challenge.
 
Another article examines deep-vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism during hip and knee replacement surgery. These adverse events are considered serious reportable events, or “never events,” by the National Quality Forum and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 
 
The final article elucidates key principles of communication for health care providers, offering tips and strategies providers can use to improve communication with patients, as well as their colleagues. The special guest authors for this piece Joan McGrath, Myrna Pedersen, and William Rutenberg, M.D. These communication consultants and their firm have worked with health care luminaries such as Michael F. Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D., the bestselling authors who wrote YOU The Smart Patient: An Insider’s Handbook for Getting the Best Treatment.
[ http://www.jcrinc.com/YOU-The-Smart-Patient/ ]