A pilot program that officials hope will ultimately ensure the safety of surgery patients, is now being tested at eight hospitals around the world, including the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. The surgical checklist is used before and after surgery, and includes verifying the patient's known allergies and the surgical site. The World Health Organization launched the initiative this week.
A recent report shows that several hospitals in California posed a significantly higher mortality rate for pneumonia patients than the more than 260 other medical centers in that state. California hospitals are not alone, though - as many as four million people are admitted to U.S. hospitals each year for treatment of the disease, prompting strong support of specific measures that will reduce the number of pneumonia-related deaths.
A new grassroots coalition made up of more than 100 organizations and unions has launched a $40 million marketing campaign in its effort to bring affordable healthcare to all Americans. Health Care For America NOW aims to push for our nation's next president to "enact quality, affordable healthcare for all in 2009."
A bill that is now before the Massachusetts Senate would ultimately ensure the safety of hospital patients while protecting the nurses who care for them. The Patient Safety Act, passed by the House last month, would require the state's Department of Public Health to set enforceable limits on the number of patients who are assigned to nurses in acute care hospitals. Similar bills have already been enacted in California and Australia.
Some healthcare organizations have started using "fake patients" who "mystery shop" the hospital or physician office experience, a tool that many retail stores use to measure how they're serving customers. The use of this tool in healthcare, however, has sparked a debate about whether these "fake patients" take away from doctors' time with real patients, and could prevent a truly sick patient from receiving timely care.
Los Angeles County health officials have acknowledged that they had not used a key database intended to track and weed out problem employees from Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital for nearly a year. John Schunhoff, interim Health Services Department director, told the Board of Supervisors that at least some employees had been fired or disciplined since the hospital closed its inpatient and emergency services in August. But since then, top managers have been unable to track the employees' locations and their subsequent performance and disciplinary status. The attention has coincided with a decision by Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley that no one would be prosecuted for the death of a patient last year who writhed untreated on the hospital's waiting room floor for 45 minutes.