Patient Safety Resource Center

Patient safety and medical errors are major concerns in healthcare; according to a report by the Institute of Medicine, as many as 44,000-98,000 people die in American hospitals each year as the result of lapses in patient safety.

• Automated Drug Dispensing System Reduces Medication Errors in an Intensive Care Setting Automated drug dispensing may reduce some drug errors in the medical ICU setting, but what other effects does the change create?
  Critical Care Medicine, December 2010
• 'What Should I Do Now?' Physician Challenges in Tough Decisions Medscape surveyed more than 10,000 physicians to learn about the biggest ethical dilemmas that they have encountered. Their responses were intriguing.
  Medscape Medical Ethics, December 2010
• Legal and Malpractice Corner Round-up of important legal and malpractice news that affects physicians and medical practice.
  Medscape Business of Medicine, December 2010
• Safety of Retransfusion of Filtered Shed Blood in 1819 Patients After Total Hip or Knee Arthroplasty How safe are postoperative cell salvage retransfusion systems?
  Transfusion Alternatives in Transfusion Medicine, November 2010
• Strategies Used by Critical Care Nurses to Identify, Interrupt, and Correct Medical Errors Nursing vigilance prevents many potentially dangerous situations from reaching and harming patients. Find out how.
  American Journal of Critical Care, November 2010
• Drug Shortages: National Survey Reveals High Level of Frustration, Low Level of Safety Medication shortages lead to errors and patient harm.
  ISMP Medication Safety Alert!® Acute Care Edition, November 2010
• Delegation in the School Setting: Is it a Safe Practice? When it comes to delegation, school health nurses are faced with unique challenges in order to maintain patient safety.
  OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, November 2010
• Lessons from TCAB, and More: An Interview with Health Economist And Quality Researcher Jack Needleman Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB) was created to make inpatient care safer, more reliable, more focused on the patient, and to increase the satisfaction of front-line nurses.
  Nursing Economics, November 2010
• Improving Quality and Patient Safety by Retaining Nursing Expertise The differences between novices and experts can be dramatic and may have a strong impact on patient safety.
  OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, November 2010
• Efficacy and Safety of Rapamycin as Compared to Paclitaxel-Eluting Stents: A Meta-Analysis RES and PES differ significantly with respect to polymer coating and antiproliferative drugs, but what about with regard to clinical outcomes?
  The Journal of Invasive Cardiology, November 2010
• Comparison of Rotational With Conventional Coronary Angiography Relatively small changes may greatly reduce the radiation and contrast-dye burdens of angiographic testing.
  American Heart Journal, October 2010
• Mindful Communication: A Novel Approach to Improving Delegation and Increasing Patient Safety Patient safety and quality of care may both improve when nurses practice mindfulness in the clinical setting. How does it work?
  OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, October 2010
• Good Is Not Good Enough: The Culture of Low Expectations and the Leader's Challenge Can raising our expectations improve our nursing culture and help to maintain patient safety?
  Pediatric Nursing, October 2010
• Your Malpractice Advisor: Lawsuit Risks in Urology Urologists are faced with a significant risk for malpractice lawsuits. However, many of those risks can be avoided by planning and action in a number of key areas.
  Medscape Business of Medicine, October 2010
• Home vs Hospital Outcomes: The Pediatrician's View A pediatrician offers his perspective on the finding that neonatal mortality is higher in home vs hospital births.
  Medscape Pediatrics, October 2010
• Adherence to Oral Cancer Therapies: Nursing Interventions Oral agents are becoming more common in cancer care and providers must understand the effects and side effects in order to promote patient safety and regimen adherence.
  Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, October 2010
• Pharmaceuticals in Drinking Water: Local Analysis of the Problem and Finding a Solution Through Awareness Are medications being disposed of properly?
  Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, October 2010
• Dr. John Howard From CDC's NIOSH Discusses the Consequences of the Gulf Oil Spill   John Howard, MD, MPH, JD, Director, NIOSH, talks to Eli Adashi, MD, about the efforts to protect health during and after the Gulf oil spill.
  Medscape Internal Medicine, October 2010
• Failure to Set a Volume Limit for a Magnesium Bolus Dose Leads to Harm Was this error on the labor and delivery unit avoidable?
  ISMP Medication Safety Alert!® Acute Care Edition, October 2010
• Cardiac and Extracardiac Complications During CTO Interventions: Prevention and Management PCI of chronic total occlusion carries the risk of severe complications that are responsible for a significant morbidity and mortality rate associated with these procedures.
  Interventional Cardiology, September 2010