Patient Safety & Outcomes

Nearly seven years ago, when Johnson City, Tenn.-based Ballad Health was formed through the merger of Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health System, Amit Vashist, MD, a dual-boarded internist and psychiatrist, found himself contemplating a crucial question.

Patient safety touches every aspect of hospital care, and every hospital can have tens of programs and initiatives that attempt to address each part of it.

Chino (Calif.) Valley Medical Center evacuated four patients from its intensive care unit Dec. 8 after a fire broke out on the 112-bed hospital campus, according to The Mercury News.

Criminally charged healthcare workers in Illinois, including those accused of abusing patients, often face little oversight or experience delayed discipline, The Chicago Tribune reported Dec. 6.

To prevent falls, a Colorado hospital is replacing frequent bed alarms with an AI-enabled system that analyzes EHR data for risk indicators. 

The National Action Alliance for Patient and Workforce Safety launched a new public-facing dashboard that aggregates federal safety data Dec. 5.

Dallas-based UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers found that the American Heart Association's stroke guidelines improve the quality and consistency of care for stroke patients and reduce hospital stays.

When patients undergo hysterectomies, they are often unaware of exactly which organs they have had removed or are unfamiliar with the full range of surgical options available, according to a Dec. 1 story from The New York Times, which is…

The Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee, which examines all pregnancy-related deaths, will not examine cases from 2022 and 2023, The Washington Post reported Nov. 26. 

Security officers at Rochester Regional Health now have the opportunity to become peace officers, NPR affiliate WXXI reported Nov. 25.