The Safety Blog
December 19, 2019
WALTER REED FAILED TO EXAMINE ALMOST 2000 CT SCANS
by John Vassall, MD, FACP | Physician Executive, Quality & Safety, Comagine Health According to the article, an investigation showed that because of “a combination of faulty processes, oversights by physicians, technical snafus and a radiologist’s overwork” a backlog of 1,300 unread Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) scans of patient’s faces and jaws occurred between...
November 14, 2019
CULTURE OF SAFETY AND DEBRIEFING FOR CHANGE
by Lisa Matheny, RN, B.S.N., CPHRM, C-EFM | Risk Management and Patient Safety, BETA Healthcare Group IMPROVING YOUR CULTURE OF SAFETY So you work in healthcare, and your organization wants to improve its culture of safety. If safety culture is the sum of what an organization is and does in the pursuit of safety, and...
September 17, 2019
WORLD PATIENT SAFETY DAY
Today is the first-ever World Patient Safety Day! To honor that, we at the Washington Patient Safety Coalition want to highlight some of resources we have available for those working within the patient safety field! The Washington Patient Safety Coalition is a program of the Foundation for Health Care Quality (FHCQ) that acts as a…
December 21, 2018
UNTANGLING VARIATION IN EHRs & HIE: A COMPLEX PATIENT SAFETY ISSUE
by Gwen O’Keefe, MD, FACP | Principal, GO Healthcare Strategy Imagine you’ve just spent a harrowing 4 days in the hospital with sudden onset of heart problems, had many tests, and are sent home with multiple appointments and new medications. The conversations with hospital staff passed in a blur. You don’t understand what the results of…
September 27, 2018
THE CASE FOR A CARE FOR THE COLLEAGUE PROGRAM
by Kit Hoffman, PsyD | BESIDE Program Coach, Confluence Health In the year 2000, a physician named Albert Wu coined the term “second victim” to describe the experience of physicians, and other medical care providers, who make a medical mistake. The patient, of course, is the first victim of a medical mistake. The medical care provider,…
July 19, 2018
HITTING THE BULLSEYE: THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF DIAGNOSTIC ACCURACY IN PATIENT SAFETY
by Karen M. Markwith RN, MJ, CPHRM, CHPS | Director of Quality and Patient Safety, Virginia Mason In our January 2018 strategic planning session, diagnostic error rose to the top of the discussion and became one of the two key areas we voted to devote WPSC efforts to this year, the other being patient safety…
October 13, 2017
THE IMPACT OF LANGUAGE & CULTURAL BARRIERS ON PATIENT SAFETY & HEALTH EQUITY
by Anita Sulaiman, Founding Consultant & Trainer IBEX | Inter-Cultural Business Excellence If you have ever been in a situation where you do not speak the language of the land and cannot understand or make yourself understood, you know what it is like to face a language barrier. Imagine needing medical attention in that environment….
August 23, 2017
Northwest CRP Leader Retreat: Achieving Benefits, Avoiding Pitfalls
When: September 27-28, 2017 Where: Marriott, SeaTac International Airport | 3201 176th Street | SeaTac, WA 98188 Learn how your organization can implement an effective communication and resolution program (CRP) at this retreat for healthcare leaders. Despite our best efforts as care providers, adverse events happen far too often. Most efforts to respond to them don’t actively…
March 15, 2017
TAILORING A COMMUNICATION AND RESOLUTION PROGRAM TO YOUR MEDICAL SYSTEM
Organization: Confluence Health Project Name/ Title: CRP Point of Contact: Randal Moseley, MD, FACP, FHM, Medical Director of Quality | randal.moseley@confluencehealth.org About Confluence Health Confluence Health is an integrated healthcare delivery system located in North Central Washington. We serve a population of about 250,000 dispersed over 12,000 square miles. Our resources include two hospitals, 13 clinic…
February 16, 2017
BREAKING THE ICE ON END-OF-LIFE CARE
by Emily Wittenhagen Organization: WSMA Project Name/ Title: Honoring Choices Pacific Northwest Point of Contact: Jessica Martinson, jessica@wsma.org I was happy recently to sit down for a talk with Jessica Martinson, the Director of Clinical Education and Professional Development at the Washington State Medical Association, known to many in our state as WSMA (pronounced wizma). ABOUT…
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