Approximately 34.2 million Americans have diabetes, and many of these people rely on personal insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems to improve their overall glycemic control and reduce the risk of experiencing hypoglycemic or hyperglycemic episodes.
But when patients are hospitalized, the desire to continue using their personal pump or CGM system can present safety and quality risks for the organization.
A new issue of Quick Safety addresses how hospitals can safely implement patient use of these personal devices for their hospitalized diabetic patients. The issue gives several safety actions to consider, such as:
- Policies and procedures
- Home medication usage
- Medication self-administration
- Medication orders
- Medical record documentation
- Education for staff, patients and their families
- Conducting a risk assessment
Read Quick Safety.
The Joint Commission and National Quality Forum (NQF), two of the nation’s leading organizations in health care quality and patient safety, have announced the recipients of the 2020 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards.
This year, The Joint Commission and NQF recognize and honor groundbreaking initiatives in three categories:
- Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at the National Level – Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Rapid Naloxone Initiative, Washington, DC
- Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at the Local Level – Northwestern Medicine Academy for Quality and Safety Improvement, Chicago, Illinois
- Individual Achievement – David M. Gaba, MD, staff anesthesiologist and director of the Patient Simulation Center of Innovation, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, California, and professor, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, and associate dean for Immersive and Simulation-based Learning, Stanford University School of Medicine, California
The patient safety awards program, launched in 2002, honors the late John M. Eisenberg, MD, MBA, former administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), an impassioned advocate for health care quality improvement.
For more information about the groundbreaking work completed by the award recipients, please visit the Eisenberg Award webpage.
A new book detailing the patient safety movement in the U.S. from the late 1980s to 2015 is now available online for free. The book, “Making Healthcare Safe: The Story of the Patient Safety Movement,” is divided into four parts:
- The beginning of the movement, including early initiatives.
- Institution responses, which includes a chapter focusing on The Joint Commission and enforcing standards.
- Analysis of four key issues.
- Creating a safety culture.
The book — written by Lucian Leape, MD, a physician and professor at Harvard School of Public Health — can be accessed online for free or purchased as a hardcover.
On June 23, a Continuous Customer Engagement (CCE) webinar will be hosted focusing on clostridium difficile (C. diff) intestinal infections — a measure that The Joint Commission’s performance measure dashboard identified as one accredited hospitals can improve upon.
The webinar is scheduled for 9-10 a.m. PT/10-11 a.m. MT/11 a.m.-noon CT/noon-1 p.m. ET. Davie Medical Center and Mercy Health – Defiance Hospital LLC will present about C. diff intestinal infections and answer questions during a live segment during the webinar. These webinars are intended for hospital leaders, managers and point-of-care staff.
At the end of the session, participants should be able to:
- Apply concepts learned about evidence-based best practices regarding C. diff intestinal infections for patients in hospital organizations.
- Identify common performance and outcome challenges in C. diff intestinal infections for patients in hospital organizations.
- Prepare to implement at least one new best-practice related to C. diff in the learner’s facility.
The webinar is approved for 1.0 Continuing Education Credit from ACCME, ANCC, ACHE, California Board of Registered Nursing, and IACET. CE/CME/CEU Credits available for live audio only. Credits are not offered for webinar replays. To claim credit, you must:
- Individually register for the webinar.
- Listen to the live webinar in its entirety. Only those listening live during the session will be eligible to receive credit.
- Complete a post-program evaluation/attestation. The program evaluation/attestation link will be sent to the participant’s registered email address after the webinar.
The webinar recording and slides will be available at the same link used to register approximately two hours after the session concludes. Register for the webinar.
- Improvement Insights — Assessing Patients’ Experiences with Medical Injury Reconciliation Processes: The primary aim of our research, detailed in the June 2021 issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, was to generate items for a patient experience questionnaire that health care providers could use to assess how well they met patients’ needs following medical injuries, writes Jennifer Schulz, LLB, PhD; Marie Bismark, LLB, MD, MPsych; Michelle Mello, JD, PhD; and Crispin Jenkinson, BA, MA, MSc, DPhil.
- Ambulatory Buzz — The Role of System Accreditation Post-Pandemic: Joint Commission system accreditation is an increasingly popular standardization option. System accreditation is a Joint Commission survey model that awards a single accreditation decision to an ambulatory “system,” usually composed of a headquarter site and multiple sites. The main site is visited to assess system-wide policies and functions and then a sample of sites are visited to assess the execution of the policies as well the delivery of care. Any ambulatory care system site that provides surgery, general sedation or moderate sedation must be surveyed. This survey model lends itself well to ambulatory care, writes Rommie Johnson, Associate Director, Ambulatory Health Care.