9.

Recent Articles & Updates

Jan 2009

• Pt. Safety Jan '09 Vol 9 #1  Pg11-  Educating Patients and Families About Infection Control: Practical Questions and Common-Sense Answers   The Joint Commission expects hospitals to educate patients regarding infection control practices as a basic health practice, including hand hygiene and cough etiquette (PC.02.03.01).  The article encourages more education, including providing handouts to visitors, such as the Joint Commission’s “Speak Up” campaign brochure called Five Things you Can Do to Prevent Infection.  IC, PtEd and StEd should consider the suggested actions that include increasing awareness among staff members to identify visitors and staff who have signs of a potentially communicable infection 
  

Feb 2009

• Pt. Safety Feb '09 Vol 9 #2  Pg08-   Establishing a Patient Advisory Council   LDR, PtAd and SFT should seriously consider involving patients and their families in performance improvement work as one approach to address National Patient Safety Goal 13. The Patient Advisory Council (PAC) is a mechanism to structure this involvement utilizing a group of volunteer patients/family and staff who meet on a regular basis to address key hospital issues. The article provides a fairly detailed description of how to create the Advisory Council and how to use it to improve safety.  A sidebar also delineates items to include on the hospital’s application form for Advisory Council membership.

 
Mar 2009

Apr 2009

May 2009

 

 

Jun 2009

July 2009

 

Aug 2009

 

 Sep 2009

• 
  

Oct 2009

 

 

Nov 2009

• EOC, Nov. '09 Vol 12 #11 Pg03-  Surveys LDR, GB, EOC, SFT, PtAd This case study provides insights into the 10-year experience of the  M.D.AndersonCancerCenter's in purposely using art as part of the healing process.

Dec 2009 

---

  

Reference Articles

• Perspectives 2008 February Vol 28 #2 Pg08-   Promoting Effective Communication—Language Access Services in Health Care [**Ref**] TJC has increasingly been underscoring the importance of effective communication particularly as a factor in avoiding errors and promoting safety.  In addition to federal law (Sec 504 of ADA and Title VI of CRA) standards like RI.2.100 and IM.6.20 actually require specific attention to documenting and accomodating language needs of patients.   This article gives a good overview of why this is important, suggests steps for addressing it and provides a good

  Pt. Safety, 2008 March, Vol 8, #3   Pg04-    Strategies for Improving Health Literacy   This topic is occurring more frequently in TJC literature suggesting LDR, PtEd, PtAd StEd and others invested in effective patient participation (NPSG 13) should attend to this issue and take note of the strategies (e.g., Rule of 15) and related freebees (e.g., US Pharmacopeia - USP  pictograms or Readability Toolkit created by The Group Health Center for Health Studies (CHS) in Seattle, Washington) in this article.  See also [**REF**} Accreditation Essentials: Cultural and Linguistic Issues in the Informed Consent Process July Source Vol5,#7 (review in 2007 July RTP) PtEd see also: NIH: free plain language internet-based training course

• Patient Safety Jun '08, Vol 8 #6 Pg09- Implementing the Stroke Alert Program at Lutheran General   [**REF**] This article describes a stroke-specific program that is a specialized part of a rapid response team to address NPSG 16A.  The number of strokes that occur in psychiatric hospitals is not known, but an estimated 25% of all stroke victims are hospital inpatients. Stroke Program Alert may be appropriate to adapt to psychiatric settings.  A sidebar on pg11 outlines the model and websites used to educate staff members on common stroke signs.  FYI:  PtEd, MD, RN.          - by VK   Article references include: 

• National Stroke Association's Stroke Factsheet (PDF)
  
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Proceedings of a National Symposium on Rapid Identification and Treatment of Acute Stroke {HTML}.  Includes useful recommendations

• EOC News Jun '08, Vol 11 #6  Pg08-  To Catch a Falling Star: How Edward Hospital Uses Branding in Its Fall Prevention Program   [**REF**] To address NPSG 9B, this is a program that uses “branding” in the form of  yellow STARS on patient’s charts and wrist bands to alert staff of fall risk as well as teaching at risk patients the logo: “Call, Don’t Fall”.  The discussion includes some ideas that could be useful to augment existing falls prevention programs in psychiatric hospitals.  FYI:  RN, PtEd, IM.   - by VK   Article references that should be useful for any falls program included:

• JCI Center for Patient Safety: Patient Safety Practices Related to Patient Safety Goal 9B: {Info}  
• Falls Toolkit offered by the National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS) of the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs  {Info}

 

 

---

Useful Guidelines & Resources

.

 

• Perspectives Oct. 09, Vol 29 #10  Pg16- Accepted: New and Revised Hospital Elements of Performance Related to CMS Application Process  [ALERT: LDR, JCSC, MDx, HR, PI] & [••REF••]  In response to the need for more specificity to meet CMS deemed status application requirements, TJC has now released a third revision of EP for TJC/CMS-DS hospitals.  The article says "the majority of revisions are minor editorial changes…" A box is provided with  descriptions of  "More substantive changes…" made to 10 EP.  This includes 7 new EP for 1/1/2010 implementation (EC.02.04.03, EP 14 - HR.01.01.01, EP 28 - LD.04.01.05, EP 9  MS.03.01.01, EP 16/17 - PC.03.01.01, EP 10 - RI.01.07.01, EP 18), 2 revised EP for 1/1/2010 implementation, (LD.04.04.05, EP 13 - PI.01.01.01, EP 2) and 1 New EP for 7/15/2010 implementation (LD.01.05.01, EP 8).  There are also 3 revised EP related to telemedicine (LD.04.03.09, EP 4/9 - MS.13.01.01, EP 1), but TJC is still hoping to achieve allowance for credentialing and privileging by proxy that is currently not permitted by CMS.  Their implementation is delayed until 7/15/2010.  [Color code: relates to Nuclear Medicine,  Anesthesia]  See also full details in the 2010 Pre-Publication Standards [Info] {PDF}