Association for Healthcare Accreditation Professionals

Hello, everyone. We've just completed this year's full-color AHAP Conference brochure, and we wanted to share an advance copy with our members. We're very proud of the conference we're putting together for you this year and excited to have the chance to meet with everyone again in May.

Make sure to keep an eye out for the print brochure, which will be arriving in the next few weeks. But for now, please take a look at here if you'd like an early preview of what we're offering at this year's AHAP Conference.

Matt Phillion

Briefings on The Joint Commission

Hi blog readers,

Although this posting isn't specifically accreditation-related, I thought you might find the ECRI's list of top 10 medical device hazards of 2008. The list is as follows:

• Alarm hazards
• Needlesticks and other sharps injuries
• Air embolism from contrast media injectors
• Retained devices and fragments left in patients
• Surgical fires
• Anesthesia hazards related to poor equipment inspection prior to use
• Misleading displays on equipment
• High radiation levels associated with CT scan
• MRI burns
• Fiberoptic light-source burns, usually from endoscopes, retractors, and head lamps

This year's list differed from last years in that five new hazards were added. The ECRI institute does not want hospital staff members to think that those hazards left off the list this year are no longer problems--instead the institute felt that they should highlight some new concerns this year. Last year's list also included burns during electrosurgery, caster failures, infusion pump programming errors, misconnection of blood pressure monitors to IV lines, and radiation therapy errors.

Do you see these hazards occurring in your facilities? How have you tried to make sure they don't occur?

To read the ECRI Institute's full report, click here.

Hi blog readers,

I wanted to update you about the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's latest campaign, launched last week at the 20th annual National Forum on Quality Improvement:

IHI launches newest quality improvement campaign

Piggybacking on its predecessors, the "100,000 Lives" and "5 Million Lives" campaigns, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) latest quality improvement effort, the "Improvement Map," adds new initiatives for hospitals to take part in to improve patient care. Introduced at the 20th annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Healthcare last week in Nashville, TN, the Improvement Map hopes to incorporate and move beyond some of the earlier interventions, which mostly focused on preventing unnecessary death within hospitals.

Don Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, president of the IHI, introduced the Improvement Map to forum attendees, highlighting three new interventions that have been immediately added to the existing 12 from previous campaigns. These are:

• Implementing the World Health Organization's surgical safety checklist to prevent surgical errors

• Improving patient safety by linking financial strategies to quality improvement projects

• Preventing catheter-associated urinary tract infections

Berwick challenged attendees to "the sprint," by asking them to implement the surgical safety checklist in one operating room in every hospital in the country within the next 90 days to have an immediate effect on patient safety. Other interventions will be added in the coming months to the new campaign.

To find out more about this campaign, click here.

Speaking to that second bullet point, Ken Rohde's session at the 3rd annual AHAP conference, taking place May 14-15 2009 in Las Vegas, will focus on leadership strategies for improving quality within hospitals. To find out more about the conference, click here.

Hello,

I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware that The Joint Commission updated its Facts about the National Patient Safety Goals page, summing up what changes and updates we can expect to see in 2009 surrounding the NPSGs.

On a related note, senior Greeley Company consultants Patricia Pejakovich, RN, BSN, MPA, CPHQ, CSHA, and WendySue Woods, RN, MHSA, CSHA, will be presenting on the NPSGs at the upcoming AHAP Conference:

Making the 2009 NPSGs Come to Life:  There have been many new additions to the 2009 NPSGs, including new goals about patient identification for blood transfusions, infection control and prevention, and medication reconciliation. Learn how proven strategies for compliance with these, as well as the existing goals.

If you haven't had a chance yet, check out the full agenda for this year's conference here.

Matt Phillion

Senior Managing Editor, Briefings on The Joint Commission