Buyer Beware: Herbal Products Missing Key Safety Information

From the 8 August 2011 Science Daily article

Many herbal remedies available over-the-counter in pharmacies and health food shops are still lacking important information needed for safe use, according to University of Leeds researchers.

In April this year, a new EU law came into force regulating the sale of traditional herbal medicines, such as St John’s wort and Echinacea. These products must now contain clear information on possible side effects, how they could interact with other prescribed medicines and whether people with existing illnesses should take them or not. They are clearly marked with the THR logo showing they have ‘Traditional Herbal Registration’.

However, a number of popular herbal remedies, such as Asian ginseng and ginkgo, may not be covered by this law and could be missing key details on their safe use. Also, existing stocks on the shelves of shops and pharmacies, produced before the law came into force, can still be bought and will not have the new clear safety information….

Read entire Science Daily news article

Related articles

• Do You Use Herbal Remedies? (fitsugar.com)
• Traditional Herbal Medicines Banned in EU (beinghealthyhomeandaway.blogspot.com)
• Study Questions Giving Babies Botanical Supplements, Teas (jflahiff.wordpress.com) 
• Antioxidants: Beyond the Hype & Dietary Supplement Web Sites(jflahiff.wordpress.com)
• Herbs at a Glance: A Quick Guide to Herbal Supplements(jflahiff.wordpress.com)

JAMA Study Points To Patient Safety Risks Outside Hospital Walls

From the 15 June 2011 Medical News Today article

 

Ever since the Institute of Medicine issued its landmark report “To Err Is Human” in 1999, significant attention has been paid to improving patient safety in hospitals nationwide.

However, a high number of adverse events, including major injury and even death, occur in private physician offices and outpatient clinics as well. In a new study — the first of its kind — researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College found that the number and magnitude of events resulting from medical errors is surprisingly similar inside and outside hospital walls.

Published in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the study ***uses malpractice claims data to assess the prevalence of adverse events in the outpatient setting. The researchers compared malpractice claims paid on behalf of physicians in hospitals versus doctors’ offices, relying on data from the National Practitioner Data Bank from 2005 through 2009.

In 2009 alone, close to 11,000 malpractice payments were made on behalf of physicians. Analysis of the data showed that about half of these were for errors that occurred in the hospital setting and half for adverse outcomes resulting from errors at the doctor’s office.

The researchers also found that adverse events in hospitals largely have to do with unsuccessful surgery, while negative outcomes in the outpatient setting are most often related to errors in diagnosis.

***For suggestions on how to get this article for free or at low cost, click here

Reluctance to Speak up Encourages Medical Errors

Reluctance to Speak up Encourages Medical Errors

From the March 22 2011 Health Day news item by Robert Preidt

TUESDAY, March 22 (HealthDay News) — Nurses often don’t speak up about incompetent colleagues or when they see fellow health-care workers making mistakes that could harm patients, new research finds.

In recent years, many hospitals have taken steps to reduce medical errors through measures such as checklists, patient handoff protocols, computerized order entry systems and automated medication-dispensing systems.

But the study***, which included 6,500 nurses and nurse managers across the United States, found that too often, nurses don’t alert their colleagues when they see a safety measure being violated…..

 

*** An executive summary of the study may be found here

[For suggestions on how to get this article for free or at low cost, click here]

 

Patient Safety Materials at Healthy Roads Media

HealthyRoads Media contains free patient and consumer health information in a variety of formats and languages.

It has recently added a set of patient safety materials adapted from guides created by SHEA (Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America)
and partners and the development support was provided by Inova Fairfax Hospital.

The materials are in English (Spanish coming soon) and  are available as handouts, web-videos and downloadable mobile videos.

The  topics covered are

• Catheter-Associated Bloodstream Infections
• Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections
• Clostridium Difficile
• MRSA
• Surgical Site Infections
• Vancomycin Resistant Enterococcus
• Ventilator Associated Pneumonia

Related link

Healthy Roads Media – A source of quality health information in many languages and multiple formats

 

 

Going ‘Green’ May Cut Hospital Costs

Going ‘Green’ May Cut Hospital Costs
Even surgical staff can reduce waste without harming patients, study says

 

 

From the February 22 Health Day news item by Robert Preidt

MONDAY, Feb. 21 (HealthDay News) — Implementing practical, environmentally friendly practices in operating rooms and other hospital facilities could reduce health-care costs without compromising patient safety, says a new study.

In the United States, health-care facilities are a major source of waste products, producing more than 6,600 tons per day and more than 4 billion pounds a year. Nearly 70 percent of hospital waste is produced by operating rooms and labor-and-delivery suites.

Operating rooms have energy-sucking overhead lights and it’s common for OR staff to open sterilized equipment that is never used, and to fill red bags that are labeled as medical waste with harmless trash that could be disposed of more cheaply, said the Johns Hopkins researchers.

“There are many strategies that don’t add risk to patients but allow hospitals to cut waste and reduce their carbon footprints,” study lead author Dr. Martin A. Makary, an associate professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a Hopkins news release.

He and his colleagues reviewed research on hospitals’ environmental practices and then convened a panel of experts to create a list of practical eco-friendly strategies that could be used in operating rooms.

The top five strategies were: cutting down on and separating operating room waste; reprocessing single-use medical devices; considering the environment when making purchasing decisions; improving energy consumption; and improved management of pharmacy waste.

The study appears in the February issue of the journal Archives of Surgery.***

 

***For suggestions on how to get this article for free or at low cost click here.

 

 

 

US Department of Defense Patient Safety Program

The US Department of Defense Patient Safety Program was “was created [in 2001] to identify and report actual and potential problems in medical systems and processes and to implement effective actions to improve patient safety and health care quality throughout the MHS [Military Health System].

The Welcome Statement stresses that they “encourage a systems approach to creating a safer patient environment; engaging MHS leadership; promoting collaboration across all three services; and fostering trust, transparency, teamwork, and communication.”

The Home Page has a well organized Site Map with essential links, social media links, education/training links, and links to research and news items.

While many educational resources (as continuing education courses) are closed to the public, these educational items are freely available to all.  [Descriptions are from the Patient Safety Program Web Page]

• Patient Falls Reduction Toolkit: Falls have been the number one harm event reported to the Department of Defense (DoD) Patient Safety Analysis Center (PSAC) since its inception. These tools are offered as guidance and are designed to assist you with creating an institutional awareness and response to patient falls – education, prevention, assessment, reassessment, intervention, and continuous improvement.Click here to access the Patient Falls Reduction Toolkit.
  
  
• Professional Conduct Toolkit: The toolkit is designed for health professionals who may be serving in leadership roles or who are seeking resources for addressing behaviors that negatively impact patient safety and that disrupt the clinical work environment.

Click here to access the Professional Conduct Toolkit

• Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (SBAR) Toolkit: Evidence shows that use of a structured communication tool known as SBAR can improve information exchange among healthcare team members and reduce the rate of adverse events.

Click here to access the Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (SBAR) Toolkit.

Landmark Initiative to Reduce Healthcare-Associated Infections Cuts Deaths Among Medicare Patients in Michigan Intensive Care Units

Landmark Initiative to Reduce Healthcare-Associated Infections Cuts Deaths Among Medicare Patients in Michigan Intensive Care Units

From the January 31, 2011 AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) press release

Older Americans who were treated in Michigan intensive care units (ICUs) saw larger decreases in their likelihood of dying while hospitalized than similar ICU patients in other Midwestern hospitals, according to a new study evaluating an innovative quality improvement initiative funded by HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The initiative, known as the Keystone Project, targeted ways to reduce the number of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Previous research has shown that targeted quality improvement programs can reduce HAI rates. This study, “Impact of a Statewide Intensive Care Unit Quality Improvement Initiative on Hospital Mortality and Length of Stay: Retrospective Comparative Analysis,” published in today’s British Medical Journal, is the first to link these programs to reduced death rates. “This study gives us assurance that investing in large-scale, evidence-based quality improvement programs can save lives—the most important outcome for patients and doctors,” said AHRQ Director Carolyn M. Clancy, M.D. “AHRQ and others have already initiated work to expand this project nationwide to other ICUs across the country.” Researchers led by Allison Lipitz-Snyderman, Ph.D., of The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, analyzed Medicare data for ICU patients in Michigan hospitals and 364 hospitals in 11 other Midwestern states. They looked at data before the project was initiated, while it was being phased in, and up to 22 months after implementation. The researchers found that overall a person’s chance of dying decreased by about 24 percent in Michigan after the program was implemented compared to only 16 percent in surrounding Midwestern states where the program was not implemented. “We knew that when we applied safety science principles to the delivery of health care, we would dramatically reduce infections in intensive care units, and now we know we are also saving lives,” says Peter J. Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Pronovost led development of the AHRQ-sponsored Keystone Intensive Care Unit Project and implemented it in Michigan hospitals with the help of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association. “These results are very exciting, and further research should be done to address other important issues impacting the safety and quality of patient care,” added Dr. Lipitz-Snyderman. The Keystone Project uses a comprehensive approach that includes promoting a culture of patient safety, improving communication among ICU staff teams, and implementing practices based on guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), such as checklists and hand washing, to reduce rates of catheter-related bloodstream infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia. AHRQ continues to support the Keystone Project through a contract with the Health Research & Educational Trust, an affiliate of the American Hospital Association, by reaching more hospitals and other settings in addition to ICUs and applying the approach to various HAIs. For AHRQ’s recently funded HAI projects, go to http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/haify10.htm. According to the CDC, HAIs are one of the most common complications of hospital care, accounting for an estimated 1.7 million infections, and 99,000 associated deaths in 2002. These infections are responsible for $28 billion to $34 billion in preventable health care expenses every year. Infectious agents, such as bacteria, found in health care settings can cause patients to develop HAIs when they have surgery or require central lines or urinary tract catheters. The Keystone Project is part of a Department-wide effort to address HAIs, as outlined in the HHS Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections (http://www.hhs.gov/ash/initiatives/hai/index.html). Partners across HHS, including AHRQ, CDC, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and National Institutes of Health, are working together to achieve the goals of the Action Plan. For more information, please contact AHRQ Public Affairs: (301) 427-1864 or (301) 427-1855. Use Twitter to get AHRQ news updates:http://www.twitter.com/ahrqnews/

Additional articles about this news release

• Safety checklist use yields 10 percent drop in hospital deaths (Science Blog)
• Program reduces serious hospital infections – report (Reuters)

Articles about related studies

• Study finds MRSA screening saves hospitals money
• Private room intensive care unites associated with lower infection rates
• More doctors must join nurses, administrators in leading efforts to improve patient safety, outcomes

Hospital Collaboration May Boost Surgical Patient Safety

Sharing data on successful medical practices helped cut complication rates, study found

From a Health Day News Item

By Robert Preidt
Monday, October 18, 2010

MONDAY, Oct. 18 (HealthDay News) — The rate of surgical complications decreased nearly 10 percent at 16 Michigan hospitals after they began to share information about what methods they use to keep patients safe, a new study has found.

Among the 300,000 study patients who underwent general and vascular surgery between 2005 and 2007, the reduction in ventilator-associated pneumonia alone could save $13 million a year in health care spending, the findings indicated.

The program, called the Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative, is led by the University of Michigan.

“The collaboration of hospitals in terms of identifying and disseminating information about best practices is actually a much more effective way of improving quality than just relying on each hospital alone to come up with what they think is a way to improve quality,” study author Dr. Darrell A. Campbell Jr., a professor of surgery and chief medical officer at the University of Michigan Health System, said in a university news release.