Smart Healthcare Safety from ECRI
48 episodes - English - Latest episode: 8 months ago - ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsWelcome to Smart Healthcare Safety from ECRI, where we discuss real healthcare safety issues. The goal of this podcast is to bring ECRI's guidance to life. The recommendations are meant to help you get from being aware of an issue to assuring that your patients are safe. Hear from our experts and guests on topics that affect your delivery of safe patient care.
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Episodes
The Myth of the Five Rights for Safe Medication Administration
September 15, 2023 09:00 - 14 minutes - 13.2 MBThe idea of the “five rights” for medication safety has been taught in nursing school since at least World War II, used as a memory tool that nurses should rely on to administer medications safely. Even though no one can identify where the five rights came from, the idea is embedded in medication safety programs and appears frequently in error reports submitted to ECRI and the ISMP Patient Safety Organization. As our guest Susan Paparella, Vice President, Services, Institute for Safe Medica...
Managing the Supply Chain in Non-Acute Care Settings
August 15, 2023 10:00 - 20 minutes - 18.3 MBIn this episode, Tim Gibson, Senior Manager, Functional Equivalents, and Andy Poole, Associate Director, Strategy and Innovation, ECRI, describe strategies for enhancing the supply management process in non-acute organizations like nursing homes, ambulatory surgery centers, and physician practices. They describe the importance of building a robust data set and dedicating real staff time to this care-critical activity.
Addressing Workplace Violence in Healthcare
July 11, 2023 10:00 - 39 minutes - 36.3 MBIn the latest episode of our podcast, we speak to Karen Garvey, Vice President, Safety and Clinical Risk Management, and J.D. Buchert, Workplace Safety Manager, Parkland Health (Dallas, Texas). They describe their data-driven approach to identifying and combatting workplace violence, including the importance of keeping frontline staff involved in and aware of those efforts.
Innovative Staffing Models to Overcome Nursing Shortage
September 15, 2022 16:05 - 31 minutes - 29.4 MBIn this episode, we talk with nurse leaders from Allegheny Health Network (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) about their innovative blended staffing model that encourages LPNs to return to acute care, along with other programs to help bolster staffing, like incentivizing nurses who have left the workforce to return to practice.
Fighting Healthcare Disparities | Outreach to those Experiencing Homelessness
August 11, 2022 15:15 - 30 minutes - 28 MBProviding equitable care for a diverse population requires providers to meet patients where they are—including if they are experiencing homelessness. In this episode, Dr. Jose Ramos, of Pomona Valley Health Centers, describes his team’s outreach efforts to homeless individuals, how those efforts were affected by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and strategies for implementing similar programs elsewhere.
Fighting Healthcare Disparities | Utilizing Shared Decision-Making
July 14, 2022 14:57 - 22 minutes - 21.2 MBIn this episode, our guest, Emily Transue, MD, MHA, FACP, Medical Director for the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA), discusses how shared decision-making can be more than a tool to engage patients in their care, and can also help in the fight against care inequities and disparities.
Great Retirement Leading to Continued Workforce Shortages
June 21, 2022 13:22 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBIn this episode, we talk with our guest, Tom McCormick, Vice President, Patient Accounting, at Penn Medicine, about adjusting staffing patterns in the patient accounting department during the COVID-19 pandemic. He shares his perspective on how staff roles changed, how the shift to remote work had expected and unexpected effects, and how all of it tied back to providing for patient and staff safety.
Nurse Retirement Leading to Continued Workforce Shortages
June 21, 2022 13:22 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBIn this episode, we talk with our guest, Tom McCormick, Vice President, Patient Accounting, at Penn Medicine, about adjusting staffing patterns in the patient accounting department during the COVID-19 pandemic. He shares his perspective on how staff roles changed, how the shift to remote work had expected and unexpected effects, and how all of it tied back to providing for patient and staff safety.
Fighting Healthcare Disparities | Equitable and Accessible Healthcare for All
June 10, 2022 18:59 - 32 minutes - 29.7 MBIn this episode, our guests discuss their data-driven approach to identify and combat disparities and realize their vision of creating a Dallas County with equitable, accessible healthcare for all. Our first guest, Brett Moran, MD, is from Parkland Health & Hospital System, one of the country’s largest and most progressive safety-net hospitals. Our second guest, Steve Miff, PhD, is from Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, a leading, non-profit, data science, artificial intelligence and ...
Shortages in the Nursing Workforce
May 16, 2022 19:46 - 25 minutes - 23.7 MBIn this episode, we're taking another look at shortages in the nursing workforce. Healthcare has faced workforce shortages in the past, and even before the COVID-19 pandemic made things even worse. The American Nurses Association and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics forecast the retirement of more than half a million registered nurses by the end of 2022. Our guests are from the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing at Villanova University, located just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylv...
Top Patient Safety Concern–Staffing Shortages
March 29, 2022 14:46 - 20 minutes - 18.9 MBIn this episode, we're talking about ECRI’s number one Top 10 concern for 2022: staffing shortages and the potential dangers to both the patients and the staff. Prior to 2021, there was a growing shortage of both clinical and non-clinical staff, but the problem has grown exponentially. Our guest is Ernest Grant, PhD, RN, FAAN, the 36th President of the American Nurses Association (ANA).
Fighting Healthcare Disparities | Supporting the Refugee Community
March 15, 2022 12:53 - 50 minutes - 46.2 MBIn this episode, we’re talking to our guest from Valleywise Health's Refugee Women's Health Clinic, serving more than 9,000 refugees since 2008 from over 60 countries and is located in the greater Phoenix, Arizona area; specifically, Maricopa County. The Refugee Women's Health Clinic has a long-established infrastructure of community partnership, engagement, and shared community leadership that through collaboration facilitate and coordinate culturally competent care, services, and support.
Overcoming Challenges with Wound Care Biologics
February 21, 2022 17:08 - 22 minutes - 20.8 MBIn this episode, we're talking about wound care biologics—products used to treat all sorts of acute and chronic wounds in hospitals and other care settings. ECRI experts will review what wound care biologics are and some of the challenges that providers face in terms of purchasing and inventory management. Our guests will also discuss strategies to ensure that the right products are available to caregivers at the right time, taking into account some of the challenges that those providers wil...
Fighting Healthcare Disparities | Health Equity and Stroke Prevention
February 07, 2022 20:37 - 39 minutes - 36.6 MBThis episode is part of a series regarding the ECRI and the ISMP Patient Safety Organization's (PSO) annual Deep Dive report. The 2021 Deep Dive report focuses on issues of racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare. Research has repeatedly confirmed that members of racial and ethnic minority groups are more likely to experience disparities in care, including having an increased risk of being uninsured or underinsured, lacking access to care, and experiencing worse health outcomes for trea...
Fighting Healthcare Disparities | Person-Centered Care Programs
December 09, 2021 13:16 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBThis episode is part of a series regarding the ECRI and the ISMP Patient Safety Organization's (PSO) annual Deep Dive report. The 2021 Deep Dive report focuses on issues of racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare. Research has repeatedly confirmed that members of racial and ethnic minority groups are more likely to experience disparities in care, including having an increased risk of being uninsured or underinsured, lacking access to care, and experiencing worse health outcomes for trea...
Fighting Healthcare Disparities | COVID-19 Vaccine Access
October 04, 2021 14:25 - 37 minutes - 34.5 MBThis episode is part of a series regarding the ECRI and the ISMP Patient Safety Organization's (PSO) annual Deep Dive report. The 2021 Deep Dive report focuses on issues of racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare. Research has repeatedly confirmed that members of racial and ethnic minority groups are more likely to experience disparities in care, including having an increased risk of being uninsured or underinsured, lacking access to care, and experiencing worse health outcomes for trea...
Preparing for the Next Global Pandemic
July 26, 2021 14:09 - 14 minutes - 13.7 MBToday, more than a year into the COVID pandemic, we're talking about the process of disaster recovery. While much has been written over the past year about the ways in which the national and global healthcare systems prepared (or could have prepared) for the pandemic, and should prepare for the next one, not as much attention has been paid to how individual providers and organizations will recover from the past year's trauma. In this episode, our guest reminds us that challenges like these...
Overcoming COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy
July 01, 2021 19:58 - 16 minutes - 15 MBWith access to COVID-19 vaccines now more widespread throughout the United States, but still only available under emergency use authorization, employers are wrestling with questions about whether to mandate that their staff received the vaccine. Perhaps, no industry has a more fraught decisions than Aging Services. There remains a significant gap between vaccination rates among staff and residents, and older adults remain one of the most vulnerable populations to COVID-19. In today’s episod...
What Is the Value of Joining a PSO?
May 12, 2021 15:22 - 22 minutes - 20.3 MBThe U.S. Department of Health and Human Services formally designated ECRI as a Patient Safety Organization (PSO) in 2008. Since then, our PSO has studied nearly 4 million adverse events and near misses from over 1,400 healthcare providers nationwide across acute, ambulatory, and aging services. In this episode, we'll explore what it means to be and participate in a PSO and the evidence for how participation can benefit patient safety, and we'll briefly review some of the legal challenges to ...
Top 10 Health Technology Hazards to Watch
March 15, 2021 17:31 - 31 minutes - 28.6 MBToday, we're talking about ECRI's 2021 list of the Top 10 Health Technology Hazards. This report is intended to identify potential sources of danger that we believe warrant the greatest attention for the coming year and offer practical recommendations for reducing the risks. The 2021 list features all new topics. Several focus on hazards that have developed in today’s environment of unprecedented stresses and rapid technological changes.
COVID-19 Vaccines: Questions Answered
January 29, 2021 21:24 - 41 minutes - 37.8 MBIn this episode around COVID-19 vaccines, we’ll discuss topics like why two shots are needed with the currently authorized vaccines, concerns about allergies and contraindications, new mutations, and more.
Avoiding Nursing Home Penalties for Ineffective Respiratory Protection Programs
January 06, 2021 19:10 - 23 minutes - 21.4 MBNursing homes have recently been assessed millions of dollars in citations for failing to have effective respiratory protection programs in place to protect staff and residents from COVID-19. Many of these violations are related to the failure to develop a written program, as well as for not providing medical evaluations, training, and fit testing for N95 masks.
Risks for Fast-tracked COVID-19 Vaccines
November 02, 2020 15:30 - 22 minutes - 20.4 MBThis podcast is part of ECRI's ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In today’s episode, Marcus Schabacker, MD, PhD, President and CEO of ECRI, discusses our position paper on the fast-tracked development of COVID-19 vaccines. During recent FDA public hearings and within the paper, ECRI warns that rushing to deploy vaccines before all the data has been collected and evaluated could lead to increased risk for patients, not to mention harm to public trust in vaccines in general. Inte...
Health IT Integrates Behavioral Health and Primary Care
October 28, 2020 16:12 - 43 minutes - 40.3 MBThis is a special episode produced in conjunction with our colleagues in ECRI's Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety. The Partnership is working with EHRA to explore how health IT can help integrate behavioral health and primary care. This podcast is the second part of our conversation. During that first discussion, we spoke about how many Americans with behavioral health conditions receive their behavioral care from their primary care providers, but only one-third of patients with be...
Breaking Down Bone Graft Substitutes
October 05, 2020 13:56 - 21 minutes - 19.8 MBIn this episode, we're talking about bone graft substitutes—a type of device that can lead to a lot of confusion among purchasers and providers because of all the varieties available. These substances are used as alternatives to autologous bone grafts in orthopedic procedures such as filling of bone voids, arthrodesis (i.e., bone joint fusion), repair of bone fractures, or healing of bone surrounding implanted devices (e.g., knee/hip prostheses, bone screws). Our guests will describe some ...
Reducing Burden by Improving EHR Alerts
August 07, 2020 16:40 - 30 minutes - 27.8 MBThis is a special episode produced in conjunction with our colleagues in ECRI's Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety. The Partnership is convening a workgroup to derive safe practices to reduce CPOE alert fatigue through monitoring, analysis, and optimization. John McGreevey, MD, University of Pennsylvania, and Adam Wright, PhD, Vanderbilt, are the collaborators co-chairing the workgroup. In this episode, we’re talking to the workgroup’s co-chairs about the burden providers face fro...
Reopening Nursing Homes to Visitors
July 29, 2020 14:41 - 33 minutes - 30.4 MBDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for drastic social distancing measures included banning visitors at most nursing homes throughout the U.S. in an attempt to protect some of the most vulnerable among us. That ban, however, carried with it a real emotional burden for persons served and families unable to visit their loved ones, not to mention facility staff. In this episode, we're talking about the steps involved in reopening nursing homes to visitors. As some parts of the country cont...
Understanding COVID-19 Models
July 01, 2020 14:10 - 20 minutes - 18.5 MBWe all want answers to critical questions such as: How much longer will the SARS-COV-2 pandemic last? Is social distancing working? Are the tests reliable? Do any treatments work? The world is swimming in SARS-COV-2 scientific data rushed to publication even before peer review. In this episode, we're talking about some of the statistical models used to try to understand the future of the pandemic. We’ll discuss key questions both consumers and healthcare provider organizations should ask a...
Patient Safety Concerns: Maternal Health (Part 2)
June 17, 2020 14:34 - 26 minutes - 24.5 MBRecent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows more than 700 women die each year from childbirth-related complications in the United States—and more than half of these deaths are preventable. Another 50,000 women experience serious birth-related complications. The U.S. has the highest maternal death rate among the world's developed nations, and that rate is rising, even as it falls throughout most of the rest of the world. In the second episode of the two-part series...
Patient Safety Concerns: Maternal Health (Part 1)
June 17, 2020 13:45 - 23 minutes - 21.3 MBRecent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows more than 700 women die each year from childbirth-related complications in the United States—and more than half of these deaths are preventable. Another 50,000 women experience serious birth-related complications. The U.S. has the highest maternal death rate among the world's developed nations, and that rate is rising, even as it falls throughout most of the rest of the world. In the first episode of the two-part series,...
Encouraging Patients to Seek Care
June 10, 2020 19:25 - 21 minutes - 20.1 MBWhether from fear of contracting coronavirus, commitment to social distancing recommendations, hesitation to burden a stressed healthcare system—or all of the above—many people are avoiding needed medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic even in the face of potentially life-threatening emergencies. In this episode, we're talking about the need for patients to still seek and receive routine and emergency care that's not related to the pandemic, and how providers can communicate to patients...
Combatting Alarm Fatigue
June 04, 2020 12:36 - 26 minutes - 24.3 MBAlarm safety has been a recognized problem in healthcare for more than a decade. A component of that is alarm fatigue—a situation when a provider, frustrated by nuisance alarms that may not be actionable, eventually starts ignoring alarms that are important and actionable. Alarm fatigue ultimately puts patient safety in jeopardy. In this episode, we'll talk about why this problem has persisted, the intersection of people and technology that can make it worse, and strategies for combatting ...
First Steps to Resuming “Normal” Operations
May 22, 2020 17:06 - 17 minutes - 16.1 MBThis episode is part of a special series in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, we're talking about some of the first steps healthcare organizations are taking in resuming more normal operations—a necessary process but one that can be fraught with risk for patients and providers alike. We’ll discuss the planning necessary to resume care, as well as one critical step that most re-opening guides and checklists haven't discussed. ECRI offers additional resources in our COV...
Role of Transparency and Notifications in Aging Services during COVID-19
May 13, 2020 18:40 - 19 minutes - 18.3 MBThis episode is part of a special series in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 brings an enormous set of challenges to aging care facilities around the country. In this episode, we're talking about the role of transparency and notifications following adverse events in aging services. We’ll discuss why these practices are key in building trust with residents and families, as well as how they reduce the burden on caregivers. ECRI offers additional resources in our COVID-19 Resou...
How Health IT Can Support Integration of Primary Care and Behavioral Health
May 05, 2020 14:45 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBThis is a special episode produced in conjunction with our colleagues in ECRI's Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety. The Partnership is working with EHRA to explore how health IT can help integrate behavioral health and primary care. Many Americans with behavioral health conditions receive their behavioral care from their primary care providers—in fact, we estimate that one in five primary care visits includes behavioral health indications. On top of that, nearly 30% of adults with ch...
Measuring Safety Culture in Healthcare
April 07, 2020 15:46 - 26 minutes - 24.5 MBIn this episode, we're talking about measuring safety culture in healthcare, particularly in light of an updated Culture of Safety Survey released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The changes affect how organizations will be able to use the results of past surveys to track their own growth and how they'll be able to compare results to AHRQ's national database. We'll talk about why and how safety culture should be assessed, some common pitfalls we've seen in helping o...
Assessing Preparedness for COVID-19 Outbreak
February 26, 2020 16:25 - 26 minutes - 24.5 MBIn this episode, we're talking about COVID-19, the disease caused by a novel coronavirus that originated in the Chinese city Wuhan. Now designated a public health emergency by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, as of the time of this recording, the virus has been associated with tens of thousands of cases and more than two thousand deaths. We'll discuss the virus in the context of outbreak preparedness more broadly and what healthcare provi...
ECRI and ISMP – Stronger Together
February 11, 2020 13:57 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBIn this episode, we’re talking about the new affiliation between ECRI Institute and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, or ISMP. We first announced this affiliation in November 2019 and made it official in January 2020—and now we're excited to look ahead with the two organizations' leaders at the impact we can have together to improve healthcare quality and safety. ECRI President and CEO, Marcus Schabacker, MD, PhD, and ISMP President, Mike Cohen, RPh, MS, FASHP, discuss the urge...
Wearable Blood Pressure Monitors: What You Need to Know
December 11, 2019 16:11 - 23 minutes - 21.3 MBA new wave of wearable health technology includes compact, personal-use blood pressure devices, such as wrist-worn activity-tracking devices, or as small handheld devices. These products are available in the consumer market and are typically interfaced with a smartphone application. The app provides a platform to record and store blood pressure measurements and to share the data with a physician. In this episode, we'll talk about ECRI's evaluation of three wearable blood pressure monitor m...
Postincident Investigations
October 08, 2019 12:58 - 22 minutes - 20.8 MBIn this episode, we're talking about postincident investigations, which are a crucial part of a risk and safety program in any healthcare setting. The primary purpose of the initial investigation of an incident or near miss is to collect facts, which the organization will later analyze with the ultimate goal of improving care and services. Thus, thorough investigations are the foundation of efforts to learn from incidents and near misses. Even when an investigation is required (e.g., statute...
Drug Allergy Interactions
September 10, 2019 12:50 - 31 minutes - 29 MBAccess to accurate, up-to-date drug allergy information is a vital component to effective, safe, and timely patient care. This information comes directly from patients and from information contained in the electronic health record. Recommendations available to improve drug-allergy information to prevent adverse events have not been widely implemented. The safe practice recommendations are available from the Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety; additional information is available from th...
Medical Record Maintenance
August 12, 2019 21:07 - 29 minutes - 27.5 MBIn the world of risk management, we often talk about what providers should document when they care for patients, like the details of the patient's vital signs, to ensure the patient record is complete and accurate. In this episode of Smart Healthcare Safety from ECRI Institute, we're answering recurring questions we get from members regarding other aspects of medical record maintenance—like what to do when a routine audit identifies hundreds of records that have been left unlocked by provide...
Health IT Improves Opioid Prescribing
July 09, 2019 19:26 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MBIn this special episode produced in conjunction with the Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety, we look at safe practice recommendations for opioid prescribing. The United States is in the midst of a deadly opioid use epidemic, which we see contributing to a decline in U.S. life expectancy. To help reverse this trend, ECRI Institute and the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association (EHRA) recognized the unique opportunity to collaborate on safety issues by combining EHR developer exper...
Reclassification of Surgical Staplers
July 02, 2019 19:32 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBSurgical staplers are complex medical devices, and ECRI Institute has warned of potential risks for nearly a decade in our Top 10 Health Technology Hazard reports and in more than 40 hazard and alert notifications; our Accident and Forensic Investigation team has reviewed cases of staplers jammed on tissue or otherwise involved in patient injury. Despite these concerns, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has classified them as Class I, or low risk, devices. The issue gained public a...
Designing the Perfect Patient Room
June 11, 2019 16:54 - 12 minutes - 11.4 MBA hospital room design contest led to so many ideas for reducing infection risk that there was no winner. Instead, competing architecture firms worked together to put patients first and make sure that all the best ideas were put into place. In this episode, ECRI Institute's Mark Macyk, a Risk Management Analyst, shares details about the contest and which steps to take to reduce infection risk in patient rooms without undergoing new construction or significant renovations. Read more about T...
Cybersecurity Around Implantable Medical Devices
May 14, 2019 16:57 - 16 minutes - 15.6 MBA March 2019 warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration highlights a vulnerability in certain implanted cardiac devices, raising concerns that these lifesaving devices could be susceptible to malfunctions caused by hackers. In this episode, ECRI Institute's Juuso Leinonen, Senior Project Officer, and Chad Waters, Senior Cybersecurity Engineer, discuss the scope of the risk, steps providers should take, and just how worried patients with these implanted devices should be. ECRI’s ...
Endoscope Reprocessing
April 17, 2019 14:36 - 19 minutes - 18.2 MBIn this episode of Smart Healthcare Safety from ECRI Institute, we're talking with two ECRI Institute experts about endoscope reprocessing. Inadequate reprocessing of flexible endoscopes led to 30,000 patients being called for follow-up testing between 2005 and 2012, according to one estimate. Contaminated endoscopes can spread infections like HIV and hepatitis B and C, and even in the absence of an outbreak, media coverage of a recall can damage the facility's reputation. ECRI Inst...
Patient Violence
January 16, 2019 17:38 - 27 minutes - 25.3 MBIn this episode of Smart Healthcare Safety from ECRI Institute, we're talking with two ECRI Institute experts about patient violence in healthcare. Patient violence is a problem that sits at the intersection of worker and patient safety, potentially affecting anyone who works in, is treated in, or visits a healthcare facility. The issue is enough of a concern that it has appeared on ECRI’s Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns list every year from 2014 to 2018. Today, we'll look at what we kno...