On November 3rd, we were honored to accept the 2017 Delaware Valley Patient Safety & Quality Award from The Health Care Improvement Foundation for our submission, “Implementation of a Patient Blood Management Program,” which outlines the integration of patient blood management (PBM) as a daily, embedded quality improvement strategy at Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals (TJUH). The project was evaluated on evidence of significant and sustained improvement in quality, patient safety, innovation, and the potential for replication in other healthcare organizations. As an outsourced provider of PBM implementation, we are thrilled to share in TJUH’s success and we applaud its leadership and organizational commitment to improvement.
The OR Manager Conference is the premier executive-level event for OR directors and OR business managers concerned with management of the surgical suite, and is dedicated to providing industry solutions and leading best practices. With 1,400 executive OR professionals in attendance, the focus this year was to improve efficiency and affectivity with sessions on patient safety, infection control, OR flow, staff motivation, and leadership. All of these topics were discussed in keynotes, in sessions, in networking events, and in the exhibit hall in the context of preparing strong OR leaders for the unpredictable climate we’re currently experiencing in healthcare.
Communication in the OR is vital to patient health and safety. Late starts, delays and interruptions, decreased surgeon satisfaction, tension in the OR, and clinical errors often can be attributed to miscommunication or the lack of communication. The effect on patients can be devastating, resulting in readmission, a life-long chronic condition, or worse. The Joint Commission and other organizations routinely list communication failure as one of the most frequent causes of sentinel events, but many “never events” and other problems can be avoided with structured processes and an organizational commitment to prioritize communication.
The American Society of Neurophysiological Monitoring (ASNM) is “dedicated to the advancement of quality neurophysiologic monitoring services for neuroprotection.” Stated more simply, it’s all about patient safety. SpecialtyCare is deeply committed to supporting the Society and its mission to grow the profession, provide educational forums, develop quality standards, and build partnerships with allied healthcare professionals. As part of this commitment, members of our team serve in leadership roles with the ASNM and recently contributed several presentations at the organization’s Annual Meeting in May, an event celebrating 40 years of neuromonitoring.