The Patient's Checklist


Book Description

"A godsend for concerned friends and relatives trying to rein in the chaos."-The New York Times Whether you're addressing the rising chaos of a pandemic or preparing for a scheduled surgery, having checklists prepared to guide you through a hospital visit can often mean the difference between comfort and pain, personal and distant care--and even life or death. In today's hospital system, you can face a series of perplexing obstacles to satisfactory care, from overworked healthcare providers to understaffed facilities--which are heightened in times of crisis. You need to know how to take charge of your own healthcare; Elizabeth Bailey shows you how to do just that with a series of essential, easy-to-use checklists to better manage, monitor, and participate in your own healthcare, including: Before You Go, What to Bring, Master Medication List, Discharge Plan, and more. It is more important than ever to have a protocol, including a detailed plan for hygiene and communications while hospitalized. You can trust the medical staff, but you also need to trust yourself or a loved one to be your own best advocate. Newly revised and completely up-to-date, The Patient's Checklist shows you how.




Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals


Book Description

The inspiring story of how a leading innovator in patient safety found a simple way to save countless lives. First, do no harm-doctors, nurses and clinicians swear by this code of conduct. Yet in hospitals and doctors' offices across the country, errors are made every single day - avoidable, simple mistakes that often cost lives. Inspired by two medical mistakes that not only ended in unnecessary deaths but hit close to home, Dr. Peter Pronovost made it his personal mission to improve patient safety and make preventable deaths a thing of the past, one hospital at a time. Dr. Pronovost began with simple improvements to a common procedure in the ER and ICU units at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Creating an easy five-step checklist based on the most up-to-date research for his fellow doctors and nurses to follow, he hoped that streamlining the procedure itself could slow the rate of infections patients often died from. But what Dr. Pronovost discovered was that doctors and nurses needed more than a checklist: the day-to-day environment needed to be more patient-driven and staff needed to see scientific results in order to know their efforts were a success. After those changes took effect, the units Dr. Pronovost worked with decreased their rate of infection by 70%. Today, all fifty states are implementing Dr. Pronovost's programs, which have the potential to save more lives than any other medical innovation in the past twenty-five years. But his ideas are just the beginning of the changes being made by doctors and nurses across the country making huge leaps to improve patient care. In Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals, Dr. Pronovost shares his own experience, anecdotal stories from his colleagues at Johns Hopkins and other hospitals that have made his approach their own, alongside comprehensive research-showing readers how small changes make a huge difference in patient care. Inspiring and thought provoking, this compelling book shows how one person with a cause really can make a huge difference in our lives.




Beyond the Checklist


Book Description

The U.S. healthcare system is now spending many millions of dollars to improve "patient safety" and "inter-professional practice." Nevertheless, an estimated 100,000 patients still succumb to preventable medical errors or infections every year. How can health care providers reduce the terrible financial and human toll of medical errors and injuries that harm rather than heal? Beyond the Checklist argues that lives could be saved and patient care enhanced by adapting the relevant lessons of aviation safety and teamwork. In response to a series of human-error caused crashes, the airline industry developed the system of job training and information sharing known as Crew Resource Management (CRM). Under the new industry-wide system of CRM, pilots, flight attendants, and ground crews now communicate and cooperate in ways that have greatly reduced the hazards of commercial air travel. The coauthors of this book sought out the aviation professionals who made this transformation possible. Beyond the Checklist gives us an inside look at CRM training and shows how airline staff interaction that once suffered from the same dysfunction that too often undermines real teamwork in health care today has dramatically improved. Drawing on the experience of doctors, nurses, medical educators, and administrators, this book demonstrates how CRM can be adapted, more widely and effectively, to health care delivery. The authors provide case studies of three institutions that have successfully incorporated CRM-like principles into the fabric of their clinical culture by embracing practices that promote common patient safety knowledge and skills.They infuse this study with their own diverse experience and collaborative spirit: Patrick Mendenhall is a commercial airline pilot who teaches CRM; Suzanne Gordon is a nationally known health care journalist, training consultant, and speaker on issues related to nursing; and Bonnie Blair O'Connor is an ethnographer and medical educator who has spent more than two decades observing medical training and teamwork from the inside.




The Checklist Manifesto


Book Description

The New York Times bestselling author of Being Mortal and Complications reveals the surprising power of the ordinary checklist We live in a world of great and increasing complexity, where even the most expert professionals struggle to master the tasks they face. Longer training, ever more advanced technologies—neither seems to prevent grievous errors. But in a hopeful turn, acclaimed surgeon and writer Atul Gawande finds a remedy in the humblest and simplest of techniques: the checklist. First introduced decades ago by the U.S. Air Force, checklists have enabled pilots to fly aircraft of mind-boggling sophistication. Now innovative checklists are being adopted in hospitals around the world, helping doctors and nurses respond to everything from flu epidemics to avalanches. Even in the immensely complex world of surgery, a simple ninety-second variant has cut the rate of fatalities by more than a third. In riveting stories, Gawande takes us from Austria, where an emergency checklist saved a drowning victim who had spent half an hour underwater, to Michigan, where a cleanliness checklist in intensive care units virtually eliminated a type of deadly hospital infection. He explains how checklists actually work to prompt striking and immediate improvements. And he follows the checklist revolution into fields well beyond medicine, from disaster response to investment banking, skyscraper construction, and businesses of all kinds. An intellectual adventure in which lives are lost and saved and one simple idea makes a tremendous difference, The Checklist Manifesto is essential reading for anyone working to get things right.




Vital Checklist


Book Description

The Five Why's of Vital ChecklistWhy should patients use Vital Checklist?¿Health caregivers spend years/decades in getting trained in their field while patients have 15 minutes to ask questions. The Internet is an excellent tool as a symptom checker but to be on the same page; patients need symptom checklist to discuss their history and recognize disease patterns. Why health caregivers and patients should be on the same page? Why should health caregivers use Vital Checklist?¿Improved communication and improved documentation.Why is it essential to document and communicate effectively?¿Reimbursement by ICD-10 requires asking more questions and documentation. ¿Communication is the fundamental tenet which is measured by Patient Experience Score.Why is Patient Experience (PE) Score vital for a health caregiver and healthcare facility?¿PE improves job satisfaction decreases stress and promotes health and wellness of the health caregivers.¿PE improves the credibility of the health care facility and health caregivers.¿PE improves reimbursement.Why is it essential to pay attention to job satisfaction of healthcare employees, credibility, crisp documentation, proactive communication, improved patient experience score?¿Reduce malpractice lawsuits¿Decrease burnout amongst health caregivers.




The Patient's Checklist


Book Description

"A godsend for concerned friends and relatives trying to rein in the chaos."-The New York Times Whether you're addressing the rising chaos of a pandemic or preparing for a scheduled surgery, having checklists prepared to guide you through a hospital visit can often mean the difference between comfort and pain, personal and distant care--and even life or death. In today's hospital system, you can face a series of perplexing obstacles to satisfactory care, from overworked healthcare providers to understaffed facilities--which are heightened in times of crisis. You need to know how to take charge of your own healthcare; Elizabeth Bailey shows you how to do just that with a series of essential, easy-to-use checklists to better manage, monitor, and participate in your own healthcare, including: Before You Go, What to Bring, Master Medication List, Discharge Plan, and more. It is more important than ever to have a protocol, including a detailed plan for hygiene and communications while hospitalized. You can trust the medical staff, but you also need to trust yourself or a loved one to be your own best advocate. Newly revised and completely up-to-date, The Patient's Checklist shows you how.




Best Care at Lower Cost


Book Description

America's health care system has become too complex and costly to continue business as usual. Best Care at Lower Cost explains that inefficiencies, an overwhelming amount of data, and other economic and quality barriers hinder progress in improving health and threaten the nation's economic stability and global competitiveness. According to this report, the knowledge and tools exist to put the health system on the right course to achieve continuous improvement and better quality care at a lower cost. The costs of the system's current inefficiency underscore the urgent need for a systemwide transformation. About 30 percent of health spending in 2009-roughly $750 billion-was wasted on unnecessary services, excessive administrative costs, fraud, and other problems. Moreover, inefficiencies cause needless suffering. By one estimate, roughly 75,000 deaths might have been averted in 2005 if every state had delivered care at the quality level of the best performing state. This report states that the way health care providers currently train, practice, and learn new information cannot keep pace with the flood of research discoveries and technological advances. About 75 million Americans have more than one chronic condition, requiring coordination among multiple specialists and therapies, which can increase the potential for miscommunication, misdiagnosis, potentially conflicting interventions, and dangerous drug interactions. Best Care at Lower Cost emphasizes that a better use of data is a critical element of a continuously improving health system, such as mobile technologies and electronic health records that offer significant potential to capture and share health data better. In order for this to occur, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, IT developers, and standard-setting organizations should ensure that these systems are robust and interoperable. Clinicians and care organizations should fully adopt these technologies, and patients should be encouraged to use tools, such as personal health information portals, to actively engage in their care. This book is a call to action that will guide health care providers; administrators; caregivers; policy makers; health professionals; federal, state, and local government agencies; private and public health organizations; and educational institutions.




Quality and Safety in Radiation Oncology


Book Description

Quality and Safety in Radiation Oncology is the first book to provide an authoritative and evidence-based guide to the understanding and implementation of quality and safety procedures in radiation oncology practice. Alongside the rapid growth of technology and radiotherapy treatment options for cancer in recent years, quality and safety standards are not only of the utmost importance but best practices ensuring quality and safety are crucial aspect of modern radiation oncology training. A detailed exploration and review of these standards is a necessary part of radiation oncologist’s professional competency, both in the clinical setting and at the study table while preparing for board review and MOC exams. Chapter topics range from fundamental concepts of value and quality to commissioning technology and the use of metrics. They include perspectives on quality and safety from the patient, third-party payers, as well as from the federal government. Other chapters cover prospective testing of quality, training and education, error identification and analysis, incidence reporting, as well as special technology and procedures, including MRI-guided radiation therapy, proton therapy and stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), quality and safety procedures in resource-limited environments, and more. State-of-the-art quality assurance procedures and safety guidelines are the backbone of this unique and essential volume. Physicians, medical physicists, dosimetrists, radiotherapists, hospital administrators, and other healthcare professionals will find this resource an invaluable compendium of best practices in radiation oncology. Key Features: Case examples illustrate best practices and pitfalls Several dozen graphs, tables and figures help quantify the discussion of quality and safety throughout the text Section II covers all aspects of quality assurance procedures for the physicist




The Breast Cancer Checklist


Book Description

The Only Step-by-Step, Day-by-Day Guide for What to Do Before, During, and After Breast Cancer Surgery, Chemotherapy, and Radiation Find out: - One easy way to prevent nausea during chemotherapy - Why you should get a dental appointment before you start treatment - Which single clothing purchase will permit easy post-surgery movement - What you must do now to prepare for the cancer vaccines of the future - Where to get free housecleaning, restaurant meals, & gifts - One easy way to have a (relatively) pain-free recovery from surgery - Which everyday food interferes with chemotherapy - What you should tell your child's teachers - How you can schedule your surgery to improve your outcome - Which simple precaution you must take on airplane flights - One way to get 12 weeks of medical leave without losing your job - Where to sign up for dozens of free spas and retreat vacations The book includes specific checklists for dealing with the procedures, treatments, preparation, and follow-up that breast cancer patients require, including lumpectomy, mastectomy, reconstruction, post-surgery recovery, drainage care, pain management, infusion port insertion, prosthesis purchase, chemotherapy, radiation, Herceptin, Tamoxifen, Lupron, aromatase inhibitors, triple-negative diagnoses, lymphedema management, and clinical trials. The book also helps you manage your health, your family, and yourself, including checklists for finding an oncologist, a surgeon, and other health professionals; organizing your health insurance records, obtaining various products and aids that will make you more comfortable during and after surgery and chemotherapy; checklists to help you organize your children, your family, your friends, and your job; and much more. This is the book every breast cancer patient needs.




Making Healthcare Safe


Book Description

This unique and engaging open access title provides a compelling and ground-breaking account of the patient safety movement in the United States, told from the perspective of one of its most prominent leaders, and arguably the movement’s founder, Lucian L. Leape, MD. Covering the growth of the field from the late 1980s to 2015, Dr. Leape details the developments, actors, organizations, research, and policy-making activities that marked the evolution and major advances of patient safety in this time span. In addition, and perhaps most importantly, this book not only comprehensively details how and why human and systems errors too often occur in the process of providing health care, it also promotes an in-depth understanding of the principles and practices of patient safety, including how they were influenced by today’s modern safety sciences and systems theory and design. Indeed, the book emphasizes how the growing awareness of systems-design thinking and the self-education and commitment to improving patient safety, by not only Dr. Leape but a wide range of other clinicians and health executives from both the private and public sectors, all converged to drive forward the patient safety movement in the US. Making Healthcare Safe is divided into four parts: I. In the Beginning describes the research and theory that defined patient safety and the early initiatives to enhance it. II. Institutional Responses tells the stories of the efforts of the major organizations that began to apply the new concepts and make patient safety a reality. Most of these stories have not been previously told, so this account becomes their histories as well. III. Getting to Work provides in-depth analyses of four key issues that cut across disciplinary lines impacting patient safety which required special attention. IV. Creating a Culture of Safety looks to the future, marshalling the best thinking about what it will take to achieve the safe care we all deserve. Captivatingly written with an “insider’s” tone and a major contribution to the clinical literature, this title will be of immense value to health care professionals, to students in a range of academic disciplines, to medical trainees, to health administrators, to policymakers and even to lay readers with an interest in patient safety and in the critical quest to create safe care.